Kurt E. KERN

1956 - 2008  (52 years)

• Name	Kurt E. KERN  [1, 2]
  Birth	1956	Bremerton, Washington   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Education	he graduated from St. Louis High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1974  [1]
  Education	he graduated from St. Louis High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1974  [1]
  HIST	Date Published: July 18, 2008 Fatal shooting stuns Dalzell Couple found dead of apparent murder-suicide Keith Gedamke / The Item County deputies found the bodies of a husband and wife Thursday morning in their home on Old Camden Highway in Dalzell. Murder-suicide in Dalzell By HEATH HAMACHER Item Staff Writer hhamacher@theitem.com A husband and wife were found dead in their Dalzell home about 10:20 a.m. Thursday in an apparent murder-suicide. Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said it appears that Kurt Edward Kern, 52, shot 51-year-old Patricia Anne Kern and then took his own life in their home at 4200 Old Camden Highway. "I want to stress that we have not ruled out some other form of foul play — the investigation is very much ongoing — but this appears to be a murder-suicide," Dennis said. Sumter County deputies received a call from someone requesting that law enforcement go by the home and conduct a welfare check, Dennis said. Deputies arrived at the home to find two personal vehicles and a work vehicle in the yard and the home secured. Reports said that after deputies were unable to locate friends or family with keys to the residence, they decided to make a forced entry. That's when they discovered the body of Kurt Kern in a living room chair with what Dennis said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. There was a firearm in his lap. Patricia Kern was found in a bedroom lying face-down on the bed and had also been shot in the head. Dennis said he couldn't go into detail, but several "suicide notes" were found in the residence apparently written by Kurt Kern. The notes explained what happened and why, Dennis said, and were apologetic in nature. "He felt his spouse was having an online affair," Dennis said. "We have seized computer equipment from the home to check into that." Kurt Kern is a former military member and worked for Hill Plumbing and Electric Co. Patricia Kern was reportedly a nurse with BlueCross BlueShield. Neighbors in the quiet, rural area were surprised to learn about the incident. One neighbor, who lives across the highway from the Kern residence, said he had no idea what happened. "I do roadside assisting, and I always come and go," he said. "I just saw lots of (police) cars but ... nothing like this ever happens here." Some neighbors who requested not to be identified said they didn't know the couple that lived just a couple hundred yards away. "They stayed to themselves; I'd just see them go in and out," one neighbor said. Dennis said though incidents of murder-suicides seem to be on the rise nationwide, his department had no reason to suspect Kurt Kern was on the edge. "We're seeing more and more of this. ... I don't know if it's the economy, affairs," Dennis said. "But we have had no pattern of service calls (to the couple's house)." Autopsies are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. today at Newberry Pathology Associates. Contact Staff Writer Heath Hamacher at hhamacher@theitem.com or (803) 774-1270. Date Published: July 23, 2008 KURT E. KERN Kurt Edward Kern, age 52, husband of the late Patricia Anne Tweedie Kern, died on Wednesday, July 16, 2008. He was born in Bremerton, Wash., a son of the late Joel and Helen Jean Hluchen Kern. He graduated from St. Louis High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1974 and served in and retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of technical sergeant. During his Air Force time, he was a plumber in RED HORSE units, the combat civil engineering capability of the U.S. Air Force, and served in the first Gulf War. He also had other unspecified assignments throughout the Middle East. He most recently worked for Hill Plumbing. Surviving are a brother, Konrad Kern of Huntington Beach, Calif.; and a sister, Dr. Kay Nichols of Auburn, Ala. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. today at the Bullock Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Jock Hendricks officiating. The family will receive friends following the service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Red Cross, 1155 N. Guignard Drive, Suite 2, Sumter, SC 29150-1515 or to Family Life, P.O. Box 7111, Little Rock, AR 72223. Online memorial messages may be made to the family at www.bullockfuneralhome.com. The family has chosen Bullock Funeral Home of Sumter for the arrangements. Date Published: July 26, 2008 Murder-suicides on rise By HEATH HAMACHER Item Staff Writer hhamacher@theitem.com The recent deaths of Kurt Kern and his wife, Patricia, may have stunned their small Dalzell community, but domestic-related homicides — including murder-suicides — seem to be becoming more prevalent nationwide. On July 16, authorities say, Kern killed his wife in their Old Camden Highway home and then took his own life after learning about an online affair he believed his wife was having. Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said several suicide notes were found in the home explaining what happened and why, and that Kern was “very apologetic” in them. There is no tracking system to accurately document the number of deaths and injuries in murder-suicides, but a study conducted by the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit organization whose goal is to reduce violence, concluded that nearly 1,100 Americans die each year in murder-suicides. A VPC study showed that there were 27 murder-suicide deaths in Georgia during the first half of 2007; 21 in North Carolina; and 50 in Florida. South Carolina was far behind its neighboring states with just two. Statistics from this study suggest that overwhelmingly men murder women, then kill themselves, in the home with a firearm. According to the study:   Ninety-five percent of murder-suicides are committed by men.   Seventy-three percent of murder-suicides involve an intimate partner. Ninety-four percent of these were females killed by their intimate partners.   Seventy-five percent of murder-suicides occur in the home.   Of all murder-suicides, 88.5 percent involve a firearm. While any cycle of domestic violence — especially murders — is tragic, murder-suicides are especially tragic, said Sumter County Victim’s Advocate Gwen Herod, because they affect so many people. They often leave families torn apart and pointing the finger at one another. “This is not like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ this is not a suicide pact,” she said. “You often get the woman’s family blaming the man’s family, and (the man’s family) pointing, saying, ‘She caused this.’” In the Kerns’ tragedy, however, Herod said the two sides have come together in a “unified front” to try and get through something that is so hard to come to grips with. “There is some healing and the families have been able to be brought together, and that’s certainly not in every case,” she said. Kurt and Patricia had been married about 11 years but didn’t share any children. Kurt had two sons, 20-year-old Nicholas, who recently graduated from Marine Corps basic training, and Andrew, 18, who is will head to boot camp next month. Kurt’s brother, Konrad, of Huntington Beach, Calif., said through an e-mail the family was still “trying to sort out what we know.” Kurt, who worked for Hill Plumbing before his death, was a plumber in the military and retired from the Air Force. Dennis said many times there are obvious signs of active or possible domestic violence, but not always. He said there was no record of service calls to the Kern’s home, no reason to believe Kurt was a danger to anyone. Herod said many times the perpetrator feels like he — or rarely she — has lost control of a situation and feels desperate, powerless. “It’s like, ‘If I can’t have you, no one will,’” Herod said. She said the acts aren’t always motivated by infidelity or relationship issues but in situations that cause one to feel “out of control, then powerless.” Patricia Byers was married to Kurt for 15 years before their divorce and is the mother of his sons. Fighting tears, she talked about the man she never stopped loving and knew as anything but violent. “This was totally out of character for him,” Byers said. “He was never violent or aggressive; If we argued, I’d be the one yelling and he would go to the bedroom and pout. I always believed we’d end up together, but ...” Byers feels financial worries, marital problems and mental illness may have pushed Kurt Kern to commit an act that has left two families looking for answers. One of Kurt Kern’s family members, who asked not to be identified, said he witnessed the rapid dissolution of the Kerns’ marriage. “It just ... shows how these things have to be cultivated,” the family member said. Contact Staff Writer Heath Hamacher at hhamacher@theitem.com or (803) 774-1270.  [1, 2, 3]
  HIST	Date Published: July 18, 2008 Fatal shooting stuns Dalzell Couple found dead of apparent murder-suicide Keith Gedamke / The Item County deputies found the bodies of a husband and wife Thursday morning in their home on Old Camden Highway in Dalzell. Murder-suicide in Dalzell By HEATH HAMACHER Item Staff Writer hhamacher@theitem.com A husband and wife were found dead in their Dalzell home about 10:20 a.m. Thursday in an apparent murder-suicide. Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said it appears that Kurt Edward Kern, 52, shot 51-year-old Patricia Anne Kern and then took his own life in their home at 4200 Old Camden Highway. "I want to stress that we have not ruled out some other form of foul play — the investigation is very much ongoing — but this appears to be a murder-suicide," Dennis said. Sumter County deputies received a call from someone requesting that law enforcement go by the home and conduct a welfare check, Dennis said. Deputies arrived at the home to find two personal vehicles and a work vehicle in the yard and the home secured. Reports said that after deputies were unable to locate friends or family with keys to the residence, they decided to make a forced entry. That's when they discovered the body of Kurt Kern in a living room chair with what Dennis said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. There was a firearm in his lap. Patricia Kern was found in a bedroom lying face-down on the bed and had also been shot in the head. Dennis said he couldn't go into detail, but several "suicide notes" were found in the residence apparently written by Kurt Kern. The notes explained what happened and why, Dennis said, and were apologetic in nature. "He felt his spouse was having an online affair," Dennis said. "We have seized computer equipment from the home to check into that." Kurt Kern is a former military member and worked for Hill Plumbing and Electric Co. Patricia Kern was reportedly a nurse with BlueCross BlueShield. Neighbors in the quiet, rural area were surprised to learn about the incident. One neighbor, who lives across the highway from the Kern residence, said he had no idea what happened. "I do roadside assisting, and I always come and go," he said. "I just saw lots of (police) cars but ... nothing like this ever happens here." Some neighbors who requested not to be identified said they didn't know the couple that lived just a couple hundred yards away. "They stayed to themselves; I'd just see them go in and out," one neighbor said. Dennis said though incidents of murder-suicides seem to be on the rise nationwide, his department had no reason to suspect Kurt Kern was on the edge. "We're seeing more and more of this. ... I don't know if it's the economy, affairs," Dennis said. "But we have had no pattern of service calls (to the couple's house)." Autopsies are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. today at Newberry Pathology Associates. Contact Staff Writer Heath Hamacher at hhamacher@theitem.com or (803) 774-1270. Date Published: July 23, 2008 KURT E. KERN Kurt Edward Kern, age 52, husband of the late Patricia Anne Tweedie Kern, died on Wednesday, July 16, 2008. He was born in Bremerton, Wash., a son of the late Joel and Helen Jean Hluchen Kern. He graduated from St. Louis High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1974 and served in and retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of technical sergeant. During his Air Force time, he was a plumber in RED HORSE units, the combat civil engineering capability of the U.S. Air Force, and served in the first Gulf War. He also had other unspecified assignments throughout the Middle East. He most recently worked for Hill Plumbing. Surviving are a brother, Konrad Kern of Huntington Beach, Calif.; and a sister, Dr. Kay Nichols of Auburn, Ala. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. today at the Bullock Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Jock Hendricks officiating. The family will receive friends following the service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Red Cross, 1155 N. Guignard Drive, Suite 2, Sumter, SC 29150-1515 or to Family Life, P.O. Box 7111, Little Rock, AR 72223. Online memorial messages may be made to the family at www.bullockfuneralhome.com. The family has chosen Bullock Funeral Home of Sumter for the arrangements. Date Published: July 26, 2008 Murder-suicides on rise By HEATH HAMACHER Item Staff Writer hhamacher@theitem.com The recent deaths of Kurt Kern and his wife, Patricia, may have stunned their small Dalzell community, but domestic-related homicides — including murder-suicides — seem to be becoming more prevalent nationwide. On July 16, authorities say, Kern killed his wife in their Old Camden Highway home and then took his own life after learning about an online affair he believed his wife was having. Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said several suicide notes were found in the home explaining what happened and why, and that Kern was “very apologetic” in them. There is no tracking system to accurately document the number of deaths and injuries in murder-suicides, but a study conducted by the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit organization whose goal is to reduce violence, concluded that nearly 1,100 Americans die each year in murder-suicides. A VPC study showed that there were 27 murder-suicide deaths in Georgia during the first half of 2007; 21 in North Carolina; and 50 in Florida. South Carolina was far behind its neighboring states with just two. Statistics from this study suggest that overwhelmingly men murder women, then kill themselves, in the home with a firearm. According to the study:   Ninety-five percent of murder-suicides are committed by men.   