Dad kills 9-year-old son in arson murder-suicide (Martinsburg, West Virginia)

Still more evidence that the "Josh Powell" type is far from rare. Our latest "Josh Powell" is DAVID COLE HUTZLER, who shot his son before setting the house on fire. Zero mention of the boy's mother here or happened to her.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

[For readers who get confused, let me clarify what we mean by INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT. Obviously we don't mean that the mother is literally invisible. And we certainly aren't saying that the mother is to blame or is in some other way necessarily responsible for the father's crimes. Rather, we are referring to the persistent media tendency to write mothers out of the story, so we have no idea whatever happened to them. It's as if their absence from the story does not require an explanation anymore. When in reality, if a woman didn't give birth, there is no child. So the process by which the child ended up in the father's hands is left totally unexplained. And there is always an explanation. As a result of this "invisibility", we have no idea if Mom is deceased, "disappeared" (like Susan Cox Powell), non-custodial or subjected to a joint custody/visitation arrangement due to a corrupt/incompetent family court, working full-time to support a deadbeat "stay-at-home" abusive dad, or what.]

http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/574865/Fire-deaths-thought-to-be-murder---.html

Fire deaths thought to be murder-suicide
February 9, 2012
By Edward Marshall, Journal Staff Writer , journal-news.net

MARTINSBURG - The investigation into the death of a father and son whose bodies were found after a fire last month in Glengary has led police to believe that the father shot his son and set fire to his residence before taking his own life.

The victims were later identified as 56-year-old David Cole Hutzler and 9-year-old James "Mack" Hutzler.

"Due to the findings in the investigation, it is believed that David Hutzler fatally shot his son James 'Mack' Hutzler and set fire to his residence before taking his own life," police said Wednesday.

At about 9:08 a.m. Jan. 6, Trooper J.D. Brand responded to 436 Apple Harvest Drive for a structure fire with two fatalities. When he arrived at the scene, Brand was made aware that the victims appeared to be a boy and a man. Brand located the two victims in what was believed to be the rear bedroom of the residence. The victims' bodies were severely burned in the fire.

The fire was treated as suspicious, and the West Virginia State Police Crime Scene Team was brought in to process the scene. After the bodies were removed from the residence, police discovered what was believed to be a gunshot wound to the head of the boy, police said.

The boy also sustained a glancing wound in the area of the chin.

"The victims' bodies were sent to West Virginia State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsies, where it was later determined that the cause of death for both victims was fatal gunshot wounds to the head," police said.

West Virginia State Fire Marshal investigators, with the assistance of the Loudoun County, Va., Fire Marshal's office, were able to determine that there was an accelerant present in the residence and the fire within the residence was intentionally set. The fire consumed approximately 30 percent of the residence before being extinguished, police said.

"I know (Trooper Brand) interviewed a lot of people, which I believe led him to come to the conclusion - based upon (David Hutzler's) erratic behavior over the last several months and statements he may have made to friends and family - that it was possible that he had done this himself," Sgt. J.D. Burkhart said.

Brand was assisted in the investigation by Trooper First Class Z.L. Nine, Sr. Trooper M.D. Gillmore, Investigators Harms and Patrick Barker with the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's Office. as well as Investigator B. Herndon and his accelerant detection K-9 "Jimmy" with the Loudoun County Fire Marshal's office.

The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information regarding this incident can contact the State Police at 304-267-0001, police said.