This happened here in my area. Ron Hamilton's parents in law are members of my church. I was not here in the area when this happened, and I did not make it to church this morning. I plan on attending the evening service.
This is a huge shock to much of our local Christian community.
I do know (and have known for a long time) that Jonathan Hamilton had severe emotional/psychological/spiritual problems, but I do not know all the specifics and thus I should not comment any further.
Evidently he committed suicide by jumping off a tall building downtown. That was the last I heard, and read in a news article, which I do not have handy right this minute.
Many people around the world are familiar with Ron Hamilton and his music ministry (whether you like or agree with his ministry or not) and this is a huge ripple among a very large audience of people who grew up as children listening to the Patch the Pirate recordings. Jonathan Hamilton was the long-running voice of the character "Peewee Pirate" who was implied but not necessarily stated to be Patch the Pirate's son in the make-believe dramatic recordings. He was, of course, Ron Hamilton's actual son. Ron's other children also had pirate names for the recordings and were part of the fictional singing "pirate crew" that thousands of children have grown up listening to for 30 +/- years. Though I never met Jonathan, both my wife and myself grew up listening to the recordings over the years.
My wife's brother and his family were members of Ron Hamilton's church and know the Hamiltons fairly well, having served in the music ministry of the church with them for many years.
The family will be in my prayers.