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Canadian punk rocker Gord Lewis killed at 65, his son charged with murder

Police charged the late musician’s 41-year-old son, Jonathan, with second-degree murder.
/ Source: TODAY

Canadian punk rock star Gord Lewis of Teenage Head is dead at the age of 65, police say.

After several news outlets got a “number of emails” about a dead person, police say they responded on Aug. 7 to a residence in Hamilton, Ontario, to discover Lewis’ body.

Officials said they weren’t able to initially identify Lewis due to the level of decomposition, adding that he had “injuries consistent with foul play and the case was deemed a homicide.”

Police charged the late musician’s 41-year-old son, Jonathan, with second-degree murder.

The Hamilton Spectator reported they started getting emails from two email accounts with the name Jonathan Lewis starting Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

The Spectator reported the messages it received generally contained complaints about needing help for medical issues but also “multiple references” to his father being dead.

“Now I just want to get help for my sickness and give my Dad a proper burial. He didn’t deserve this,” the newspaper said Jonathan Lewis wrote in one email to the outlet.

A staffer at the Spectator called police on Sunday morning after the newspaper received an email that said, “Funeral people need to get here quick. My Dad is starting to decay.”

TODAY has not independently reviewed the emails and police did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

In a statement on social media, the surviving band members said they’re still working to process what happened.

“We are heartbroken and still trying to process the loss of our friend, bandmate and brother Gord Lewis,” the group wrote on social media. “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.”

A statement from police this week said Lewis' family has "requested privacy while they grieve the loss of Gordon. He will be remembered for his passion for music."

Lewis, along with Frankie Venom and Dave Desroches, founded Teenage Head in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1975. The band was big in the early 1980s but remained active even after vocalist/drummer Venom died in 2008 from cancer. The band was scheduled to perform in Winnipeg on Aug. 18.