Kelsey Annese and Matt Hutchinson were both students at SUNY Geneseo, both members of Geneseo Athletic teams, both young. Hutchinson, 24, was a member of the Men’s Hockey team, while Annese, 21, played basketball for the Knights. On Jan. 17 both Hutchinson and Annese were killed by Annese’s ex-boyfriend, Colin Kingston, a former Geneseo student.

Before killing himself, Kingston called his father to say he had hurt Annese and that the wanted to take his own life as well. His father, Daniel Kingston then called 911.

When police arrived, they found that Kingston had stabbed Annese and Hutchinson with a large knife he had recently purchased, before stabbing himself. Kingston was a former member of the men’s basketball team at Geneseo and had dated Annese for 3 years before their recent breakup.

Many articles have described Kingston as distraught after the breakup, and described the murder as a crime of passion, from someone with a broken heart.

However Meghan Murphy, a writer for the Feminist Chronicle had a different response to Kingston’s actions in her article titled “Men Don’t Kill Women out of ‘Love’.” Murphy argues that the media is wrong.  

“What we are to believe, in case it’s unclear, is that ‘love’ caused this man to kill a woman. This is a message we hear so often, it probably seems reasonable to many. But it’s not reasonable,” Murphy wrote in her article. “Men who kill their partners tend to be possessive, jealous, controlling men—they feel entitled to ‘their’ women. And so when these women escape, their last ditch effort at complete control is murder.”

The article became widely shared and liked on Facebook, sparking a discussion on violence against women and how the media portrays it; all with the hope that something good could come out of such a tragedy.

The Geneseo community is still mourning the tragedy and held a memorial service on Jan. 20, where students and family were able to discuss their memories of Kelsey and Matt during such a difficult time. In addition, the Men’s Hockey team and Women’s basketball team both saw wins in their first game back after the loss of their teammates.

The hockey team defeated SUNY Cortland 6-1, while the Women’s basketball team beat SUNY Potsdam 75-32.