The Thrill of Murder at Age 14 Absent Parental Responsibility

"This was a completely unprovoked, random, extremely violent attack on an innocent woman cleaning up her yard on a spring day."

"This brutal attack occurred in Ms. Doney's yard in the middle of the afternoon, a place where she was entitled to feel safe and likely did feel safe."

Justice Lisa Wannamaker

 

"I used to enjoy working in the garden with my wife, with the flowers stretched over a couple of ponds and the songs of birds which returned to the birdhouse."

"Now it's like a little bird has flown into a closed window and was killed. I can only put it now in a place where it rests, is buried and marked."

"I'll never forget that little bird that I spent 63 years with."

Bruce Doney

 

"The loving relationship I enjoyed with my Mom was abruptly torn from me. I was violently robbed. Robbed of the chance to be with her at the end to say goodbye ..."

"I am crushed and recoil in horror that Mom was left alone to die and found in front of her home by a neighbour."

"She was robbed of her dignity as a greatly loved human being."

Judy Kirwin, Eleanor Doney's daughter 

Eleanor Doney is pictured with her husband, Bruce, in this undated Facebook photo. Photo by FACEBOOK

 

 

The murderer's identity/name has been withheld. For it was a 14-year-old boy obsessed with violent acts of killing who deliberately stabbed 83-year-old Eleanor Doney to death in Pickering, east of Toronto on May 29, 2025. The boy had costumed himself after a fictional character whom he admired, a serial killer out of a Japanese comic book. Ted Bundy, serial killer, was another admired figure for this 14-year-old who spent innumerable hours in his bedroom on his computer peering avidly into the dark corners of the Internet.

 

Psychopathy was his admired niche, acts of murder, and above all serial killings held him enthralled and he yearned to pattern himself after those he so avidly admired, to feel for himself just how emotionally elevating it felt to take another's life. He had garbed himself in copy of the Japanese character, in a shiny black trench coat, a black COVID-type mask, black gloves, too-large black dress shoes, and he carried a briefcase. That briefcase held a knife.

 

A neighbour's doorbell camera was able to capture what had occurred that fateful day; the boy stopping to talk with Mrs. Doney, then withdrawing his knife from the briefcase and repeatedly stabbing her, even as she attempted to escape the violent menace threatening her life by withdrawing into her home. When she collapsed, the boy continued down the street. When police arrived they issued a community warning. The boy was identified by school administrators and that night was arrested at  his home. 

 

Eleanor Doney was killed outside her Pickering, Ont., home by a teen attacker on May 29, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia/File

 

"The emotional impact of losing my mother has been profound and life-altering. Her death was sudden, violent, and hard to understand. She was attacked in front of her own home -- a place where she should have felt safe and protected."

"The fact that her life was taken by a young offender is something I still struggle to make sense of."

"My mother was a sweet, gentle person whom everyone loved. She had a strong Christian faith that guided the way she lived her life."

"Helping others wasn't just something she did -- it was who she was."

Jeff Doney  

Crown prosecutor Tammi D'Eri spoke of the appropriate sentencing for this child killer, that it was "highly concerning" he displayed little insight into his violent tendencies and his explanation for his attraction to lethal violence was incoherent in its reasoning. His continued preoccupation with violence and serial killers persists. There were behavioural incident reports from the penal facility where he is incarcerated. Among them a report of an altercation with another resident, following which he remarked that he "hasn't felt this alive" since he murdered Mrs. Doney.

 

The boy's lawyer, on the other hand -- Erin Dann -- while agreeing a horrific premeditated murder had been committed by her client, wanted him to be given a year's credit from time spent in custody to increase the likelihood he would remain in a youth facility until conditional release to aid his rehabilitation. Should he serve the additional year the Crown requested, he would turn 21 before release and transfer to an adult prison would be a likely outcome. 

 

She cited psychological assessments that his serial killer obsession and lack of remorse and empathy in all likelihood represented mental health problems, not fixed attitudes. "Because these risk factors relate to mental health concerns, there's real potential here for rehabilitation and reintegration if properly addressed"; the youth facility where treatment programming is available represents the best place to meet that need, she urged.  

 

Unusual images of the 14-year-old killer were captured on a neighbour's security video before and after the stabbing of Eleanor Doney and provided to National Post. Photo by Courtesy of John Meloche

 

At the court hearing it was revealed that police had seized two cellphones and a computer from the boy's home that revealed his wide online activity and intense fascination with murder, serial killers, psychopathy and obsession with the fictional Yoshikage Kira. On the day before the fatal stabbing, school officials caught the boy with a knife and suspended him for five days. Two medical assessments prepared for the court appearance prior to his guilty plea, revealed that, as he informed psychologists, he had a fluctuating "urge to kill" in the weeks leading up to his attack.  

"By the heinous act committed it not only shattered Eleanor's life but so many Eleanor had deeply impacted."

"This was all taken away in an instant for the  utter senselessness of murder. The fear/worry/terror that was caused lasted, and still lasts, to this day."

"Safety and peace were stolen, not just from us who knew Eleanor but to all of our community and beyond."

"What is left is anxiety, stress, pain, hurt and fear."

Brian Kirwin, Eleanor Doney's son-in-law 

Dangerously Psychotic Yet He Lives Free To Reoffend

"He reported not having consumed alcohol beforehand but did use crystal methamphetamine, along with two or three joints of cannabis."

"He reported hearing voices both with and without the use of crystal methamphetamine, but they became worse when he used the substance."

"Counsel for all parties agreed that Mr. Pillar represented a significant threat to public safety [and that his ban on] the non-medical use of alcohol or other intoxicating substances [should be dropped]."

"[In the years before the stabbing he was the subject of] multiple Community Treatment Orders, during which Mr. Pillar continued to use drugs and alcohol and was non-compliant with his prescribed medication and appointments."

"The history also includes several attempts at mental health diversion for various criminal charges. His reported symptoms, when unwell, included command auditory hallucinations to kill both men and women, but chiefly women." 

Ontario Review Board

 

"In a significant legal decision, the Ontario Review Board lifted a drug ban for Richard P. Pillar, who was found not criminally responsible for a violent incident in Windsor. On September 28, 2016."

