A 29-year-old man who is charged in the deaths of an Ajax mother and her two teenaged children was previously convicted of assaulting a police officer.
Court documents obtained by CTV News Toronto indicate that the suspect received a suspended sentence after being convicted of assaulting a police officer in 2009. The suspect was also handed a suspended sentence in 2011 after being convicted of mischief under $5,000.
News of the two convictions came as the suspect appeared in an Oshawa courtroom Thursday morning to face three counts of second-degree murder. He stood in the prisoner’s box with a black eye and scratches and dried blood all over his face. There, he was remanded into custody until his next appearance on March 29.
The charges are in connection with the deaths of 39-year-old Krassimira Pejcinovski, her 15-year-old son Roy Pejcinovski and her 13-year-old daughter Venallia Pejcinovski.
“I have had numerous people from the community approach me in tears. It is a family of three people that are now deceased and it does affect everybody within the community,” Const. George Tudos told reporters on Thursday morning. “They were very well-liked in the community.”
Colleague attended home to check on well-being of mother
Police were first called to a home on Hilling Drive at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday after receiving a call from a colleague of the mother, who said that she went to the address to check on her friend after she failed to show up for work only to be turned away by a man, who subsequently left the scene in a black vehicle.
When police arrived at the home a short time later they found the bodies of Krassimira (Krissy) Pejcinovski and Roy Pejcinovski. Venallia (Vanna) Pejcinovski, was also found inside the home with critical injuries. She was rushed to hospital but later succumbed to her injuries.
Police found a vehicle they allege the suspect drove from the scene abandoned, about 10 minutes away. The manhunt for the suspect, identified as Cory Fenn, ended at around 5 p.m. Wednesday evening when tactical officers descended on a home in south Oshawa and arrested him without incident.
Neighbours who spotted the commotion said they watched officers bring the suspect out from the backyard of the home. Video obtained by CTV News Toronto shows heavily armed officers file out of the backyard and later walk down the street with members of the canine unit. The door to a shed in the backyard of that home was spotted ajar on Thursday.
“There were police cruisers with the spot lights on and there was a forensic cube van,” area resident Susan Peach said.
Police have said that they believe the suspect was in a romantic relationship with the woman, though he was not the father of the children. Though police say the suspect did not reside at the Hilling Drive address, that residence was listed as Fenn’s home in his court papers filed today.
CTV News Toronto has also learned that Krassimira Pejcinovski lived in the home with her three teenaged children. The third child – a daughter – was said to be in a driver’s education class at the time the incident occurred and was found safe.
Speaking with reporters on Thursday, Tudos said that the victims all had “obvious signs of trauma” when police arrived at the scene but he said that police will not release the causes of their deaths until autopsies are completed.
Meanwhile, he said that forensic officers are continuing to scour the property for evidence and will remain at the scene throughout the day.
“We have our forensic offices in there right now collecting evidence and going through the whole residence. It will take time,” he said.
One of victims was a star hockey player
Roy Pejcinovski was a star goaltender with the major bantam Don Mills Flyers and attended the private Crestwood School, where he also played hockey.
In an interview with CP24 on Thursday, Crestwood Headmaster Vince Pagano described Pejcinovski as an “incredibly sensitive” young man who was beloved by everyone who came into contact with him.
“Roy was the kind of kid who brought joy too everyone he met. He was an extremely intelligent, humble and forthright young man who was 15 going on 50 and my staff and the students and the community as a whole is completely devastated,” Pagano said. “It is like reading a horrible story that should have taken place thousands of miles away but happened in our own backyard.”
Pagano said that Pejcinovski backstopped the Crestwood School boy’s hockey team to a title just last week after recording a shutout in the championship game.
He said that the school has been in touch with Pejcinovski’s father via email and has offered to help pay for the cost of his funeral. He said that the school will also hold a memorial service for Pejcinovski after students return to classes following March break. There are plans to retire the number that Pejcinovski wore on the ice at that service, preventing future students from using it.
“We will do something special because he deserves that and more,” Pagano said.
In a statement issued on Thursday morning, Don Mills Flyers President Peter MacInnis said that his organization is “heartbroken to have lost, so suddenly, three members of our extended family.”
He said that his focus right now is strictly on supporting the team “as they deal with this devastating loss.”
Former Toronto Maple Leaf Tie Domi even took to Twitter on Thursday to offer his condolences. Domi said he saw Pejcinovski play just last week.
“I stood behind him for two periods. He was the difference in (the) win. So sad & heartbroken to think something like this would happen,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, a number of friends and neighbours were seen dropping by the Hilling Drive home on Thursday morning to pay their respects.
One of the neighbours, who attended school with Roy Pejcinovski, said she was still reeling from the tragedy.
“It is heartbreaking. I have known him (Roy) since Grade 4,” she said. “He was the best. He knew how to always make you smile. He was just so carefree, energetic and happy. He was always smiling, always so nice and no matter what he was always happy and he would try to make you feel better if you were sad.”
The Durham District School Board did release a statement on Thursday, offering their condolences to all of those who have been impacted. The board said that while privacy regulations will preclude it from confirming whether any of the victims attended one of its schools, it nonetheless “recognizes the impact this tragedy has on all members” of the school community.
“We are currently making the necessary communications and gathering information and will be responsive in our support to those impacted,” the statement said.
Vanallia, or Vanna as friends called her, was described as a heartfelt soul by those who knew her.
“She was happy. She was active, [and] interactive with everybody. Like, if she was here right now, she’d be here in front of the cameras,” the father of Vanallia’s best friend said.
The flag at Lakeside Public School in Ajax, where Vanna was a student, was brought to half-mast today in her memory.
Friend says suspect was ‘madly in love’ with victim
Vania Dimova says she is still trying to come to terms with her friend Krassimira Pejcinovski’s untimely death.
Dimova told CTV News Toronto that she lived next door to Pejcinovski when they were children living in Bulgaria. After years apart, the friends reconnected when they both moved to Toronto.
“She was always there for her kids, as a mother, as a friend,” she said. “She was an amazing person.”
Dimova said Pejcinovski’s relationship with the suspect had grown sour and that the 39-year-old had been trying to break it off.
Though Dimova says she met Fenn recently, she says Pejcinovski rarely introduced him to her friends.
“The guy, Cory, was going through her phone. He was very obsessive,” Dimova told CTV News Toronto. “She was trying to get rid of that guy and he wouldn’t leave her. He was so madly in love with her.”
Dimova said she hopes Pejcinovski and her “beautiful, well-raised children” are “in a better place.”
“We always loved to have her around,” she said. “She was the sunshine, the sunny person.”
