Michael Hudson's son is no longer missing; He was in the backyard all along

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Milton-area man was charged Friday with first-degree murder after detectives questioning him about a missing person found a partially decomposed body on his property, state police said.

The man's 19-year-old son, Spencer Ashing, has been missing since February
[...]

Michael M. Hudson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail at Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown.

According to an arrest affidavit that was filed Friday night and heavily redacted before being made public, police recovered a .357 revolver from Hudson's home and found what appeared to be a "significant blood stain'' under a carpet remnant in his living room. Court officials often redact information from affidavits released to the media to protect the identities of victims and witnesses.

Hudson said he last saw the missing person on Feb. 12, when he got on a school bus and didn't return home, the affidavit said.
[...]

In the arrest affidavit, police wrote that Hudson told detectives in February that the missing person has left home before, sometimes for up to 12 days, but "always returns home,'' the affidavit said.

Hudson also told investigators the missing person was upset the night before he vanished because the two were watching a television show about homeless people and the economy and Hudson said "he did not know if they would be able to still live in their home," the affidavit said.

Police also wrote that on Feb. 24 a witness whose identity was redacted told investigators that Hudson had pulled a gun on the missing person and had been "physical'' with him.

On Thursday, police wrote, an unidentified witness said Hudson had said previously "he was going to finish ... off and nobody would have to worry about them anymore.'' Hudson also said "he would not have to worry about a place to live because he would be on death row.''

Police obtained a search warrant for Hudson's property Friday and went to the house.

The body was found in the back of the property "under a tarp and brush,'' police wrote. It was covered with a "white powdered substance that appeared to be lime.''

"The death appears to be related to unnatural causes,'' said state police Senior Cpl. Gary Fournier, who added that investigators hope to positively identify the victim this morning.

http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...r++son+missing

Michael Hudson sent an email to WGMD News which they posted on Feb. 23:

I spoke with you yesterday about my son Spencer Sage Ashing. He has been missing since February 4th. That morning he acted like he was going to school. He got up, took a shower and dressed like he was going to meet the bus. Which picks him up at 6:30 am.

I have not seen him since. He has been gone for as long as 2 weeks with out contacting me in the past. So I just started calling his friends at first to see if they had seen him.

He is 19 years old, born November 22, 1990. Light brown hair, blue eyes, 5′-10″ at 130 -135 lbs. Caucasian. He’s a Senior at Cape Henlopen High School.

Some one said they saw him leave school with an unknown person. Whether that is true or not I do not know.
[...]

Any help you could give in this matter would be deeply appreciated. We are all very concerned and getting very little sleep.

My email address if you need any further information is miloorwell@msn.com

Mary Lou I’ve also attached two photo’s for you to peruse so you may use them in your description. The one with the short hair is most recent and I apologize for what he’s holding. He’s a wonderful person and his mother, family and I miss him very much.

Thanks and God Bless and if you believe in the power of prayer, please pray for my son.

Respectfully

Michael Milo Hudson

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=148

A tweet by a reporter indicates that an article on his email exchanges with Hudson will be available Monday.

[nopatience]

"The death appears to be related to unnatural causes,'' said state police Senior Cpl. Gary Fournier, who added that investigators hope to positively identify the victim this morning.

Uh, no shit Sherlock

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The Delaware State Police have identified the body found in a Milton-area home as the main suspect's son.
[...]
The investigation into the disappearance continued through the month and into March, when he was discovered Friday morning on a follow-up with Hudson at his residence. Hudson was subsequently taken into custody and found to be in possession of a .357 revolver.

An autopsy performed on Ashing revealed he died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma.

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/2...DW01/100327010

[FlamingFox]

Okay, DV. Your avatar just winked at me. Funny I never noticed that before, or maybe I really am losing it. Thanks for the stories, as always. I appreciate the time you take to provide them for the site. You rock, but your avatar is still freaking me out. I am beginning to believe my hubby when he says I am seeing things.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Okay, DV. Your avatar just winked at me. Funny I never noticed that before, or maybe I really am losing it. Thanks for the stories, as always. I appreciate the time you take to provide them for the site. You rock, but your avatar is still freaking me out. I am beginning to believe my hubby when he says I am seeing things.

Thanks! And I always appreciate the write ups on the FP. I can't write but can do a mean cut-n-paste. LOL

As for the winky lady, it's been that way for months! I made it do it infrequently because avatars that move a lot make me dizzy. Although I am thinking of changing it to an occasional eye batting like a southern belle. Then you can think it's flirting with you.

[Sister Iroz]

The Milton father accused of murdering his teenage son was previously arrested on a domestic violence-related charge, according to court documents.

According to records from Sussex County Family Court, Hudson was arrested on April 19, 2009, and charged with third-degree assault following a fight with his son. The documents show Hudson and his son both had injuries following the altercation and were both charged with assault.

When police arrived, "Hudson was icing his middle finger which had a large open wound near the tip of the finger," the documents said. "Hudson stated his son slammed his finger in the front door of their residence," the documents said.

The record shows the argument was related to the son completing household chores.

Hudson was treated at Beebe Medical Center for his injuries, according to documents. He was then charged with "striking victim inside elbow area of his left arm causing several small, bloody scratches," the records show.

The court records show the charge against Hudson was dropped in May, 2009, because prosecutors were unable to determine the aggressor.

"After interviewing both parties I determined both were mutual combatants," Cpl. William Booth wrote in the filing. "Both claimed they were assaulted by the other one and both sustained visible injury," the record shows.

The name of the victim is redacted by the court, instead referred to as Hudson's "son." Friends said Ashing did not have siblings.

...