"At approximately 11 a.m., 83-year-old Rina Campagna was attacked and severely injured by Pillar near a bank."

"The attack, which occurred in Windsor, Ontario, left Campagna with the loss of an eye. Pillar, who suffers from multiple mental health disorders, was under the influence of drugs at the time."

UL Lawyers Professional Corporation 

Photograph of assaulted 83-year-old woman being taken to hospital by paramedics. Photo: Postmedia

 

Found not criminally responsible after stabbing an 83-year-old stranger in the eye, an Ontario man has had his drug ban lifted, despite that he had used crystal methamphetamine and smoked two or three joints of cannabis beforehand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, social anxiety disorder and substance use disorder, Richard P. Pillar, with his anti-social personality disorder and borderline intellectual functioning was found, at trial, not criminally responsible of aggravated assault after his attack on Rina Campagna.

 

Walking unaccompanied to a Windsor bank on September 28, 2016, the elderly woman was accosted by Pillar from behind, and brought to the ground. Her assailant took hold of the woman's head and with a knife, stabbed one of her eyes. Ms. Campagna was left with severe injuries that included loss of the injured eye, pointed out the independent tribunal tasked with reviewing the status of individuals found not criminally responsible for violent crimes they commit. 

 

Witnesses at the scene recounted seeing Pillar discarding his clothing as he fled the area. An arrest took place within the day. Pillar had been bound by two probation orders which prohibited him from weapons possession, at the time of the attack on the woman. Neither victim nor attacker were known to one another. Pillar informed authorities that he deliberately withheld taking his antipsychotic injection two weeks previous to the attack. "He wanted to see what it was like if he did not take the medication", the ORB decision noted. 

 

In this Sept. 28, 2016, file photo, Windsor police, paramedic and fire emergency response crews converge in the 1300 block of Ottawa Street following a brutal stabbing attack on an elderly woman. Photo by Jason Kryk /Windsor Star

 

"I no longer feel safe and secure doing my daily routine like shopping, visiting people or going to church."

"[I've missed important family events], because I thought I looked like a monster. I don’t feel good about myself anymore."

"I say no to a lot of friends asking me to come over because I am afraid to walk alone and I have a hard time talking in a group back and forth with one eye and double vision."

"And I am so scared that if he ever gets out he might come back to attack me again."

Victim Impact Statement, Rina Campagna  

The day previous to Pillar's attack on Ms. Campagna he had made a failed effort  to attack another pedestrian, but his aim was deflected. He was given a discharge by the ORB in March of 2025 with conditions attached, that he report to a  hospital at least twice monthly, "abstain from intoxicants, submit samples for analysis [and] refrain from the possession of weapons". At the time Pillar had lived for four years in the community with no recorded hospital readmissions.

 

Now 37, Pillar lives alone in a subsidized one-bedroom apartment in St. Thomas, Ontario. The psychiatric medical team that has been overseeing his conditions advised the Review Board that they're in the process of preparing Pillar to be discharged from the forensic system, and recommends a removal of the 'abstain' clause from his disposition. 

 

Mental health issues and criminal behaviour marked Pillar's early life, beginning when he started using alcohol at age nine, cannabis at age 11, cocaine at age 14, and crystal methamphetamine at age 25. In April 2017, in pretrial detention, he struck a correctional officer, stating that voices instructed him to hit correctional staff. Months following his hospital admission as a result of the stabbing, he attacked a nursing station where a female staff member had retreated when he became angry.  

 

Police investigate area on Ottawa Street where Richard Pillar stabbed an 83 year-old woman in 2016. (CBC File)

 

"He ... continued to fixate on the [female medical] staff member, stating that he wanted to kill her. He also threatened to stab someone in the eye and kill them if he gained weight from his injection of antipsychotic medication."

"He was placed in seclusion and later tried to grab a female staff member through an opening in the seclusion room door."

"[A resurgence of symptoms], resulting from medication ineffectiveness of non-adherence, substance use, or all three, is likely to have very serious consequences."

"That history, including but not limited to the index offences, involves acting on command hallucinations directing him to harm or kill people."

Ontario Review Board 

Psychopathy

"He was just shooting all throughout the room. It didn't matter who he hit. He didn't say anything. He didn't look at anybody in any specific type of way."

"It was all happening so fast. It is by the grace of God that a bullet missed me. I saw the smoke leaving the gun, and I literally watched bodies drop. It was crazy."

"He just liked to pick, honestly. I think he just looked for little things ... because he had the authority. That's just the type of person that he was. That's what a lot of people said about him."

Brenda Tyler, Walmart employee 

Billy Schuerman/The Virginia Pilot/via AP

 

Just like that. Out of the blue. Another mass shooting. A data base shared by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northwestern University tracks mass killing in America back to 2006. There have been 60 mass killings in the United States in 2022, a year not quite over. The database defines mass killing of at least four dead, exclusive of the killer. 

Now, for the second time in a week Virginia has another major shooting. Previously, three University of Virginia football players on a charter bus returning to campus from a field trip on November 13, were shot to death, two other students wounded. Three days following a gay nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs where five people were killed and 17 wounded, a Walmart assault saw six people shot dead.

A Walmart manager using a handgun in a room where a routine employee meeting was to take place suddenly began firing around the break room . Responding police found his body, believing he had shot himself in an act of murder-suicide. Leaving police to attempt to discover what the man's motive might have been. Six people dead, six people wounded on Tuesday night at a time the store was crowded with customers stocking up for Thanksgiving.

 31-year-old Andre Bing, an overnight team leader with the Walmart store, employed by Walmart for the past dozen yearsm suddenly left normalcy and in a psychotic but obviously planned manoeuvre, decided to kill fellow employees at the store. Briana Tyler, who was a recent hire of two months' standing worked with Bing a night earlier and said she had never experienced a negative encounter with him.

Another employee, Jessie Wilczewski, hid under a table in the break room. She saw the killer look her way, pointing his gun at her. Then he told her to go home, and she left the room. In 2019, an attack took place at a Walmart with a gunman targeting Mexicans, in El Paso, Texas. There were 22 victims whose lives were cut short that time. Leading the company to decide it would discontinue sales of certain types of ammunition, notifying customers they may no longer openly carry firearms in the store.

