Knife wound kills man

A Baltimore-area man soon to become a first-time grandfather died early Thursday morning after suffering a knife wound to the chest shortly before midnight at a King Avenue apartment.

Waynesboro police responded at about 11:40 p.m. to the “Holly House,” at 720 King Avenue, where they found Jeffrey Allen Gischel, 45, suffering from the wound. The man had been staying there at his girlfriend’s apartment, neighbors and family said Thursday.

Gischel was transported to Augusta Medical Center and later to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, where he died after emergency surgery in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at about 7:58 a.m., Sgt. Kelly Walker said.

No arrests have been made and the case remains under investigation. Walker said police recovered a kitchen-type knife at the scene and have ordered an autopsy, but he declined to elaborate on who was in the apartment.

Gischel’s death comes just days after the man’s brother “had a bad feeling” about his well-being and less than three months since the man’s girlfriend, not yet identified, moved into the apartment, in a residential area struggling to become family-friendly.

“You never know when life can be whisked away from you,” brother Mike Gischel, 49, said by phone Thursday.

He remembered his brother as one who loved fishing and camping and who worked most of his life as an electrician. He was also father to one son living in Wilkes-Barre, Penn.

Jeffrey Gischel had been living “off and on” in Waynesboro, but most of his relatives remained in the Baltimore-area, without incident, his brother said. He said Jeffrey Gischel’s other brother kept up with him, sensing some issues in his Waynesboro living situation.

“He had a bad feeling, actually, the other night,” Mike Gischel said. “He was concerned something had happened.”

Mike Gischel said there might have been a conflict concerning noise with neighbors.

Apartment property manager Bill Cooper, 60, said residents came to him for information after the police commotion, but he had little to offer.

“We’re trying to make it a nice place for families and kids … it seems we’ve run into a couple bumps,” Cooper said.

A neighbor in the building, who asked to remain anonymous, said she heard “a little fussin’” Wednesday night, but that she does not know her neighbors well.

She said there has been “a lot of ruckus” lately in the area, leaving her feeling less safe than previous years.