Seventy-three percent of murder-suicides involve an intimate partner. Ninety-four percent of these were females killed by their intimate partners.   Seventy-five percent of murder-suicides occur in the home.   Of all murder-suicides, 88.5 percent involve a firearm. While any cycle of domestic violence — especially murders — is tragic, murder-suicides are especially tragic, said Sumter County Victim’s Advocate Gwen Herod, because they affect so many people. They often leave families torn apart and pointing the finger at one another. “This is not like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ this is not a suicide pact,” she said. “You often get the woman’s family blaming the man’s family, and (the man’s family) pointing, saying, ‘She caused this.’” In the Kerns’ tragedy, however, Herod said the two sides have come together in a “unified front” to try and get through something that is so hard to come to grips with. “There is some healing and the families have been able to be brought together, and that’s certainly not in every case,” she said. Kurt and Patricia had been married about 11 years but didn’t share any children. Kurt had two sons, 20-year-old Nicholas, who recently graduated from Marine Corps basic training, and Andrew, 18, who is will head to boot camp next month. Kurt’s brother, Konrad, of Huntington Beach, Calif., said through an e-mail the family was still “trying to sort out what we know.” Kurt, who worked for Hill Plumbing before his death, was a plumber in the military and retired from the Air Force. Dennis said many times there are obvious signs of active or possible domestic violence, but not always. He said there was no record of service calls to the Kern’s home, no reason to believe Kurt was a danger to anyone. Herod said many times the perpetrator feels like he — or rarely she — has lost control of a situation and feels desperate, powerless. “It’s like, ‘If I can’t have you, no one will,’” Herod said. She said the acts aren’t always motivated by infidelity or relationship issues but in situations that cause one to feel “out of control, then powerless.” Patricia Byers was married to Kurt for 15 years before their divorce and is the mother of his sons. Fighting tears, she talked about the man she never stopped loving and knew as anything but violent. “This was totally out of character for him,” Byers said. “He was never violent or aggressive; If we argued, I’d be the one yelling and he would go to the bedroom and pout. I always believed we’d end up together, but ...” Byers feels financial worries, marital problems and mental illness may have pushed Kurt Kern to commit an act that has left two families looking for answers. One of Kurt Kern’s family members, who asked not to be identified, said he witnessed the rapid dissolution of the Kerns’ marriage. “It just ... shows how these things have to be cultivated,” the family member said. Contact Staff Writer Heath Hamacher at hhamacher@theitem.com or (803) 774-1270.
  MILI	he served in and retired from the U. S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of technical sergeant  [1]
  MILI	he served in and retired from the U. S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of technical sergeant
  Occupation	he most recently worked for Hill Plumbing, Sumter, South Carolina  [1]
  Occupation	he most recently worked for Hill Plumbing, Sumter, South Carolina  [1]
  _UID	92B709BDD488437C9DC4FC88BE8F80D9B504
  _UID	92B709BDD488437C9DC4FC88BE8F80D9B504
  Death	16 Jul 2008	in his home at 4200 Old Camden Highway, Sumter County, South Carolina
  Burial	23 Jul 2008	a memorial service was held at Bullock Funeral Home Chapel, Sumter, South Carolina   [1, 2]
  	Bullock Funeral Home, Sumter, South Carolina Bullock Funeral Home, Sumter, South Carolina
  Person ID	I225272	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	26 Jul 2008

  
  

  Father	Joel KERN   d. Bef 16 Jul 2008
  Mother	Helen Jean HLUCHEN   d. Bef 16 Jul 2008
  _UID	41CA539A482048298D6ED220975C17804857
  _UID	41CA539A482048298D6ED220975C17804857
  Family ID	F152311	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Unknown
  _UID	EF99EDA1E50C4F00A1008F64910269816753
  _UID	EF99EDA1E50C4F00A1008F64910269816753
  Children	1. Living   2. Living
  Family ID	F152516	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 Mar 2026

  
  

  Family 2	Patricia Anne TWEEDIE,   b. 1957   d. 16 Jul 2008, in her home at 4200 Old Camden Highway, Sumter County, South Carolina (Age 51 years)
  Marriage	1997  [3]
  _UID	0F3A8D828B924CC1A7D5841A01658DBD4CE0
  _UID	0F3A8D828B924CC1A7D5841A01658DBD4CE0
  Family ID	F152310	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	26 Jul 2008

  
  

• Sources

  [S10766] Kurt E. Kern. [S10767] Fatal shooting stuns Dalzell - Couple found dead of apparent murder-suicide. [S10772] Murder-suicides on rise - Recent local deaths prompt eamination.