STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Brian Walling, 46, was doing what defined him — helping others — when his life suddenly ended Nov. 10 as he prepared his friend’s home for the opening day of hunting season.

When the longtime Staten Islander, a husband and father of three young children, wasn’t answering his phone or texts from his friend’s Pine Bush, New York, home, his wife, Joyce Lucchese Walling, knew something was wrong.

“I knew it wasn’t right,” she recalled with sadness, explaining she expected him to be on his way home to Scotch Plains, New Jersey, to attend hockey with his son. ”I was sending messages and he wasn’t replying. My son had hockey, and he would never miss it, ever.“

Not long after, a fire commissioner answered Walling’s phone and delivered the tragic news. He had been discovere

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