Todd Davis

Man Fatally Stabs Mother, Brother, Injures Self: Plano Police

Grief and unanswered questions after stabbing deaths of Plano mother and sons

Police, family and friends searched for answers Friday in the stabbing deaths of a Plano mother and her two sons.

Stacy Fawcett, 45, was a WFAA-TV Saturday morning cooking segment host. She was also a cooking expert for local radio stations.

“She was wonderful, she was my best friend,” said the woman’s mother Lynn Croft, visiting the crime scene Friday. “And those boys meant everything to me.”

Josiah Utu, 17, was a junior on the Plano West football team. McCann Utu Jr, 19, played basketball during his time at the school.

News of the incident spread via social media before classes started Friday. After school hundreds of students held a prayer vigil before gathering at a nearby church.

"If you were to take a walk across the campus at Plano West today you would have found every class, every hallway, dead silent," said junior Kevin Grain, who played football with Josiah. "No one really knows what to do with this kind of thing. This is the first real tragedy that has struck our class."

Between tearful embraces students shared memories of Josiah and his mother with one another.

“All I remember them as was a real happy family, with a smile on their face, both joking kids, always made me laugh,” said former classmate Alex Bauer.

“She was always smiling, always, always, always smiling. You could just tell she was a good person,” said neighbor Maria Bowen. “She was very loving toward her boys. She was a good mom and the boys looked to be good boys.”

Plano Police Officer David Tilley said the 19-year-old son called 9-1-1 around 12:30 am from the family apartment in the 3100 block of Communications Parkway.

“He said in the 911 call that he had committed murder and at another point during the 911 call he said that he stabbed them,” Tilley said.

Police found Fawcett and Josiah Utu dead, but the 19-year-old was still alive. He later died of what police called self-inflicted stab wounds.

“I would think that if anything he would be the last person to do something like this because he had the best heart. He had the best laugh. He was a funny kid, very loving kid,” former classmate Trevor Brado said.

Brado said McCann was removed from the basketball team during high school and was upset about it.

“And his dreams were to be playing college basketball, maybe NBA, doing something with basketball,” Brado said.

Their grandmother said McCann suffered two concussions about two years ago and was not the same afterward. McCann's uncle said he had been going through a rough time. He too believes that head trauma contributed to his nephew's behavior.

"He had just completely mentally dwindled away," said Scott Fawcett.

Fawcett spoke briefly to nearly 100 students who gathered at Parkway Hills Baptist Church. He asked them to remember the happy times they shared with Josiah. He also asked them to remember McCann as well.

"McCann wasn't a bad kid," he said. "He was dealt a bad deck."

“Parents, if you child gets a concussion, you need to take care of it,” Lynn Croft said.

Tilley said Plano detectives are thoroughly investigating the case even though the suspected perpetrator is dead.

“Clearly somebody who’s going to commit this type of crime, there’s got to be an underlying reason,” he said. “Our hopes are that we can provide the family some answers.”

The boys’ father McCann Utu Sr. provided a statement:

"I am shocked and devastated and obviously still trying to process what has happened. My sons were my life and Stacy and I were very proud of the young men they were becoming.

"Please allow us this time to grieve and respect our privacy. I ask for your prayers during the next several days as this will be the hardest thing we will ever have to deal with."

A GoFundMe account has been created to pay for the memorial services for Fawcett and her two sons. According to the page, any unused funds will be donated to the North Texas Food Bank in Fawcett's name.

NBC 5's Cory Smith and Todd L. Davis contributed to this report.

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