Who Was Holly Hatcher? Mom of Country Music Star Spencer Hatcher Stabbed to Death in Horrific Home Invasion Before Dad Shoots Dead Intruder
The mother of a rising country music artist was stabbed to death after an intruder broke into her Virginia home and attacked her and her husband, authorities said. Holly Hatcher, 62, who is the mother of musician Spencer Hatcher, was killed in her home north of Harrisonburg last Sunday by 41-year-old Kevin Moses Walker, WTVR reported.
Her husband, Michael Hatcher, 65, was also wounded during the attack but was able to shoot dead Walker with a handgun in what appears to have been self-defense. According to the sheriff, Walker, from Maryland, appeared to have chosen the Hatchers in a “totally random” attack. Police are investigating a motive for the attack.
Unexpected Tragedy
“This is a highly unusual, apparently completely random [attack] with an individual with no known history of violent behavior of any kind, or even criminal behavior of any kind,” Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson told a press conference.
Two days before the murders, Walker, from Pikesville, Maryland, had rented a campsite at Endless Caverns in New Market, Virginia, and purchased a large knife from a nearby Walmart, investigators said.
The day before the murder, Virginia State Police found Walker’s abandoned car near Endless Caverns after he allegedly crashed it into the store on the property without taking anything.
Officers used patrol cars and a drone to search for him, but he was nowhere to be found, and police had no warning of the tragedy that was about to occur.
“There was no indication of any violence or potential for any violence from the offender that the Virginia State Police became aware of throughout that investigation,” Hutcheson said at the press conference.
Already on the Run
When first responders arrived, they found Michael Hatcher outside the home with visible wounds, while Walker was lying dead in the driveway. Inside the house, Holly Hatcher was found with fatal stab wounds.
“There’s going to be questions that will never be answered, but all I can tell you is we’ve cried, we’ve hurt, and we’ve hugged, and we have found more love than we have ever known has existed between us, and between you,” Michael Hatcher told the press conference in an emotional statement.
Spencer Hatcher, who stood alongside his father at the press conference, shared on social media that he would be canceling several of his upcoming performances.
“It is with a heavy heart and overwhelming sadness that — due to a monumental loss in our family — I must cancel my upcoming shows at VOA Country Music Fest in Butler County, OH (8/8) and at Rockingham County Fair in Harrisonburg, VA (8/11 & 8/12),” he said in the Instagram post.
Hutcheson said that officials are still working to determine the motive behind the killing.
Holly Hatcher is being remembered as a beloved teacher in the rural Virginia community where she had taught for the last 19 years. “She poured her heart into her work, positively impacting countless students and colleagues. Her loss is deeply felt by the entire Rockingham County Public Schools (RCPS) family,” a tribute on Facebook read.
