‘A real gentle soul’: Hilton Head shooting victim loved food, friends and travel
David Duffey would not have wanted people to remember him by how he died.
To the public, the 62-year-old man is known as a victim in the tragic Hilton Head shooting that took the lives of three people last week.
His friends, however, knew him as “Duff”, a fun-loving guy who played golf and rugby, cooked amazing jambalaya and could make you the best martini you’ve ever had.
“The world has lost an amazing light,” said friend Debi West.
People that met Duffey for the first time felt drawn to him very quickly, said Jim Little, who had known him since high school. He was easy to talk to, and genuinely cared about other people’s stories.
“He just loved to listen,” Little said.
For that reason, Duffey was always making new friends.
Less than two months ago, Duffey and Little were watching a football game at Reilley’s Grill & Bar. They struck up a conversation with Susan Deeb, who was having dinner there with her neighbor, and became quick friends.
Duffey was “an enjoyable person,” Deeb said. “Just a really good-hearted, nice, fun guy.”
The details of Duffey’s last hours are still coming to light. On Thursday evening, Duffey was hosting a few friends at his short-term rental on Lark Street in North Forest Beach for dinner, including Catherine Warrington, 50, of Bluffton, and two others. At around 11:30 p.m., sometime after the party had wound down, Duffey and Warrington were shot outside the home. The suspected gunman, 52-year-old Dustin Linsley, fled the scene, and was later found dead in his home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Records obtained by The Packet show that Warrington had filed a domestic violence claim against Linsley less than a month prior.
The Canadian who followed the sun
Duffey was originally from Montreal, but has been visiting Hilton Head Island for 40 years. He lived in Connecticut as an adult and traveled often.
In the summers, he’d often visit Montreal, but he also traveled frequently to Farragudo, a fishing village on the southern tip of Portugal with great seafood and great golf.
“He had a routine where he would be where the sun was shining,” Little said.
Through his travels, Duffey grew fond of Spanish and Portuguese wines. He’d often invite people over for wine and home-cooked meals. Friends said he did a “beautiful” paella.
Duffey loved his family, and talked about them often, friends said. He was born to an Italian mother and an Irish father, and was the youngest of three siblings. His mother passed away recently, but he and his 92-year-old father were planning a trip of Portugal in March.
From his mother, Duffey inherited his Italian complexion: deep brown eyes, tan skin and dark curly hair. From his father he inherited “the luck of the Irish, love of sports and good times.”
Friends hit by grief
To West and her husband, Duffey was “family.” When she got the news from her husband that her friend of six years had passed away, she felt “sick.” She was in her car, and had to pull over because she felt like she couldn’t breathe.
“You read about this stuff, and now it’s happening to someone that you consider to be like a brother,” West said. “It took the wind out of me.”
Little, Duffey’s friend of 50 years, called his death “shocking.”
“It’s hard to process,” Little said. “We’re all going to look back on the world as having lost a real gentle soul.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
