CANDLELIGHT VIGIL Community Remembers Victim In Charleston Murder-Suicide
Reported by: Leslie Rubin
Videographer: Jeremy Bias
Web Producer: Leslie Rubin
Reported: Feb. 18, 2013 10:20 PM EST
Updated: Feb. 19, 2013 9:26 AM EST
EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO C L I C K T O P L A Y
Charleston
, Kanawha County
, West Virginia
The street in front of Mike Cassel's home was packed Monday night with family and friends still mourning his death.
They are hoping his story will send a message to others to report child abuse if they know it's going on.
Candles, pictures, and flowers surround his Red Oak Street home in Charleston.
"He was the best dad I ever had," said Nicole Holt, his 12-year-old daughter.
Family says Cassel will be remembered for his love of helping others, making people laugh and being a father. But his family says he also served a father-figure to many children who lived nearby.
"I miss him and I hope he's in heaven just sleeping with the angels. He protected all us kids, and fed them, and whenever they came over...he would not send them home without any clothes or jackets or food that they needed," said Ashley Holt, his daughter.
Cassel was murdered inside his home last Sunday in an alleged act of retaliation. Police say Patrick Price barged into the home and shot Cassel, and them himself, after Cassel had notified authorities that he suspected Price was abusing a young girl.
"He died to protect his family and he chose to protect a child that wasn't even his to protect," says his mother-in-law, Tonya Jesko.
His daughter Nicole says he always called her his little angel. She says he's her angel now.
"His sweetness, his kindness. I'm going to miss him a lot," she says.
"If you know something's going on, if you know what's wrong, do what you can to fix it," says Jesko.
Family members say the little girl who Price was allegedly abusing has been put in foster care, and that foster family is hoping to permanently adopt her.
3 tied to coal ship detained in Virginia indicted May 24, 2013 9:30 AM EDT A federal grand jury has indicted the owner, operator and chief engineer of a Maltese-flagged coal ship that has been detained in Virginia since April over alleged environmental violations.
Tenn. couple killed in central Ky. crash May 24, 2013 9:36 AM EDT Emergency responders in central Kentucky had cleared the scene of a crash that killed a Tennessee woman when they found the body of her husband nearly 1,000 feet away.
Ohio releases missing children report May 24, 2013 8:09 AM EDT State Attorney General Mike DeWine is releasing the results of an annual report on missing children in Ohio.
Leslie Rubin