Handguns were taken off the store shelves and ammunition, along with short-barrel rifle ammunition. Thereafter, the company restricted its firearms sales to hunting rifles and related ammunition exclusively.

"[At first, it] didn’t register as real,"

" I could have ran out that door … and I stayed. I stayed so they wouldn’t be alone in their last moments,"

"I had to touch the door which was covered (in blood). I just remember gripping my bag and thinking, ‘If he’s going to shoot me in the back – well, he’s going to have to try really hard cause I’m running,’ and I booted it. … and I didn’t stop until I got to my car and then I had a meltdown."

Jessie Wilczewsk, recently-hired Walmart store employee

(From top left) Lorenzo Gamble, Kellie Pyle, Brian Pendleton, Tyneka Johnson and Randy Blevins  Family Handouts

 

The Online Search for Celebrity, Teen Reality

"There is so little research, good research, that can give answers to [those] questions. The science has simply not been able to keep up with the technology."
"There's a lot more continuity than we thought was going to happen."
"I think there's the automatic danger of trying to prevent your children from using these technologies because of these instances. They're shocking. They capture the imagination. They're the ones that stand out."
"But for the most part, I think, the research suggests children are using technology in normative ways."
Kaveri Subrahmanyam, developmental psychologist, California State University

"I think what we know is that young people have always made poor decisions around their actions and in particular in doing things that excite their peers."
"It's almost heightened the need to perform and engage with your peers through posting and engaging behaviours that they may not do outside of the social media context."
"We're beginning to see this trend where the excitement over the virality of the post and what that can do for your clout is overriding a sense of consequences among young people."
"There is no core curriculum around helping people navigate their digital footprint and what it means to be a citizen of digital society."
"And that, I think, should be over [behaving as though the digital and physical realms are separate]."
Desmond Patton, technologist/intersection of youth violence and social media, Columbia University

From left, Kayden McIntosh, 16, Denali Brehmer, 18, and Caleb Leyland, 19, are arraigned by a Superior court judge in the Nesbett Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, after a grand jury indicted them on first-degree murder and other charges in the shooting death of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman. (Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

This transcends the gawking bystander effect, where people tend -- like cattle curious about what is happening -- to gather around the scene of an accident, getting in the way of those who are actively responding, causing problems by their very presence, complicating the process of addressing a scene of carnage, unwilling when asked to move on and out of the way, as though they are self-entitled to gorge themselves on the gruesome spectacle, as a prize talking point among their friends and colleagues.

Only things have changed. People, mostly very young people, are fascinated in the presence of dangerously harmful incidents, as though they are mesmerized and don't want to miss any of the action, even when this is a scene that will end with someone's death. Teens addicted to photographing and videoing bizarre, grotesque, dangerous, illegal behaviours, posting them to social media sites, drawing attention and hoping for plaudits and admiration. Youth violence taking place, being recorded, shared on any number of media platforms.

It is as though teens are witness to a spectacle that is simply a drama that is being acted out, not enacted in real time, impacting deleteriously on some unfortunate; they are emotionally removed from the harm being done, no need for a conscience, for reaction of any kind that might seek a solution, help to aid those being harmed. And then there are the perpetrators, those visiting harm on others, proud of it, tickled beyond pink because they have caused an online sensation.

Someone is injured, perhaps dies -- and those who not only might have prevented the personal catastrophe for some unfortunate, but who might have had a hand in causing the problem with deliberate intention -- thought of as merely disposable, unimportant, a vehicle to be used to gain notoriety. Research into the phenomenon is only in its early stages in an attempt to try to understand the alienating, irresponsible effects of removing teens' sense of reality that social media casts them into.

But some researchers are stunned to realize that what they see in online behaviour reflects in actual fact, behaviour engaged in offline, in reality. Brutish, psychopathic behaviour making no distinction between social media and real-time life events. There will always be such individuals within any society. The shocking aspect, however is the onlooker effect, those who watch, who witness and from whom there is no reaction other than in fact being an accomplice by their lack of reaction.

This is stupidity, this is cruelty, this is unabridged anti-social behaviour unworthy of any human being, to simply do a mental shrug and move on rather than attempt to intervene, to protest, to make an effort to protect a vulnerable person whose life is ebbing away because of the harm being visited upon them. Like older teens in the presence of a  younger teen who wants to be like them, willing and complicit in his own harm because he wants to be part of the gang.

Being given drugs with the relentless intention of doing harm to someone who tagged along with older teens admiringly hoping to be noticed and accepted only to be accepted as a guinea pig to see how he would react being plied with an overdose so the older boys could jeer and express their contempt, even while watching the younger boy's life ebbing away. Finally becoming so bored after taking enough photographs, just walking away leaving death to nurse the boy toward his final moments.

Like a stone tossed into a tranquil pond, causing ripples to cascade out from the central source of the tumult caused, the footage is aired, the photos published online available for their peers to watch and to post their own personal little dashes of black humour with no one thinking to alert authorities, no one feeling it necessary because after all they had nothing to do with the amusing little incident, so it's no big deal...

Oh, wait when Carson Crimini, 14, in Langley, British Columbia became the latest victim on August 7, of one of these 'events', it appears that there was someone who saw a photo of him on Snapchat and who saw fit to call police. Police however, did not respond until two hours later when a skateboarder found the boy lying next to a chain-link fence, cold, hardly breathing. That's when police showed up. And an ambulance. But the boy's heart had stopped beating and doctors were unable to resuscitate him.

