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Parkersburg man charged in machete killing

Victim was boyfriend of suspect’s mother

Parkersburg Police say the owner of this home at 907 33rd St. was murdered Sunday night by the son of his live-in girlfriend. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — A Parkersburg man is accused of killing his mother’s boyfriend with a machete.

Matthew Lee Wilson, 30, of 907 33rd St., was arrested around 11:40 p.m. Sunday for the murder of 60-year-old David Matthew Hill, who owned and lived in the house where Wilson, his mother and brother were staying, Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin said. Wilson is in custody at the North Central Regional Jail, awaiting bond to be set in Wood County Circuit Court.

Police were called to the residence at 11:31 p.m. Sunday, according to a release from the Police Department. A motive for the killing remains under investigation.

The release and Wood County Magistrate Court records say Wilson obtained a machete from within the residence and attacked Hill in the living room. The elder man was struck in the head, neck, shoulder, leg, ankle and other areas of his body, it says.

“I feel terrible for the (older) guy because no one deserves that,” said a 33rd Street resident, who asked not to be identified. “You don’t think stuff like that happens around here.”

Matthew Lee Wilson, 30, of 907 33rd St., was arrested around 11:40 p.m. Sunday for the murder of 60-year-old David Matthew Hill, who owned and lived in the house where Wilson, his mother and brother were staying, Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin said. (Photo Provided)

Wilson fled the residence but was apprehended nearby in the 3200 block of Linden Street less than 10 minutes after police were called, Martin said.

Wilson was also charged with two counts of battery of a police officer and one count each of brandishing and obstructing on warrants from a Sept. 12 incident at the 33rd Street house. According to a criminal complaint in magistrate court, Wilson allegedly struck a police officer and an EMT in the face multiple times, kicked another officer multiple times, “placed a pair of scissors upright” toward an officer and refused orders to place his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.

Asked why Wilson had not been charged on the date of the incident, Martin said, “he was not medically cleared for incarceration.” The chief said he could not elaborate due to laws regarding privacy and medical information.

Some people who lived on 33rd Street said there had been suspicious activity going on at the residence for a while, including people “coming in and out at all hours of the day.”

One woman said she saw and heard people in the house’s backyard late at night running around, yelling and rolling on the ground.

She said she’d known Hill for 15 years and was concerned that he had a habit of letting people stay at his house who would take advantage of him or prove dangerous.

“I warned him,” she said through tears. “I told him.”

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