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An Ontario police chief says the Toronto woman arrested by his force and accused of three murders in three days can be considered “a serial killer” after seemingly unrelated deaths were reported in Toronto, Niagara Falls and Hamilton.
On Friday, three Ontario police forces announced they had charged a 30-year-old Toronto woman with murder after two men and a woman were found dead over three days in different cities.
Police officers in the three southern Ontario cities had all been investigating homicides over the past three days, leading them to conclude the same Toronto woman may be behind the three killings.
“I think by definition she is a serial killer — two or more offences,” Niagara Regional Police Chief Bill Fordy told reporters on Friday.
The woman faces two first-degree murder charges and one count of second-degree murder.
Niagara and Hamilton police laid first-degree murder charges connected to killings they believe were random, while Toronto police homicide detectives are charging the same woman with the second-degree murder of someone they believe she knew.
The first incident occurred in Toronto, near Keele and Dundas streets, just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Police said they found a still-unidentified woman dead in a home with signs of trauma on her body.
The next day, before 3 p.m., police say they were called to John Allan Park in Niagara Falls after reports of a disturbance. Officers found a man suffering critical injuries who, despite the attempts of first responders, died at the scene.
And then, on Thursday, Oct. 3, Hamilton police rushed to a parking lot off MacNab Street North, where they found an unresponsive male victim who had been stabbed. Police said he was taken to hospital, where he died.