Fourteen-year-old Carson Crimeni died August 7 after trying to fit in with older teens through drug use

Psychiatric Patients Terrorizing Health Care Staff in Montreal

"For a reason that has yet to be determined [the suspect] assaulted the nurse and used physical violence towards her."
"A patient attendant came to help her colleague, and the individual did the same thing to her."
Montreal police spokesman Benoit Boisselle

"We have fewer people on the night shift -- fewer nurses and patient attendants. We used to have a security guard in the emergency at all times, but that's not the case any more."
"There are two security guards on the sixth floor at the security desk, but that's it."
"We're a tertiary-care centre downtown and we have a lot of intoxicated and aggressive emergency patients."
"The McGill University Health Centre has to do something about this. We have nurses who are burned out and some of the senior nurses are leaving. It's just too much."
Senior nurse, MUHC, identity protected

The Montreal General experienced a number of incidents of violence aimed at staff by patients. the MUHC placed signage on prominent display everywhere within its facilities to remind the public that violence is construed as threats, insults and shouting as well as physical, and all have their harmful impact on the receiving end and will not be countenanced.

According to the anonymous senior employer, because the health facility was ordered by the provincial government to reduce its operating budget by tens of millions of dollars, resulting budget cuts in the past year have exacerbated the problem of health staff facing assaults from irate or mentally unstable patients.

The ER of the Montreal General was given responsibility over its regular workload to treat emergency psychiatric patients, as a result of the Royal Victoria Hospital with its psychiatric department having moved in 2015 to another site. Close to a year ago a patient attempted to strangle a nurse in the ER, wrapping a telephone cord around her neck.

The nurse never was able to return to work after the assault that occurred outside the psychiatric section. And it isn't nurses only who face these violent threats to their safety and security. "I was assaulted once by a patient in the ER and there was no security guard around. This is a story that needs to be told", stated a physician at the hospital, who, like the senior nurse, requested anonymity.

Still from video

More recently on Saturday morning a psychiatric patient in the emergency room of the Montreal General Hospital attempted to strangle a nurse. No security guard was present in the crowded downtown ER when this occurred, the second such attack in less than a year. Cuts to ER staff and the elimination of the overnight security guard stationed close by the triage desk has made nurses more vulnerable to such events.

Reserved for psychiatric patients, the secure section of the ER was the site of the attack on the 34-
year-old nurse who attempted to scream while being choked, and desperately thrust her fingers in her attacker's eyes, to little avail. She was saved by a female patient attendant, who while the attack was ongoing was returning to the nursing station.

There, she witnessed the nurse struggling under the weight of the patient, on the floor. The attendant leaped on the attacker's back, screaming for help, which drew the attention of a nearby male attendant who was able to restrain the man. But not before he had also attacked and attempted to strangle the patient attendant as well, while she was trying to save the nurse.

Police were called to the hospital where the 25-year-old male patient was arrested and charged with assault. Admitted earlier that very evening, the man appeared to have no criminal record. Having suffered non-life-threatening upper-body injuries both of the women, the nurse and the attendant, were hospitalized. Their physical injuries will heal, the psychological impact of what they experienced will be more enduring.

According to a hospital spokesperson, security was on duty at the entrance to the emergency room, while the psychiatric emergency unit had a separate guard on duty only throughout the day and evening. This assault took place at 2:30 in the morning. "We will be reviewing and debriefing fully on the matter, and maybe identify areas of improvement for the future", advised the spokesperson.

The Royal Victoria is just one of the hospitals that will make up the Glen site of the McGill University Health Centre. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

Psychopathic Master Manipulator

"I can't even talk about this baby without crying. It's been very therapeutic so far, very calming ..."
"It's very motivating for me. It's the best therapy for me."
"What happened [to her 'partner', another convicted criminal] was very disappointing to me. I don't have the level of confidence I once had." 
"I had lit the lighter by her face [teenager Reena Virk, whom Ellard was convicted of killing]. She didn't look the way she did when she was walking away. Her hair was stuck to her face. It was something [blood in the girl's eyes] you don't forget."
Kelly Ellard, 33, convicted murderer, British Columbia

Kelly Ellard was convicted of second-degree murder in the drowning death of Victoria teenager Reena Virk nearly two decades ago. She appeared at a parole hearing in Abbotsford, B.C. (CBC)

This is a woman who knows all the right things to say to elicit concern and sympathy for herself. This is a human being who shed no tears for anyone but herself. This is a woman whose merciless beating and drowning of a young girl who wanted only to be accepted, to be one of the gang, identified her for what she was and is; a troublingly malevolent psychopath. And true to her genetic predisposition she is cunning and dispassionate about everything but her own prospects in life.

She was convicted in the 1997 murder of a high school student when she was herself a student of the same high school. In that world of girls at high school, competition for attention, admiration and a following guarantees popularity and the attraction of male students. Reena Virk wanted to be part of that world, but as a girl of East Indian ancestry and the fact that she was socially clumsy, not white and beautiful, just young, was enough for others to keep her at arms' length. She wasn't wanted in their circles.

But she  yearned to be, and she showed up, hoping against hope that her presence would be tolerated and the others would eventually recognize her to be someone just like them. Only that never happened. She was destined to be an outsider, and she was destined for rejection and destiny ordered that a girl who had it all, all the popularity and acceptance that Reena Virk wanted for herself too, would become so hostile to her persistence that she would lead a vicious attack on the girl that dark night when the teens met in a secluded wooded area.

While she was being beaten, Reena Virk realized, all too late that she was in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time, but she was unable to escape, try as she might. As she ran desperately from those threatening and beating her she couldn't run fast enough, hampered by the injuries she had already suffered. So Kelly Ellard and a young man who became her co-accused in the murder, Warren Glowatski, caught up to the fleeing girl and she was murdered.

The young man, seeing the condition the beaten girl was in became alarmed and wanted to call for help, but Kelly Ellard refused. And she held Reena Virk's head underwater under a bridge, and drowned her. She has appeared before a parole board asking to be given some freedom. Two board members admitted that Ellard had not taken full responsibility in the murder, but felt her risk in the community could be manageable, if she were to be given "escorted temporary absences".

Several years earlier she had struck up a relationship with another convicted felon in the same prison. And amazingly, they were given conjugal visit entitlements. Out of which came a pregnancy and the eventual birth of a little boy. Her 'partner' was given parole, was told to avoid the drug scene, but he evidently reneged on his parole conditions and was taken back to prison, and they haven't had a close association since that time. He had obviously served her purpose well enough to that point.