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=12221390

[DingDang]

Delaware crime: A life of chaos has a violent ending

Her nephew had disappeared almost two months before. And Jennifer Weaver had a hunch.

"I knew something was wrong," she said. "Even if he ran off, he wouldn't be off Facebook for more than two days."

Spencer Ashing lived with his father, Michael M. Hudson, on and off for about the past three years. She knew the two had a toxic relationship.

So, she called police. Search his father's property west of Milton, she told them, and they would find the 19-year-old.

But the discovery of Ashing's decomposed corpse -- police said the body was doused with lye -- concluded the story of a chaotic life for the Cape Henlopen High School senior.

His parents never married. His mother, Margaret Ashing, raised him as a single mom, taking him to stay with her sister in Wilmington on weekends so she could work waitressing shifts.

"He was everything to her," said Weaver, Ashing's aunt.

Hudson, meanwhile, struggled to hold a job and child support payments were sparse, said Margaret Ashing, 52.

When Spencer Ashing got older and started spending more time with his father, Weaver considered it a good thing, thinking the two could make up for lost time.

The violence between Ashing and Hudson was no secret. He told numerous friends his father abused him. In December, he posted on Facebook, "My dad held a gun to my head and said he wished I was dead," recalled his cousin, Jennie Sutton, 36, of Wilmington.

She first considered it a joke or maybe a clever rap lyric Ashing wanted to share. But then, she messaged him to ask if it was true. It was, he told her. His dad threatened to kill him over a bowl of spaghetti Ashing had eaten, Sutton said.

In late January or early February, the chaotic relationship reached a sudden end, according to police. The last time they saw each other, he and Ashing argued over a television show about homeless people. Hudson told police he feared they, too, would lose their home.

He even told an unnamed witness he would "finish" Ashing off, and neither would need a place to live because Hudson would be on death row, according to police.

Some stories about Hudson, a substitute school janitor at Cape Henlopen until his arrest, stand in eerie contrast to the allegations of abuse and murder. Numerous people said they heard Hudson say how much he missed Spencer after he disappeared.

He contacted Ashing's friend, 17-year-old Amber Hill, to say how worried he was. He called and read her poems Ashing had written. He sent e-mails to a local radio station asking for help finding Ashing.

He had a hard life, but he was loved, Margaret Ashing said. He struggled in school, but he was smart and enjoyed reading and writing. She remembered in late January he visited her and asked to borrow a book, "The Lovely Bones."

He heard the novel, about a young girl murdered by her neighbor, was recently made into a movie. He liked comparing books to the movies, she said. He told her he wanted to read it before watching the film.

"I know it sounds like a weird thing for a teenage boy to read," his mom laughed.

She was curious to hear what he thought of it, but she never saw him again.

There is much more info at the link. There is also a video tribute to Spencer.

I hope he is at peace...

[Hellsbells]

Milton Man Convicted of Murder

GEORGETOWN, Del.- After about two hours of deliberation, a Sussex County jury on Tuesday found a Milton man guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his teenage son last year.

In addition to being convicted of murder, 59-year-old Michael "Milo" Hudson was also found guilty of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and abuse of a corpse. No sentencing date has been set yet.

Delaware State Police said they found the body of Hudson's son, 19-year-old Spencer Ashing, lying under a tarp behind his father's Milton home on Russell Street in March 2010. Roughly one month earlier, Ashing's mother had reported him as missing.

An autopsy showed Ashing died of multiple gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma. Court documents show police found blood on the carpet inside Hudson's home and subsequent testing proved it was human blood.

http://www.wboc.com/story/14906153/s...ng-teenage-son

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Milton-area man who shot his teenage son, stowed his body under a pile of brush in the yard and then told police, family members and the community that he was missing was sentenced to life in prison this morning.

“You are a murderer,” Superior Court Judge Richard F. Stokes told Michael M. Hudson, standing in the courtroom in an orange prison jumpsuit. “What you did was beyond belief.”
[...]

The jury rejected his claim of self-defense. “It was phony,” Stokes told him.

Hudson received the mandatory sentence of life with no possibility of probation on the murder charge. The state did not seek the death penalty. He also received 25 years on the firearms charge and one year on the charge of abusing a corpse.

“I miss my son every day, every hour of every day,” Hudson told Stokes before the sentence was delivered. “I wish I hadn’t had a gun that day. Then my head would be bashed in, and I wouldn’t be here.”
[...]

Prosecutor Peggy Marshall acknowledged Spencer Ashing was “no angel,” having had trouble with the law and used drugs. But, she said, “he was turning his life around. He was on the verge of growing up and making something of his life.”

Ashing, a senior at Cape Henlopen High School, was reported missing Feb. 12, 2010, by his mother.

http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...-murdering-son

[DamagedGoods]

Yeah... it's the gun's fault!

[Jerri Blank]

Michael Hudson appeals murder conviction

A Milton man serving life in prison for the shooting death of his 19-year-old son is taking steps to overturn his conviction. Michael Hudson claims he did not receive a fair trial because of one witness’s testimony.

Police found the body of Hudson’s son, Spencer Ashing, under a piece of tarp and a pile of tree limbs in Hudson’s backyard, March 26, 2010. Ashing was naked, and his body was partially decomposed and covered in lime.

In earlier testimony, Hudson, 59, admitted killing Ashing nearly two months before the body was found. Hudson claimed self-defense, and said Ashing was holding a baseball bat and threatened to beat him. Hudson testified he shot his son four times in the living room of their home.

Judge Richard F. Stokes sentenced Hudson to life in prison, Aug. 19. Stokes told Hudson his claim of self-defense was phony. Stokes said Hudson deserved the maximum punishment for his crime. “Anything less would be injustice,” he said.
[...]

http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/n...viction/840422