Joshua Hunter, Zackariah Rathwell remembered by Calgary musicians

Members of a Calgary band who knew two of the five stabbing victims say they’re turning to their love of music to help them cope with the deaths of Zackariah Rathwell and Joshua Hunter.

Rathwell, 21 and Hunter, 23, along with Lawrence Hong, 27, Kaitlin Perras, 23 and Jordan Segura, 22, were all fatally stabbed at a party in the early morning hours on April 15. Five first-degree murder charges have been laid against 22-year-old Matthew de Grood, the son of a Calgary Police inspector.

Mitchell Cooper met Joshua Hunter 6 years ago, while the pair were still high school students. Cooper, a drummer with Calgary band Windigo, says he Hunter became fast friends—skiing and playing music together. Cooper says he will always remember Hunter and Zackariah Rathwell as gifted musicians.

“The level of talent that came out of those guys was so inspiring--just made us want to be better,” says Cooper. “The type of people they were too were just...they were friends with everyone.”

Hunter and Zackariah Rathwell were both members of Zackariah and the Prophets, a local band. The group had just released their debut EP about a week before they were stabbed to death inside a northwest home.

“There was no question in my mind they were going to be huge. No question in my mind they would make it. They were just so talented...so much more talented than so many other acts out there,” says Cooper.

Windigo band-mate Jen Severtson was also friends with Hunter and Rathwell. She says Hunter was a talented musician with a warm heart.

“He was honestly like the nicest of the nice people that you could know. He always had the biggest smile on his face, always had words of support and was always like there for a good time. There were no bad times with him at all,” says Severtson, who was also Hunter’s roommate at one time.

“It was just so heart-warming to see them play because they had so much love and passion for what they were doing...kind of....it would just restore your faith in humanity watching them play because that's what they wanted to do.”

Cooper says the past week has been a struggle for him and his band mates.

“We played one show two days after we found out and that was hard. But we know that they love music and that more than anything else, they would want us to continue with what they inspired us to build in the first place and I can just take solace in that, I guess,” says Cooper.

“It’s just a part of me that I will never be the same because both of those guys filled such a huge part of my life...I still can't believe I'll never see them again.”

This week marks the beginning of a series of memorials and funerals for the five victims. Rathwell will be laid to rest on Tuesday, while Hunter will be laid to rest on Monday afternoon.

“I can't even wrap my mind around all of this right now. I'm still in shock totally from what's happened. I don't think there will ever be closure for any of this because it was such a violation against humanity,” says Severtson, who has known Hunter for 6 years.

“You always hear about tragic things happening on the news and things that have happened but you never really think that anything remotely close could happen to you and its really... I still can't believe it at all. It’s going to be something that we're going to have to live with for the rest of our lives.”

Both Cooper and Hunter say music has been helping them cope.

“It’s really the only thing that makes sense right now,” says Cooper.

Windigo will be making its way to Toronto for Canadian Music Week, one of more than a dozen Calgary bands taking part. Cooper says all of their performances going forward are going to be dedicated to Hunter and Rathwell.

“Never forget them,” says Cooper. “Never forget the people they were and just to try to bring their positivity and energy that they had in life with us for the rest of ours and I think that way, they stay with us forever.”