Ellard was quick to reassure the board that her pregnancy was not planned for any underhanded purposes, to use motherhood as a measure whereby she could elicit concern for the baby and by extension herself. She has evidently convinced the board that escorted absences from prison would be of benefit for the baby so she will be permitted to leave the B.C. penal institution in the company of jail guards or other escorts four times monthly.

Permitted to take her baby to medical appointments, and to 'socialize' her son through other activities. This woman who was herself not emotionally socialized to empathize with others is now recognized as having the capacity to care for someone vulnerable, to invest nurturing in a child when she is incapable of emotional attachments. Her baby, she informed the parole board has altered her outlook on life completely, giving her confidence, hope for the future. She described the baby boy as "her child", when she wasn't referring to him as "it".

As for that fateful night back in 1997 when she took the life of an innocent, trusting girl who wanted only to be like Ellard, she explains: "I had kind of gone on autopilot at that point", 'that point' being when she had been the first to punch Reena Virk, and the last to see her alive, as she rolled the bloodied and unconscious girl into the water under the Craigflower Bridge and drowned her.

In 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk was lured to a secluded spot under a Victoria-area bridge and beaten by a pack of teens. (CBC)

Desperately Seeking Justice

"[The crack epidemic [between 1988 and 2002] [enabled a serial killer to target women] willing to sell their bodies and their souls in order to gratify their dependency on this powerful drug."
 "This was the perfect opportunity for someone who preyed on women. Someone who knew the streets and the dark alleys by heart, someone who lived there and was able to blend in, someone who knew where the drug-addicted women and perhaps prostitutes would congregate and who knew how to lure potential victims into the darkness and the isolation of a vehicle through the promise of crack."
"It was the perfect place and time for a serial killer to roam the streets of Los Angeles, really without detection."
Prosecutor Beth Silverman, Los Angeles trial of Lonnie Franklin Jr.

"The day of reckoning is here. You can't help but be excited that  you lived to see an end to this madness."
"It's been a long road and I'm glad I'll physically be able to be there."
 Porter Alexander, father of a victim

Franklin denies killing the women whose bodies were all found within a five mile radius of his house

"State computers produced a list of 200 genetic profiles of people in the database who might be related to the serial killer. One of those profiles shared a common genetic marker with the DNA found at each of the 15 crime scenes."
"The resulting pattern indicated a parent-child relationship. Knowing that the Grim Sleeper had to be a man, they tested the DNA of the 200 offenders whose profiles resembled the crime-scene DNA to determine whether any appeared to share the Y chromosome, which boys inherit from their fathers."
Los Angeles Times

"It's not over until it's over. There's more to it than people want to believe. It's up to the prosecution to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt."
Seymour Amster, Defence Lawyer

Behind bars since his 2010 arrest, Lonnie Franklin Jr., named the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer because such a long lapse occurred between his first killing and subsequent ones, pleaded not guilty to the crimes with which he has been charged. Now 63 years of age, he denies having killed nine women and a teen-aged girl. According to authorities, from 1985 to 2007 this is the man who killed nine women aged 18 to 35 as well as a 15-year-old girl.






Police investigators in Los Angeles started to look into the city's unsolved cold cases with DNA presenting as their enabling tool, and they felt that the case of the unsolved 'Grim Sleeper' would be as good a place as anywhere to begin their search for justice. DNA samples from state prisoners were being collected over the years and kept in a law enforcement DNA database. When police urged the state to agree to investigate DNA matches that might be related to the killer, the then-state attorney-general agreed to accepting familial searches.

And this is what eventually led police to Lonnie Franklin Jr., whose own DNA data was not to be found on that database. But his son, Christopher Franklin had been arrested on firearm and drug-related charges. And his was the perfect father-son DNA match that police hoped they might find. They still required confirmation, however, so an undercover officer followed the man to a pizza outlet where a birthday party was taking place. Posing as a busboy the officer collected dishes Franklin had used. An uneaten crust of pizza, a napkin and a drinking glass hosted the sought-for evidence.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Grim Sleeper was one of at least three serial killers plying their deadly trade in the Los Angeles area, targeting vulnerable women during the crack cocaine epidemic. Franklin's lawyers claim an analysis of their own had pointed guilt to someone other than their client, determined from evidence gathered from two crime scenes. But a judge ruled the expert used by the defence was not qualified to take the stand.

So the trial resumes, while Franklin's one surviving victim, Enietra Washington last year stated that she was ready to see the trial through to the end, to find a measure of closure through justice meted out to the man she accuses of having attempted to kill her. "I thought I forgave you, but I was wrong", she said in confronting him. "You stole so many people's lives."

His Priestly Vows of Compassion and Celibacy

"At the time I was in the monastery I was pretty much a broken man. Psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. I have no recollection what I may have told you at the time. And I am telling you this evening that I am not the man who killed Irene Garza."
John Feit, former priest, writing to former spiritual counsellor, Dale Tacheny

"[Feit said:] The church protected me, the people in my church, my superiors, protected me."
"I believe he killed her [Irene Garza, 56 years earlier]. I had no doubt about it because he said he did."
Dale Tacheny, former Oklahoma City priest

Feit was 27 when he became the prime suspect in Garza's death (top, in 1961). He was arrested earlier this week (bottom), after a grand jury chose to indict him

Not only did the then-young John Feit, at 27 years of age a new priest at the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas inform Mr. Tacheny who was at the time Fr. Feit's spiritual counsellor at a monastery, he also described the incredible actions he had taken in destroying a life to Rev. Joseph O'Brien, assistant pastor who worked alongside Mr. Feit at Sacred Heart.



The young woman in question was a schoolteacher who had been crowned Miss All South Texas Sweetheart. She taught disadvantaged children in her home town after graduating from college, and she was a devout Roman Catholic. One day, the 35-year-old went to confession and from there she never went anywhere else again, of her own volition.

After her horribly bruised body was discovered lying in a canal, an autopsy concluded that she had been raped while comatose. No incriminating evidence was found on her corpse, it had been washed clean by the length of time she had been there, decomposition well established. There was, mind, a few things that might have led a suspicious mind to identifying the priest as her killer.

