Hamilton’s Mario Bilich, 77, was the type of teacher who inspired students to enter the profession themselves and a helicopter parent before it was popular, his daughter said in a Facebook post Friday afternoon.
Niagara’s Lance Cunningham, 47, was the fun dad to his 13-year-old daughter and an outdoorsman who loved to hike with his dogs, his wife told CBC Toronto.
Earlier Friday, police said Bilich and Cunningham are two of three people believed to have been killed by Sabrina Kauldhar, 30, in Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Falls. Niagara police arrested Kauldhar on Thursday, and have charged her with second-degree murder in the death of an unidentified Toronto woman, second-degree murder in Cunningham’s death and first-degree murder in Bilich’s death.
Police said both men were randomly attacked.
Bilich’s daughter, Antonella Bilich Greco, said his death may have been before or after he made his daily trip to visit his wife’s grave at the cemetery.
“Our dad, babbo, papà was a poet, an extremely devoted husband and father and nonno, a very funny and quirky guy,” she wrote. “A frequenter of Italian and Portuguese coffee hang-out spots, a buyer of eggs and cheese, a constant shopper at the Jackson Square market, a lover of walking, and the best purchaser of perfectly ripe fruit that ever existed.”
Police said Bilich was well-known in the community as a retired teacher with the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. He was found unresponsive in the parking lot of 209 MacNab Street North just after noon on Thursday in Hamilton, police said.
A Toronto woman has been arrested and charged with murder in the separate deaths of three people in Toronto, Niagara Falls and Hamilton, Niagara police Chief Bill Fordy announced at a news conference Friday.
Patrick Daly, chair of the school board, said in an email Friday that Bilich was held in the highest regard by his students.
“We are shocked and saddened and will remember the repose of his soul, family and all who loved Mario in our prayers,” Daly said.
Bilich Greco said her father leaves behind several grandchildren from seven-and-a-half weeks to 15 years old.
“Since our mom died of cancer at the end of June 2022, he asked God pretty much every day to take him home,” she wrote.
While he lived nearly a decade longer than his wife, his death happened “far too quickly, far too abruptly, far too violently,” she said.
Cunningham was ‘the fun dad,’ wife says
On Wednesday, police were called at 2:49 p.m. to John Allan Park in Niagara Falls after reports of a disturbance. When officers arrived, they found a man critically injured. Despite attempts to save his life by paramedics and firefighters, Lance Cunningham was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kim Cunningham, his wife, told CBC Toronto in a Facebook message that he was “a wonderful father for our daughter, the fun dad.”
A chef by trade, she said he was a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, loved all kinds of music and was always ready to help people with advice.
“He did not deserve this,” she said. “I want my husband back.”