Doting Father Kills Son, Self After Losing Battle Over Name

Alan Gubernat never missed a visit with his towheaded son Scott, taking the 3-year-old fishing as his own father had taken him. Gubernat even went to court to make sure his son would bear his last name.

When that failed, he took his son’s life, placing a .357-caliber handgun next to the boy’s head and pulling the trigger. Then Gubernat shot himself to death.

The bodies were discovered Sunday--Mother’s Day--three days after Scott’s mother, Karen Deremer, won a state Supreme Court case allowing the child to carry her last name rather than his father’s.

Authorities said no suicide note was found at Gubernat’s home in rural Williams Township, Pa., but Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Steven Junkin said that “some things found at the scene” indicate Gubernat was distraught. He would not elaborate.

Gubernat, a self-employed mason, lived alone in a rented house next door to his father, Alfred Gubernat, who found the bodies of his 33-year-old son and his grandson, who would have turned 4 on July 4.

Deremer, of Washington Borough, N.J., was in seclusion and unavailable for comment Monday. Her attorney said she was “totally distraught and devastated.”

The murder-suicide stunned family members and attorneys for both sides.

Though Gubernat, who was never married to Deremer, at first didn’t believe Scott was his son, he wholeheartedly took on a father’s duties when blood tests confirmed paternity.

Everyone concerned--even the Supreme Court justices who ruled against him--said Gubernat was a loving parent who had a nurturing relationship with his son and was conscientious about seeing him under the visitation agreement.

Fishing was their principal activity together. Gubernat “felt it was an important way to establish a bond between father and son,” said James Richardson, his lawyer.

He said he last spoke to Gubernat on Saturday, two days after the court ruled. “His mood was upbeat. He gave no indication he was depressed,” Richardson said.

Gubernat had told him he had accepted the decision and the finding that it is “the love of the parent, not the name of the parent, that binds parent and child.”