A Kodak slide photo viewer was discovered next to Ms. Garza's body, and it had belonged to the priest who also was seen to have cuts on his hands looking suspiciously like fingernail scratches. However, he informed investigators that he was innocent of anything to do with the unfortunate death. And although whispers went the rounds since he was the last person to see the young woman, people were conflicted.

This was a priest, after all, a man who had dedicated his life to god. He was never charged. Now, at the age of 83, having long left the priesthood and settled in Phoenix, Arizona, he had married, had children and volunteered regularly at his local church. And it is now that he has been taken into custody on the basis of new evidence in the form of the confession he had made to the other two priests.

He described to them how he had sexually assaulted the young women. He had bound, gagged and fondled her, the despicable acts taking place in the rectory. Then he placed something over her head, put her in a bathtub, witnessed her troubled breathing and waited for her to die. When she could no longer identify him, he took her corpse and unceremoniously dumped it near the canal.

It took a week, but a high-heeled shoe, a patent leather handbag, and a piece of crumpled white lace were discovered. And then the corpse that was once a vibrant young woman who believed in justice and doing good, and her Catholic religion, and by extension her church was found as well.

It grates on one's sense of the fitness of things that a priest consecrated to the church and to god could possibly commit such an atrocity. Worse, it is even more astonishing that the two men to whom he confessed effectively shielded him from detection, as the perpetrator of such a vile crime.

He had the opportunity to live a normal life, to leave the church, to find a marriage partner, to know the joys and sorrows of raising a family, to welcome grandchildren into his life. A life his crime denied to a young woman far more deserving of normalcy and satisfaction in life than the psychopath who had destroyed her.

Garza was last seen heading to confession with Feit the day before Easter in 1960. Her body was later found face down in a canal having been raped and strangled

A Small Town Tragedy, A Universal Event

Mourners hold a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Natalie Warmardam in Wilno on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015. Justin Tang / The Canadian Press

"She [Mary Ann] states that the marriage and Sahra's conception were Basil's strategies to manipulate the court."
"His mission was to marry and conceive another child, thinking that no judge would send a married, expectant father to jail -- particularly when the wife was in support. Mary Ann's mantra throughout her testimony was that she did what she was told because the underlying message was that no one would believe her and the threat that if she disappointed, he would take the children."
Justice Rick Leroy, December 2011 judgement

"I've tried to take the children from him [Borutski], not allowing any access whatsoever. I have made false statements about him to convince authorities he should not have custody. I have destroyed the children's lives unknowingly ..."
"I want to make sure my husband has the right to take care of the children and all financial decisions. I believe he's the only person that I can trust to do what is right and fair for everyone concerned. I am doing this on my own free will and I am not being coerced or threatened."
Mary Ann Mask, 1994 marriage contract

Mary Ann Mask informed a judge in 2011 when she was obtaining a divorce from her husband Basil Joseph Borutski, now 57 and facing three charges of first-degree murder, that the man "destroyed her spirit by relentless threats and abuse". It's beyond difficult for onlookers to understand how and why it is that any woman would commit to a relationship that is horribly abusive. But that this is a commonplace occurrence is beyond dispute.

Whether it is love that inspires women to stand by men who have challenged those women's determined belief of respect and equality and tender love in an intimate relationship, or the fantasy that the quality of their own love and their patient personalities will be ample to the task of persuading the men to become better human beings, is beyond anyone's ken. Women seem, to begin with, to be all too often attracted to men whose characters are of a dubious, black nature.

Clearly, Mary Ann Mask was attracted to the man who later abused her dreadfully over the 26 years that they had such an intimate relationship that after he had been charged by her with brutality, they were reconciled three times, were later married and conceived and raised two children together. Until the final break came when it was no longer possible to live with a man whose degrading violence, threats and psychotic control destroyed the love that was present, leaving only fear.

Mary Ann Mask sought legal defence for domestic assault for the first time in 1985. At that time Basil Borutski defended himself successfully at the cost of $20,000 in legal fees. Despite that history of co-habiting dysfunction the common-law couple moved back together to a home, separating in 1993 when he was once again charged with assaulting Mary Ann Mask. Yet she was persuaded and bullied once again to reconcile with the man, marry him in 1994, and have a second child with him.

After the acrimonious divorce Borutski continued the fiction of his innocence the victim of false allegations by a mentally ill, vindictive woman. He'd had her copy out and sign a marriage contract in 1994 wherein she 'admitted' fault, and authorized his complete custody of their children and all their finances All charges of assault and uttering death threats were withdrawn time and again, with Borutski informing court that his wife's injuries had been self-inflicted.

This week, three women with whom Basil Borutski had had intimate relations were found murdered in the span of a few hours, in and close to the community of Wilno, some few hours' distance from the nation's capital, Ottawa. Carol Culleton, 66, had been strangled in her cottage on Kamaniskeg Lake Road, Anastasia Kuzyk, 36, had been shot dead at her home on Szezipior Road, and Nathalie Warmerdam, 48, was shot dead as well at her farmhouse on Foymount Road, on Tuesday.

Basil Borutsky is in custody. A man whose long predation on women and violence toward them had gone unpunished and unchecked.

The Good and Evil in Humankind

"The idea is that the same basic biological structure that can help us understand psychopathy -- I think everyone is in agreement now that there is a strong biological basis for psychopathy -- maybe can help us to understand people who are on the other end of the spectrum."
"A number of the kidney donors, when they heard about our paper, said: 'You are not looking for evidence that we are crazy are you?' People think they get treated like heroes, but that is uncommon."
"Many of them have said they don't bring it up in day-to-day conversation with people they have just met because they have got so many (negative) reactions."
"I think the assumption among a lot of people is that if you volunteer to give one of your own internal organs to somebody you have never met, you must be nuts."
Dr. Abigail Marsh, psychology professor, Georgetown University, Washington

"Directed donation policies that produce a net gain of organs (for life-saving transplantation) in the organ pool and do not unreasonably disadvantage others on the waiting list are ethically acceptable, as long as donors receive no payment beyond reimbursement for travel, lodging, lost wages, and the medical care associated with donation."
American Medical Association guidelines on organ donations solicitation

The phenomenon of living organ donations to supplement the (always inadequate) supply of volunteered cadaver organs available for transplant purposes is growing. So are the ethical concerns that if directed living organ donations benefit particular people, what of those on waiting lists who are desperate for a cadaver organ to relieve the pain and agony they suffer not knowing whether an organ will come available before death takes them, who have no family members or people at large to volunteer on their behalf.

