GENESEO, N.Y. — A 24-year-old man distraught over a recent breakup stabbed to death his ex-girlfriend and a fellow college athlete she was with in her off-campus bedroom before apparently killing himself with the same knife, police said Monday.
Colin Kingston, of Geneseo, entered Kelsey Annese’s apartment around 6 a.m. Sunday near the State University of New York at Geneseo in upstate New York, police officer Jeffrey Szczensiak told reporters Monday. Kingston, who brought a large knife he had recently purchased, found her with another student, Matthew Hutchinson, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Kingston, a former student at the school, killed them both. It’s possible that Annese, 21, and Hutchinson, 24, were sleeping when Kingston entered, but police were not sure. Kingston called his father before killing himself, Szczensiak said.
“All indications are that Mr. Kingston used the same knife to take his own life,” Szczensiak said. He added that Kingston had recently made suicidal comments, and that he had no criminal history.
The deaths of the two students — a women’s basketball team captain and a men’s hockey player — occurred two days before the start of Geneseo’s spring semester. The college about 35 miles south of Rochester postponed the men’s and women’s basketball games scheduled for Tuesday and were making counselors available to students and faculty.
“It is a profoundly sad day for the college and village of Geneseo,” college president Denise Battles said, in a shaky voice nearing tears. “We realize that members of our community will handle this tragedy differently. We will be supplying professional counseling services for Kelsey’s teammates.”
Annese wore the number 32 because it is the same number her father wore when he played for Geneseo, according to the college’s website.
Her coach, Scott Hemer, said the senior education major was selfless, and “a grinder” with a work ethic respected by her coaches and teammates.
“Kelsey will always be one of my all-time favorite players not because of anything she will have her name next to in the record book, but because of the type of person she was,” Hemer said.
Hutchinson took up hockey at age 9 and played defense for the Geneseo Knights, according to his athlete bio. He had volunteered for more than three years at the Geneseo Fire Department, making a point to take every training opportunity despite his packed schedule as a student athlete, said fire chief Andrew Chanler.
“Matt did everything at the highest level,” Chanler said. “He put effort into these things like nobody else.”
Chanler said Hutchinson wanted to be a professional firefighter after college and had worked last summer as a forest firefighter back home in British Columbia.
There were no signs of a break-in at the off-campus home primarily populated by women’s basketball team members.
“All indications in our investigation at this time is that there was no forceful entry,” Szczensiak said, “although several doors were locked, a rear door was unlocked.”
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