Mother loses 2 sons less than 24 hours apart

Mother loses 2 sons less than 24 hours apart

By LYDA LONGA
Staff Writer

Two brothers died within less than 24 hours of each other and about 11 blocks apart in Holly Hill this week, police said Thursday.

One brother, William Lauze, 45, Holly Hill, was struck in the street by a motorcycle; the other, Michael Geezil, 47, had a fatal heart attack in his car.

On Tuesday night, William Lauze was killed when he was hit by a motorcycle while walking west across Ridgewood Avenue at Fifth Street. Just after 10 p.m., he was struck by Michael John Hammond, 54, Holly Hill, who was riding his Honda motorcycle north on Ridgewood.

When police called their mother Nancy Lauze on Wednesday morning to tell her about Lauze's accident and told her Lauze had been struck by a motorcyclist named Michael, she thought investigators meant her older son Michael Geezil, because his first name was Michael and he, too, had a motorcycle.

"But we said, 'No, no, it was another Michael who was killed, not your other son,' " Holly Hill Cmdr. Mark Barker said. "Then her son Michael actually died the next day."

The brothers were not close, friends said. Nancy Lauze could not be reached for comment Thursday.

On Wednesday afternoon, Holly Hill police thought it an odd coincidence that both Lauze and Hammond were chefs -- one worked in Ormond Beach, the other in Daytona Beach -- and that both were on their way home after attending two different parties.
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