Ex-boyfriend stabbed SUNY Geneseo students to death

According to Geneseo police, Colin Kingston, 24, entered the home of Kelsey Annese, 21, around 6 a.m. on Sunday. “We don’t know the exact intentions of Mr. Kingston in purchasing that knife, but certainly it seems that shortly thereafter – being obviously distraught [by] the recent break-up, and his mental status or well-being was certainly affected by that recent break-up – he either was intending to bring harm to himself or to somebody else, in this case, Ms. Annese”.

A police spokesman says the bodies of two young men and a young woman were discovered early yesterday at a house a few blocks from SUNY-Geneseo. Before he killed himself, Kingston called his father, Szczensiak said. Chanler says 24-year-old Matthew Hutchinson played hockey at Geneseo but took every training opportunity despite his full schedule. Police say Kingston was the killer. Investigators have said they believe the perpetrator is among the dead.

“Most of our students are returning to campus following the winter break and it will likely be very hard for many to face a new semester with this tragedy on their minds”, she said.

In a Sunday afternoon press conference, Jeffrey Szczesniak, the Geneseo Police Department’s public information officer, said it was too early in the investigation to label a suspect and, when asked if the crime was being investigated as a double murder-suicide, declined to confirm specifics.

Annese played basketball for Geneseo. He is believed to have gone upstairs, where he killed both Annese and Hutchinson before taking his own life, police said. He had recently indicated that he was upset about his breakup with Annese and had made suicidal comments, Szczesniak said, though he hadn’t threatened to hurt anyone besides himself.

Fire Chief Andrew Chanler told the Sun he and other members of the volunteer department were “in shock and disbelief with the loss of Matt”. Annese was on the SUNY Geneseo basketball team and teammates also lived in rented rooms within the house, but did not hear the struggle. He was a firefighter with the B.C. Wildfire Branch and more recently with the Geneseo Fire Department.

An obviously shaken SUNY Geneseo President Denise Battles, who just assumed the presidency past year, said the deaths are “heartbreaking” and said it is a “profoundly sad day”.

Battles said Tuesday’s men’s and women’s basketball games will be postponed and there will be a Wednesday evening remembrance in the school’s gymnasium.

Chandler said Hutchinson was on track to become a career firefighter in British Colombia, and that he spent the summer as a firefighter in the forest there.

“Matt did everything at the highest level”, Chanler said.