On the other hand, if through the generosity of some virtuous-minded people for whom helping others anonymously by undergoing voluntary surgery to make available to others part of their liver, or one of their kidneys, some people's lives are saved, the medical community grapples with its conscience, weighing the reality of life not always being scrupulously fair to some while circumstances make it kinder to others.

Into this maelstrom of confused medical response, and ethical concerns there is the puzzlement that many feel on hearing of people who step forward to offer one of their organs to help someone, anyone from a perfect stranger to a family member or a friend. They do so because they feel they must, to respect themselves. Their spirit of extreme generosity is difficult to understand since most people would never dream of deliberately placing themselves on an operating gurney to benefit someone in medical distress.

So researchers at Georgetown University thought they would study the brains of the most altruistic minded people they could come across. For that purpose they assembled a group of anonymous kidney donors. Discovering through their research that the organ donors' brains were designed differently than those of a control group. Most fascinating of all, their brains were the direct opposite of the brains of psychopaths, people without conscience who think nothing of causing pain to others.

Dr. Marsh and her colleagues at Georgetown University tested nineteen kidney donors of whom 17 had donated one of their kidneys to a perfect stranger, preferring to remain anonymous. Those donors proved to have larger amygdalas than those of the control group. Their amygdala showed increased activity in the part of the brain associated with feelings of empathy and they were larger than those of the control group.

Imaging on the brains of psychopaths discovered that they have smaller amygdalas. "The smaller it is, the more psychopathic they are", explained Dr. Marsh. More reactive symptoms occurred in the brains of organ donors exposed to fearful or distressed facial expressions compared to the control group. And they were similarly in reverse less reactive to angry facial expressions. Indicating their responsiveness to distress. They were better at recognizing the fears that people experience.

Dr. Marsh noted that it is a common perception in society that human nature is inherently selfish, that when people behave in a manner that is contrary to their perceived self-interest, others are predictably suspicious of their motivations. Just as society in general is suspicious of those who don't conform to majority expectations those who act out of a spirit of altruism often encounter skepticism and hostility.

Neural and cognitive characteristics of extraordinary altruists

Altruism, and particularly costly altruism toward strangers, such as altruistic kidney donation, represents a puzzling phenomenon for many fields of science, including evolutionary biology, psychology, and economics. How can such behavior be explained? The propensity to engage in costly altruism varies widely and may be genetically mediated, but little is known about the neural mechanisms that support it. We used structural and functional brain imaging to compare extraordinary altruists, specifically altruistic kidney donors, and controls. Altruists exhibited variations in neural anatomy and functioning that represent the inverse of patterns previously observed in psychopaths, who are unusually callous and antisocial. These findings suggest extraordinary altruism represents one end of a caring continuum and is supported by neural mechanisms that underlie social and emotional responsiveness.

1. Abigail A. Marsh^a,¹,
2. Sarah A. Stoycos^a,
3. Kristin M. Brethel-Haurwitz^a,
4. Paul Robinson^b,
5. John W. VanMeter^c, and
6. Elise M. Cardinale^a

Alfred's Pathologically Obsessed Mind

"[Donna was] kneeling at her father's head, covered in blood, Kim kneeling at Brendon's head."
"I'll never forget her pleading with me."
"How will I ever forget having to be the person that tells her that her husband, the father of her three children and soon to be fourth, is gone from this world?"
Janessa McCabe, neighbour; emergency-room nurse

"I grew up in a house, just misery."
"All the drinking, the fighting, the sickness. There wasn't a second of happiness."
Alfred Vuozzo, convicted murderer, Montague, Prince Edward Island

"He wasn't really talkative, unless you got to know him. He really appreciated when people came and visited him at work, because the nights get long. But I think he was a bit of a loner."
"He'd said, you know, 'Most of my friends have gone on to have families ... or they've died on me."
Sheila Bourgeois, Montague marina supervisor

"He has no close friends and when asked he describes that his best friend is his dog."
"When arrested, Mr. Vuozzo's greatest concern was the impact that his actions would have on this mother and the loss of contact that he would have with his dog."
"Such individuals ... are generally unforgiving and moralistic, and tend to brood or obsess over issues. Mr. Vuozzo reports that 'I dwell on the past' and acknowledges that he becomes preoccupied by things and has trouble letting things go."
"He began to rationalize his intent, indicating that he felt 'my sister would have wanted me to'."
Dr. Peter Theriault, forensic psychiatrist

The McGuigan family has provided this photo of Brent McGuigan, 68 and his son, 39-year-old Brendon McGuigan.

It began as many such tragedies do; a man had too much to drink and was alcohol-impaired yet drove his vehicle in such a manner as to endanger the lives of others. On this occasion on the evening of November 19, 1970, The Vuozzo family was driving home along a rural road on Prince Edward Island when a half-ton truck ran a stop sign just as the van with the Vuozzo family was in the process of passing through the intersection. The truck hit the van and nine-year-old Kathy Vuozzo was catapulted through the windshield.

Alfred Vuozzo, the father of the little family was utterly traumatized by the outcome of the accident. The scene that included his two-year-old son named after him, saw his son safe in his wife's arms, but Kathy's body lay in the ditch and a doctor soon pronounced her dead. "I came up to the intersection and I just seen lights coming and a vehicle coming", a coroner's inquest was informed by Alfred Vuozzo Sr. Herb McGuigan was the name of the driver of the truck. He was alive, found lying on the floor of his truck, beer caps surrounding him.

"I opened the door and he asked me, 'Had there been an accident? There was a strong odour of alcohol and his eyes were watery, and he gave me the impression that he knew little of what happened", recounted Constable Robert Thorne, at the inquest. And indeed, Mr. McGuigan pleaded not guilty and went to trial in 1971. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and a driving ban was instituted for a year. The man died in 1975 of causes having nothing to do with the accident.

