Vigil held for Stanislaus woman killed in apparent murder-suicide
A community vigil attended by hundreds was held for Dinella Madrigal, 37, in Hughson on Tuesday night.
As attendees poured into Lebright School’s baseball and softball fields, they were greeted with candles. However, many brought their own. Family members and friends spoke through a PA system to the crowd with stories that expressed their grief and showcased Madrigal’s personality.
“Normally, you heard her before you’ve seen her,” said friend Jenny Wells. “When she entered the room, she was loud, and she loved with her whole being, and she knew no stranger. If you were a stranger, you weren’t going to be one in a couple minutes.”
Madrigal — whose last name is listed as Hutsell on public records but had been going by her maiden name according to friends — was described as outgoing, opinionated, generous and giving. Her friends said she used those personality traits to contribute to the community, to which she was deeply ingrained.
Family member Shelly Madrigal said her cousin-in-law was on the Lucas Elementary School Dual Language Academy’s scholarship board. Her most recent accomplishment, Shelly Madrigal said, was having Lucas be the first elementary school in Stanislaus County to have a scholarship fund for dual-language children.
Madrigal used her connections and personality to secure funds for the scholarships and was supposed to personally present the award to the program’s graduating class on Wednesday.
Shelly Madrigal said Dinella worked tirelessly to raise funds for the program and was deeply involved in other youth organizations in the tightly knit Hughson community.
“I’m not sure where she had all this time. I don’t think she slept, I honestly don’t,” Shelly Madrigal said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “The first time we met her, she was loud, in your face. [She] laid out her resume applying for our PTC board, and it was a binder, right? I’m like, ‘You’re in. You could have my position.’”
Madrigal’s most recent full-time job was working as a a pre-planning advisor at Lakewood Memorial Cemetery. But before that, she worked for local radio station Kat Country 103 for nearly 20 years. Co-worker and friend Dusty Azevedo said they’d spent the last two years trying to get her to come back and work full time.
“She’s the type of person that we wanted to hang around,” Azevedo said. “We would never take her off payroll because there was always that hope that she’d come back.”
Azevedo said Madrigal used her connections at the radio station to organize fundraisers for youth organizations, often showing up at the station’s office to demand items, such as tickets, that she could auction off.
Madrigal’s brother, Joel, found it physically difficult to speak. Though grief-stricken, he found a way to memorialize her in front of the large crowd.
“She gets it from me, because I could talk forever as well,” said Joel Madrigal. “I’d be telling her, ‘Hey, that’s enough. Be quiet. That’s enough...’ Well, now I wish I could hear her voice.”
While somber, the hundreds who attended, including close family and friends, spoke of Madrigal jovially — appearing open to sharing several funny and insightful stories about her life.
But for most, it seemed too early to speak about the circumstances surrounding her death.
The vigil took place less than a mile from where she and her husband were found dead in their home. Just before 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Stanislaus Regional 911 got a call from a child, now confirmed to be Madrigal’s daughter, reporting that her parents were dead.
Deputies from the Stanislaus Sheriff’s Office immediately responded to a home on the 1700 block of Fontana Ranch Road. Deputies got Madrigal’s two children out of the house, then searched it and found her and husband Daniel Hutsell’s bodies.
Their deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide by the Modesto Police Department. A statement from MPD, released Monday, says the investigation remains active and that no further information would be released at this time.
Madrigal and Hutsell’s two daughters were in attendance at the community vigil.
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 2:07 PM.
