An alleged serial killer travelled “on foot and public transit” from one attack to another last week in Toronto, Niagara Falls and Hamilton, according to police.
Sabrina Kauldhar, 30, is charged with three murders in three days in the three southern Ontario cities. Court records obtained by CBC News show Kauldhar was also charged and convicted of violent offences in the past.
Hamilton police Staff Sgt. Jason Cattle said Thursday investigators have spoken with witnesses from each jurisdiction where the alleged murders occurred, but he declined to provide specific details on Kauldhar’s movements and whereabouts between the attacks.
“It was just tragic and unfortunate,” Cattle said. “These three victims were just attacked unprovoked, didn’t see anything coming.”
Kauldhar’s alleged victims are Trinh Thi Vu, who was believed to be in her 60s, Niagara’s Lance Cunningham, 47, and Hamilton’s Mario Bilich, 77.
Investigators have confirmed all three victims were stabbed, Cattle said. He declined to say if they had recovered a weapon or determined possible motives in the attacks.
Kauldhar has been charged with one count each of second-degree murder in the deaths of Trinh and Cunningham, and first-degree murder in the death of Bilich.
Last week, family and friends of Cunningham and Bilich remembered the men as loving fathers who will be deeply missed by their respective communities.
Between the three attacks on Oct. 1, 2 and 3, Cattle said Kauldhar stayed at a Motel 6 in nearby Burlington, where she was arrested.
Niagara regional police Chief Bill Fordy previously said she arrived at the motel last Thursday evening, just as “investigators were securing the location.”
Staff at the motel told CBC News police seized security video, including footage of the arrest.
Past criminal history
The daughter of two dentists, Kauldhar’s behaviour appears to have turned violent in her 20s.
Court records show Kauldhar previously faced criminal charges in several Ontario jurisdictions, including Kitchener, Orillia and Brampton. On Feb. 14, 2018, she was convicted of a string of offences, including break and enter, assault with a weapon and assaulting an officer.
For two separate assault convictions, a court in Kitchener sentenced Kauldhar to 12 days in custody, one year probation and a two-year weapons ban. The records provided to CBC News did not specify on what date the weapons ban would expire.
She is scheduled to appear in court by video link in St. Catharines and Hamilton on Friday in connection with the deaths of Cunningham and Bilich, respectively.
During a hearing in Toronto on Tuesday, Kauldhar’s case was put over until Oct. 17 so that she can undergo a mental health assessment.
Locals are leaving flowers at the parking lot where Mario Bilich, 77, was found with stab wounds on Thursday, before he died in hospital. One Hamilton resident who knew Bilich says his security camera footage shows that the attack on Bilich was targeted. CBC’s Naama Weingarten has the latest.
Natalie Delia, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Windsor, said Kauldhar’s case is “noteworthy” and “significant.”
“First, random killings are extraordinarily rare in Canada. Second, women committing violent crimes is extraordinarily rare,” she told CBC News.
Delia said the mental health assessment will be essential in determining whether Kauldhar is fit to stand trial in the regular criminal court system, or whether the case will be heard in a specialized mental health court.
“Mental health is on the forefront of everyone’s mind when we talk about making sense of what just happened,” she continued, adding mental health courts exist to support the judicial process “so that there can be justice here.”