As it happened, the two families both regularly attended church, but different churches. Fr. Gerard Chaisson officiates as pastor at both of the churches and knew both families. He is hard put to understand how so many years later, the two-year-old brother of the little girl who died in the accident nursed a grievance so mind-consuming that he would plan revenge, to expunge from his mind the thought that his sister could find no rest in her grave until justice was done. And he planned to deliver justice, of a truly warped kind.

On the evening of August 20, 2014, Alfred Vuozzo Jr. felt the time had come for him to manipulate the rage that had consumed him all his life into action, convinced his sister's spirit called him to avenge her. He parked outside the house where he knew that the son of the man who had slammed his truck into the Vuozzo family van so long ago, lived. Memory of his own father succumbing to total dysfunction, becoming an alcoholic, unable to hold a job, being institutionalized for a psychiatric illness brought on by the tragedy fuelled his unappeasable rage.

As it happened that evening, Brendan McGuigan, grandson of long-dead Herbert was visiting his father, Brent McGuigan 68. His mother Marie, Brent's wife, was in the next room. She hadn't noticed that someone had entered her house through an unlocked door. She would soon know, however, that Albert Vuozzo Jr., a spectre from the past, was that man, and he fatally shot her 39-year-old son and 68-year-old husband, expending a total of thirteen bullets.

"He was a good father, and a good grandfather and a good husband", Marie said later of her husband. "We never had anything to do with the Vuozzos. We paid for it all anyway", she grieved. From the McGuigan house, Alfred Vuozzo drove to his brother's house in Charlottetown to tell him "I did it, I got them", before leaving. He left to return to the house in Montague which he shared with his mother. In the meanwhile, his brother Jeremy had called police informing them of what his brother had done. And when police arrived at the Vuozzo home, Alfred greeted them, guiding them to where he had hid the weapon and a pair of gloves.

Brendon, the grandson of the man whose drunk driving had set off this generational tragedy, was about to become a father for the fourth time. His wife Kim was pregnant. She gave birth to another baby girl whom the father of the child would never see. Kim was left to raise her family of four children alone. It was a complicated birth, one where doctors "nearly lost" both mother and child. "Some like to say this was a family feud. It wasn't. We had no idea who this man was or even what he looks like. I know Brendon never heard the story of the accident 44 years ago", said Kim.

"As I held her [her new baby daughter] in my arms for the first time and looked into her innocent eyes, I could see Brendon. I was so angry. He should have been with me. Many times I think that I can't do this without him", the mother of the four fatherless children stated bitterly. "There were no tensions between the Vuozzo family and the McGuigan family", explained Fr. Ferard. "I believe the tensions were in (Alfred's) mind."

Queenly Malice

"The investigation shows that the suspect used various methods to harass her victims, including by eavesdropping on private conversations and by communicating with victims through the speakers of their infected computers."
"She also frightened her victims by taking over control of their computers and by logging on to extreme pornography websites."
"Her victims included under-age children both in Canada and abroad."
"She's well known. She's been known for a while in those [hacker] forums."
Constable Philippe Gravel, lead investigator, RCMP, Integrated Technological Crime Unit

YouTube   A screenshot from QUEEN SH0CKA's YouTube account

Looking for notoriety, she found it. Aspiring to be admired for her creatively intrusive mischief, she lost it. She used a variety of pseudonyms, all reflecting the high esteem in which she held herself; Internet-mischief aristocracy. And for confounding and terrifying people whom she didn't know, but whose computers she managed to control, causing them no end of consternation and perhaps sleepless nights, she's getting off lightly.

QUEEN, QUEEN SH0CKA, and UNSEENz, to name a few of her favourite on-line identities is either an imbecile stuck in juvenile-troublemaker mode, mentally imbalanced or simply deeply malicious in character. None of those characteristics represent admirable traits. She must imagine herself the queen of shock. After the RCMP charged the 27-year-old who lives in Saint-Alphonse-de-Rodriguez northeast of Montreal with hacking into computers for the express purpose of intimidating people, those in the courthouse in Joliette, Quebec on Wednesday heard her sentencing.

Accused of committing mischief, and of fraudulently using a computer along with two other charges, Valerie Gignac was released once she agreed to eight conditions imposed on her to ensure she no longer pursues her vendetta against human decency. She must cancel her Internet service within 48 hours, nor can she frequent Internet cafes, among those conditions. Her skilled use of a malicious software, a remote administration tool (RAT) permitting cybercriminals to spy on their victims through gaining control of the webcam on an infected computer doubtless gave her countless thrills.

That her activities were discovered occurred by happenstance, when police came upon her activities in the course of investigating another case altogether. The Surete du Quebec became involved and assisted the RCMP in their investigation. While it's not yet known completely how she managed to infect peoples' computers and remotely control them, the computer equipment seized from Ms. Gignac's possession will ultimately reveal the process. "So far, we don't know that", said Constable Gravel. And nor is it yet known whether her purpose was for financial gain.

 

 

It is known, however, that this woman was so arrogant that she took to posting videos of her operations on YouTube "in which she can be seen taking over control of infected computers". How creepy is this...? According to businessinsider.com, one of her online videos shows her recording her voice to gain the attention of a hacked computer owner. In the video, a window in Ms. Gignac's computer shows streaming footage of a woman and in the background her family members.

 

The hacker then proceeds to speak directly to the woman at her computer, doubtless puzzled no end by a voice that speaks in phrases such as "look behind you", to arrest her attention. Upon which Ms. Gignac uploads an audio file of a piercing scream, eliciting fright on the faces of those on the receiving end of her nasty prank; intruding on strangers' privacy for the purpose of instilling fear.

She had, it seems, ample followers. And perhaps that was her ultimate reward; a young woman working in obscurity, mastering a method by which she is able to unleash a bot to control other peoples' computers and through that intrusion, revealing herself as a psychopath, one skilled at using malevolent software to harm people psychologically. She uploaded videos of her Internet exploits to YouTube, sharing them with an online hacker forum she ran with over 35,000 avid followers globally.