A woman found dead in her Markham home will be laid to rest on Friday as investigators try to unravel a tangle of relationships in pursuit of what happened to claim the lives of Julie Crocker and another woman.
Police said "complicated relationships" are behind the gruesome slayings of the women, whose bodies were found inside one of the victim's home in a Toronto suburb Monday morning.
While there are no reports that the dead women knew each other, both Crocker and Paula Menendez had recently ended marriages and had ties to the same man, Toronto radio sports broadcaster Rick Ralph.
Both victims were found inside Crocker's Markham home. The 33-year-old had been stabbed in the throat and Menendez, 34, was strangled, York region police said.
Ralph had been dating Crocker for a few months and had recently split with Menendez, his wife.
The man accused of killing both women is Crocker's estranged husband, 35-year-old Christopher Little of Toronto. They had been separated since autumn but few family members reportedly knew about their marital troubles.
"The relationships play an important part in the homicides," Insp. Bill Faulkner told reporters. "There were complicated relationships."
Despite the murder charges and the separation, Crocker's family refers to her on the Dixon-Garland Funeral Home website as "beloved wife of Christopher Little" and "devoted and loving mother to Madison, aged four and MacKenzie, aged three."
Her funeral will be held at Central United Church in Unionville on Friday afternoon. Funeral services for Paula Menendez have not yet been finalized.
Ralph was not in the city when the murders occurred. He had been attending his father's funeral in Halifax when the tragedy unfolded. Ralph was expected to issue a statement Wednesday evening saying he will not be attending either woman's funeral.
Police believe the murders were committed Sunday morning. They allege Little called 911 from Crocker's home at about 3:30 a.m. Monday.
Their two young girls, aged four and three, were sleeping in the home when officers arrived. They were unhurt and were sent to stay with relatives.
Police sources told the Toronto Star that Little, who works in the fibre optics industry, maintains his innocence and has remained tight-lipped about the puzzling case.
Detectives are investigating how Menendez's body ended up in Crocker's home. Police believe she may have been abducted and taken there.
Victims remembered
Those who knew Crocker and Menendez described the women as lovely, hard-working people. Crocker was an account manager at a Toronto radio station and Menendez worked as a physiotherapist near her west-end home.
Police couldn't identify the second body found at Crocker's home until Menendez's co-workers called them at about 10:30 a.m. Monday to report she hadn't shown up for work.
Little, the accused, was also described by his wife's friends as an "exemplary" husband who volunteered his time on committees to bolster the Markham Fair.
Forensics teams scoured his Graydon Hall apartment in Toronto on Tuesday.
Police are trying to track Little's whereabouts and have asked anyone who may have seen his grey GMC Envoy or anything suspicious near any of the properties to come forward.
"We're trying to track the movements of everyone involved in this," Faulkner said.
Little is described as white, 6 feet tall, 190 pounds with light blond thinning hair.
Little is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He is represented by noted lawyer John Rosen, who defended serial killer Paul Bernardo.
Little appeared in court via video link on Tuesday and was remanded into custody until March 9.
With a report from CTV's Austin Delaney
