B.C. student killed in N.Y. remembered as ‘great guy’
GENESEO, N.Y. • A junior hockey team in Chilliwack, B.C., is remembering a former player who once dressed as Santa Claus for a gift exchange and is now among the victims in a murder-suicide that left three people dead in New York state.
Michael Hutchinson, 24, was studying geography and business at State University of New York in Geneseo when he and a female student were killed early Sunday morning. Police say a former boyfriend of the woman stabbed the two students to death before apparently killing himself with the same knife.
Hutchinson played defence with the Chilliwack Chiefs in the 2011-12 season and returned for an alumni game the following year, said Barry Douglas, a team spokesman.
“I can recall him dressing up as Santa Claus for the Chiefs players’ gift exchange
HE WAS VERY, VERY WELL RESPECTED ... BY EVERYBODY WHO CAME ACROSS HIS PATH.
back in 2011. He was just that kind of guy.
“It’s hard to believe that something like that could happen to such a great guy. He just made people smile, he made people happy.”
Hutchinson also played on the university’s hockey team. He planned to one day become a firefighter, Douglas said.
“He was very, very well respected by his teammates and by everybody who came across his path.”
Jeff Szczesniak, a spokesman for the Geneseo Police Department, said Monday that 21-year-old Kelsey Annese was killed along with Hutchinson in a large house near the university where both rented rooms.
He said Colin Kingston, a former student at the same school, called his father early Sunday to say he had gone to the house and killed his exgirlfriend and would also end his own life.
Szczesniak said Kingston was distraught over the recent breakup of a three-year relationship with Annese and had talked about suicide to several people.
Police are not aware of any relationship between Hutchinson and Annese, he said.