Family, friends, discuss stabbing victim
As published on page one of the July 26, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
The Keene High School student and the teenager accused of taking his life traveled in the same social circle for years.
And there was a time -- not long ago -- when the two young men were friends.
Craig Metivier, 17, of Marlborough died of a stab wound to the chest suffered on Dunbar Street in Keene Sunday night; and 19-year-old Ethan A. Wilson faces a charge of second-degree murder, accused of causing Metivier's death.
But as recently as two summers ago, Wilson traveled to Hampton Beach with Metivier and his family, Metivier's mother said.
When the car got a flat tire, the two boys worked together to change it, Sonya L. Fletcher recalled Monday in an interview with The Sentinel at her Marlborough home.
"I can't believe this happened to my beautiful 17-year-old boy," Fletcher said.
"He had the prettiest blue eyes and the prettiest smile."
Metivier, who recently completed 11th grade at Keene High School, was a fan of the hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse.
His was a familiar face in downtown Keene, where he liked to pass time with other Insane Clown Posse fans, according to Metivier's friend Chris B. Hart of Keene. Fans of the group refer to themselves as Juggalos.
Hart, 20, said he had been friends with both Metivier and Wilson for three or four years.
"I couldn't picture Ethan doing that to Waddles at all," he said.
"Waddles" is a nickname for Metivier that Hart attributed to his large size. Fletcher said the affectionate reference to her son's distinctive gait dates from when he was in elementary school.
She described a warm-hearted, loyal young man who was considering a culinary career and loved spending time with his friends.
"He was always wanting to help other people," she said.
Accounts of the fight that ended in Metivier's death vary, but there are common themes.
The incident is said to have started over a relatively small sum of money, between $50 and $130.
Some versions of the story include a longtime friend of Metivier's as a third party in the scuffle.
Hart, who was not on Dunbar Street that night, said that Metivier stepped in to stop the fight. In other versions of the story, Wilson owed the money to Metivier, who was trying to collect on the debt.
Fletcher said doctors told her Metivier was knocked down before he was stabbed.
Wilson is being held without bail at the Cheshire County jail.
"I knew Ethan and Craig were mad at each other but I never thought it would go to this level," said Wilson's girlfriend, 18-year-old Paightlin Bergeron.
Bergeron has been dating Wilson for a year, and knows him to be prone to depression and mood swings, she said.
She had expected they would become engaged this week.
But she was also close with Metivier. Fletcher identified Bergeron as one of her son's closest female friends, and Bergeron, who graduated from Keene High this spring, said they had been friends since her sophomore year.
Outside the Keene courtroom where Wilson was arraigned Monday afternoon, Bergeron said she would help Metivier's mother plan her son's funeral.
Metivier "ran with a rough crowd," according to Fletcher, but he was close to his mother and older sister and would always take responsibility for trouble he got in at school.
He had two pet reptiles, a bearded dragon named Buddha and a red-tailed boa he had not yet named.
On the day Metivier died, the snake had shed its skin for the first time since he brought it home two weeks before.
His mother recalled his excitement, and her own revulsion, when he showed her the way the animal's face could be seen in its discarded skin.
"That's the stuff I'm going to miss."
tagged with: Craig Metivier
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