The landlord of an alleged serial killer, who is charged with murder in the October deaths of three people in southern Ontario, says she was a quiet, responsible tenant whom he never suspected was capable of violence.
Sabrina Kauldhar, 30, was arrested earlier this month and charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. She is accused of killing three people over three days in three different southern Ontario cities this month.
Kauldhar was living in Toronto at the time, renting a room in the basement of a house near Keele and Dundas streets. Her landlord, Thanh Vo, told CBC News that Kauldhar had rented from him for two years and was a model tenant.
“Very nice person. Very quiet,” Vo said in an interview this week. “She didn’t talk to people. She paid the rent on time.”
Vo says he never saw Kauldhar show any anger or aggression against anyone, even when he occasionally complained she was making too much noise.
“She never get mad with me,” he said.
His perception changed on Oct. 1, Vo says, when he went downstairs to check on Kauldhar after she’d failed to respond to multiple phone calls and knocks on her window.
A disturbing discovery
For most of her tenancy, Vo says Kauldhar lived alone. She didn’t appear to be employed, Vo says, but she didn’t live extravagantly, spending most of her time at home with her two cats, and she never appeared to be short on money.
Vo says she drank and smoked regularly. He would find four to five empty beer cans outside her door most days, he says, but she never appeared intoxicated or aggressive.
He says Kauldhar kept her basement apartment clean, even doing regular repairs and renovations, without ever asking for reimbursement for materials or labour.
During the last few months of her tenancy, Kauldhar took a roommate, Vo says, a 66-year-old woman named Trinh Thi Vu. He says the two occasionally complained to him about each other’s behaviour, but they were typical complaints about cleanliness and he never felt there was any hostility between them.
Sabrina Kauldhar, 30, of Toronto, has been arrested and charged in three separate killings — in Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Falls. Investigators say they believe the Toronto victim was known to the accused, but that the other two were attacked randomly.
On Oct. 1, Vo says Kauldhar asked him to pick up some drywall for her for one of her projects around the apartment. He says he picked it up, but when he tried to reach her to drop it off, she didn’t respond to messages or phone calls.
Early in the afternoon, Vo says two delivery workers knocked on his door, trying to deliver something to Kauldhar. Vo, who lives upstairs from the apartment Kauldhar rented, told them to knock on her window, but she didn’t respond and they left.
Vo says that was unusual for the normally house-bound tenant, so he went downstairs to check on her. He says he opened the door to her apartment and found Vu lying on the floor with blood coming from her body.
That’s when Vo says he called the police.
Vo says the events of the day shook him, and the police charges that later came against Kauldhar were equally hard to take in.
“I feel very upset,” he said. “So many nights, I couldn’t sleep.”
3 alleged murders over 3 days
Police arrested Kauldhar on Oct. 3, charging her with second-degree murder in the death of Vu. She was also charged with second-degree murder for the death of Lance Cunningham, 47, and first-degree murder for the death of Mario Bilich, 77, both of whom police say were strangers to her. They say the attacks, which followed Vu’s death, were random.
Cunningham was killed on Oct. 2 in Niagara Falls. Bilich was killed on Oct. 3 in Hamilton. Investigators say they linked the cases based on the suspect descriptions,� later linking the suspect to the death of Vu.
Last week, a Toronto court ordered a mental health assessment of Kauldhar to determine if she is fit to stand trial at this time.
Court records show Kauldhar had a violent history before this month’s alleged murders.
Kauldhar was convicted of a string of violent offences in Ontario in February 2018, including break and enter, assault with a weapon and assaulting an officer, court records show. She had been facing criminal charges in multiple Ontario jurisdictions, including Kitchener, Orillia and Brampton.
For two separate assault convictions, a Kitchener court 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.
Investigators say all three of the victims Kauldhar allegedly murdered were stabbed to death.