A 24-year-old man distraught over a breakup stabbed his ex-girlfriend and a male college student to death before turning the knife on himself, authorities say.
Police in Geneseo, New York, say Colin Kingston entered 21-year-old Kelsey Annese’s off-campus residence before 6 a.m. on Sunday and discovered her with another student, Matt Hutchinson, 24, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Kingston then fatally stabbed Annese and Hutchinson—both athletes at the State University of New York at Geneseo—with a large knife he’d taken to the residence, authorities said.
Before he killed himself, Kingston phoned his father—a dairy farmer in the town of 8,000, just south of Rochester—and confessed to hurting his ex. He allegedly told his dad, Daniel Kingston, he was considering suicide.
The horrified father called police, and officers discovered the bodies of Kingston and his victims not long after.
“At some point, Colin Kingston went to the residence… and did discover Mr. Hutchinson in the company of Miss Annese,” Geneseo Police Department spokesman Jeffrey Szczesniak told reporters Monday.
Authorities believe Kingston killed the students before calling his father. “When the phone call was terminated by Colin shortly thereafter, [he] took his own life,” Szczesniak said.
Szczesniak said there was “no indication” that a struggle took place during the apparent double murder-suicide inside Annese’s bedroom.
“We believe that it was something that probably happened very quickly,” he told reporters.
According to Szczesniak, friends last saw Kingston at a local bar around 8 or 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Kingston dated Annese for about three years, authorities said. The alleged killer attended SUNY Geneseo but didn’t graduate.
On LinkedIn, he called himself an “aspiring businessman” and listed current jobs as a General Nutrition Center sales associate and “farm hand” at Kingston Farms, which his family has owned since 1840.
While Annese and Kingston had recently broken up, Annese still had photos with her former flame on Facebook.
It’s unclear if Annese and Hutchinson were a couple, Szczesniak said at a news conference Monday.
Annese and Kingston had been in contact days before the stabbing, police said. But there was no indication that Kingston and Hutchinson, a volunteer firefighter and player on his college hockey team, had talked.
“There were some indication that [Colin] was certainly very upset with the recent breakup,” Szczesniak said. “He had made some suicidal comments to several people but no actual threats to harm Miss Annese or anybody else.”
Annese lived in a large off-campus house with fellow teammates on the women’s basketball team. Four residents were home during the attack but didn’t hear anything, police said.
Cops say there were no signs of forced entry into Annese’s house. Investigators believe the deadly encounter occurred between 5:30 a.m. and 6:21 a.m.—when Kingston’s father dialed 911.
Hours before her death, Annese, a senior guard and team captain, played in a winning match against Buffalo State.
“It was the best I’ve ever seen her play. I’ve never seen her so happy after [a game],” teammate Dana Cohan told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
“We were all so happy for her. It’s just weird how things happen,” Cohan told the newspaper, adding that Annese was “the perfect role model.”
Another teammate, Kara Houppert, told the Democrat and Chronicle that Annese was a Spanish major who wanted to teach English as a second language.
“She was an extremely hard-working, dedicated and a sweet girl that could put a smile on anyone’s face,” Houppert said. “She always did that for me.”
Houppert added, “Everyone loved Kelsey. She really will be missed by a lot of people.”
Annese’s team profile indicates she wore number 32—the same number her father, Ron, wore when he played basketball at Geneseo.
According to the profile, Annese, who has two siblings, was majoring in psychology and childhood education/special education.
Friends launched a GoFundMe page for Annese’s father, a local bartender, to help with funeral expenses and support him as he takes time off work.
“Everyone who knows Ron knows him as Big Ron or Chris Christie or the Governor and knows how hard he works to support his family,” the page’s organizer wrote. “Ron always brings a smile to all his customers and I’m sure his daughter Kelsey was the same way.”
Meanwhile, Hutchinson was a senior defenseman on the Geneseo ice hockey team. According to a story on the Geneseo Knights’ website, the geography major known as “Hutch” spent last summer as a wilderness firefighter in Canada.
While other students spent weekends partying, Hutchinson was working as a volunteer firefighter in Geneseo.
“There was one Saturday night last season where we had just gotten back to our apartment after a home game. Everyone was changing to go out and my pager went off. There was a house fire nearby. Those are hard to pass up,” Hutchinson said in the profile.
On Monday, a Canadian flag flew alongside the American flag at the Geneseo Fire Department, and black bunting was draped on the building’s facade, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
“It really was very special for us to be a part of Matt’s life. This has not been easy,” Fire Chief Andrew Chanler told the paper, adding that Hutchinson was exploring becoming a firefighter after graduation in spring.
Kingston was also a student athlete, and played on SUNY Geneseo’s men’s basketball team before he left the school in 2013.
The alleged killer had eight siblings and grew up on the family farm, one local reporter wrote on Facebook, adding, “It all must be so hard for his relatives to bear.”
Rich Miles, his high school basketball coach, described Kingston as “one of my favorite kids,” the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
“I loved his attitude,” Miles told the Democrat and Chronicle. “He was our toughest guy, toughest defender. He was about 6-3. Just a very physical kid. A farm kid, you know? Just went after it and always competed.”
Miles added, “He was one of my favorites, easily. He never complained. He showed up. He worked hard.”
