Police have charged a man with second degree murder after finding a 39-year-old woman and her 15-year-old son dead in an Ajax home. Her 13-year-old daughter was also found in the home with life-threatening injuries, and died in hospital late Wednesday night.
“It’s an isolated incident — it’s not a random attack,” Const. George Tudos told reporters.
The 15-year-old has been identified as Roy Pejcinovski, a star goalie with the Don Mills Flyers minor midget hockey team.
Team president Peter MacInnis said Pejcinovski’s death is a “tremendous loss” for the Flyers, which are in the city finals to represent the Greater Toronto Area for the provincial championship.
“It’s tough for the players on the team, the parents, the staff — he was a great kid,” MacInnis told The Canadian Press. “And his buddies on the team are 14 or 15, how do you deal with that?”
Durham Region police were called to the area around 11 a.m. Wednesday after a woman went to a house on Hilling Dr., near Westney Rd. S. and Lake Driveway W., to check on her friend.
She was instead met at the door by a man who refused to let her inside, police said. After barring her from entering, he fled the area in a vehicle.
The man is believed to have been in a relationship with the deceased woman, police said, but he’s not the father of the children. He also didn’t live at the home with the family.
Police said there was a third child in the family who was not in the house at the time of the attack.
“She was located by police safe and sound at another location,” Tudos said.
Numerous comments expressing sadness have been posted to the 15-year-old’s Instagram in the hours following the news by friends and well-wishers.
MacInnis said the teen was a top player, who had promising prospects in next year’s Ontario Hockey League draft.
“He was an elite athlete, he was absolutely the team’s No. 1 goalie and he has been for several years,” he said, adding that grief counsellors were brought in at Wednesday night’s practice to break the news to Pejcinovski’s teammates.
MacInnis said the Flyers were scheduled to play Friday, but the team has asked the league to postpone the game as players cope with the loss of their goalie.
“There are a whole lot of mixed emotions,” he said. “If it happened in the summer, it would still be a tragedy, but the fact that the team is in the high part of the season, it’s very difficult.”
The team plans to do something in Pejcinovski’s honour, MacInnis said, but details will be discussed later.
Police found the vehicle the suspect fled in abandoned in the Brock Rd. and Highway 401 area in Pickering a couple hours later. Later that evening, police arrested the man without incident at a residence in Oshawa.
Before the death of the 13-year-old girl was confirmed, the 29-year-old Ajax man — who has not been named by police — was set to be charged with two counts of second degree murder and one of attempted murder. He is appearing in court Thursday morning.
“He’s going to be held for a bail hearing and we’ll be releasing the name of that individual (Thursday) once that information’s sworn before the courts,” Tudos said.
The exact cause of death is still unknown, but post-mortems have been scheduled.
Tudos wouldn’t comment when asked about a report that one of the victims was found with a stab wound to the neck.
With files from Reka Szekely, Tamar Harris, Annie Arnone and The Canadian Press
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