Jonathan Lewis, the 41-year-old son of Canadian punk legend Gord Lewis has been charged with second-degree murder in his father’s killing. According to CTV News, the elder Lewis, 65, founding guitarist for the Hamilton, Ontario band popular in the early 1980s, was found dead in his Hamilton home on Sunday (Aug. 7) after several news outlets got “a number of emails” about a dead person from someone named Jonathan Lewis stating that his father was dead.
Police were reportedly not able to initially identify Lewis because of the level of decomposition of his body, ruling that the rocker had “injuries consistent with foul play and the case was deemed a homicide”; according to CBC, police believe the body may have been in the apartment the father and son shared for several days.
In a Facebook post from the band on Monday, they wrote, “We are heartbroken and still trying to process the loss of our friend, bandmate and brother Gord Lewis Our hearts are with his family and all that knew and loved him. Gord was a force and an inspiration to many. You were taken from us far too soon.”
The guitarist’s younger brother, Brian Lewis, told CTV that his family saw “Gord and Johnny love each other and be loyal to each other all their lives,” but added that despite being inseparable, both men were “dealing with their own demons.” Brian Lewis said he and his wife were “involved in the situation between Jonathan and Gord” up until last week, noting that “there have always been concerns with the health” of both men and that “things did exacerbate in recents weeks and months.”
Police were reportedly planning to conduct an autopsy in the coming days and at press time were not seeking any additional suspects, believing the homicide was an “isolated incident.”
