Montreal murder 1998 - who was killed and why they died

 

13 January

Peter Paradis
ordered the hit

Eric Persechino, 31, of Laval was shot dead inside of his Rage Underground body-piercing shop at 4422 Wellington in Verdun on a Saturday at 3 p.m. in front of another employee. Rock Machine leader Peter Paradis later told authorities that he ordered the hit as punishment for selling drugs on his biker gang's turf. UNSOLVED

2 10 February Jerry Laurent, 19, was shot dead in the abdomen and in an apartment at 11722 Langelier Blvd in Montreal North on a Tuesday evening at about 10:30 pm. Laurent had provoked his own demise by repeatedly pointing a loaded sawed-off shotgun at his friends. They scuffled and the gun went off. Both were members of the same street gang. Ezekiel Monuma, 20, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in September and was given a two year suspended sentence. Monuma made news several times after as a prominent member of the Unit 44 street gang, affiliated with the Bo Gars, aka the reds. In one later episode, he shot a gang rival in front of police near the Bell Center on the night of a rap show. His victim survived because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. And in 2010  Monuma was busted for harassing and intimidating the Padula clan, owners of the Ferrari cafe in RdP, which was selling loads of cocaine. Monuma sought a cut of their drug sales.   

Mataev

3 21 February Ian Ougerov, 21, was found shot dead in the chest at the College metro station after being dropped off by someone in a black T-Bird. Evgeny Mataev, 24, was charged. Ougerov and friend Alexander Fedosov had a beef with Mataev because Fedosov had been charged with stabbing a guy in Angrignon Park, while Mataev was the actual culprit. They wanted Mateav to either chip in to Fedosov's legal defence or confess to the stabbing. The men met to discuss all of this on Bourbonniere Ave. in St. Laurent and Mateaev, 25, panicked and shot Ougerov three times and also hit Fedosov, in the arm, hitting an artery. Yet another guy, Oleg Kudryavtsev, escaped unharmed because Mateaev ran out of bullets. Following the shooting, Ougerov's pals attempted to drive him to hospital but failed to locate one. The driver got nervous and drove off as the others called 911 from a phone booth. Mataev was charged with second degree murder and attempted murder and served time for his crime. Mataev was charged with some horrific torture and pimping-related crimes in 2013 on a woman called Sandy who arrived in Montreal from St. Louis in 2008. There was some discussion of declaring Mataev a dangerous offender. 

Constantinos Karamitos

48 March Reynald Bosse, 56, a construction worker, was shot dead by Constantinos Karamitos, 18, in an apartment at 8325 Acadie in Park Ex. Bosse had been supplying the young man drugs in return for sex from the age of 14. Police searched Bosse's home and found loads of Polaroid photos of young men in sexual positions. Karamitsos stole a 12 caliber rifle and listened to the schizophrenic voices in his head telling him to kill Bosse as part of a purification ritual. Police tracked the young man down a few days later in a St. Jerome detox center. Karamitsos was sentenced to six years for manslaughter in December 1998. The judge recommended Karamitsos serve his time at the Pinel Institute for the Criminally Inssane. 

 511 March Michel Senecal, 46, was shot dead, point blank in the throat with a sawed off shotgun, in low rent apartment at 3707 St. Catherine St. E over a $130 debt. Richard Fondrouge, 35, arrived with an accomplice in a taxi and knocked down the door and argued with the victim on a Wednesday night at 10 p.m. Senecal told Fondrouge that he had already repaid the debt through a third party. Fondrouge was charged with murder but his sentence is not known.  

Surveillance camera image

could it be Fidanoglou?

6 14 March Richard Chabot, 35, a security guard, was shot and killed working at the Ogilvy halfway house at 435 Ogilvy Avenue at 10 pm on a Saturday night. in Park Ex. Police sought a suspect aged about 30, as seen in grainy surveillance footage. The murder remains unsolved but Michael "Crazy Mike" Fidanoglou, a lifelong armed robber, later shot bank customer Claude Mailhot in a Van Horne Street Caisse Populaire robbery with the same .357-calibre Ruger revolver on 8 August 1998. Police considered Fidanoglou a suspect in other murders from as far back as 1985. He was refused parole in 2011 but his later fate or freedom is not evident. UNSOLVED

 7 26 March  Daniel Letourneau, 27, was shot dead in a parking lot in St. Henri. Letourneau was a Rock Machine associate living in Point St. Charles who had switched over to the elite Rockers faction of the archrival Hells Angels gang one year earlier. The biker war lasted from 1994 to 2002 and claimed 160 lives. UNSOLVED

8 3 April Walter Danko, 55, who lived alone in Anjou and made a living from rental properties he owned in the East End, was found wrapped in an orange plastic tarp in his car trunk at the parking lot of the Dorval Airport. He was at the airport to depart on a trip. Police interviewed his friends and his tenants but made no arrests. UNSOLVED

9 18 April Martin Desrosiers, 17, was stabbed to death at Sherbrooke St. E and Carignan. A 16-year-old was charged with his murder. The three had been drinking beer and had an argument. The fate and identity of the accused remains undisclosed. 

Richard Jeffers

 10  17 April Richard Jeffers, 21, was stabbed on 8 June 1997 at 10 p.m. but only died several months later after being in a lengthy coma. He was killed at Girouard and Sherbrooke by someone who pulled up to his car while both were traveling west along Sherbrooke. UNSOLVED

 11  17 May Stephane Lia, 18, was shot in the back and head in a community garden in St. Leonard near Lacordaire and Grande Prairies. behind a bar. He had left Quebec about a month prior to live with a friend in Ontario to get away from his involvement with street gangs. On the day of his  return he was to meet  friends at the Henri Bourassa Metro. His brother Patrick said he believed that the death had something to do with his involvement in street gangs. UNSOLVED

12 26 May John Lipinsky Jr., 37, was stabbed 13 times and killed at the Hickson House in Verdun, a mental-health resource run by the Douglas Hospital for the mentallly ill. George Koussioulas, 37, was charged with murder.  Koussioulas was hearing voices telling him to kill the man before he himself was killed. He immediately confessed to a priest. Koussioulas had first suffered mental illness in 1979 at the age of 18 and was a full-blown paranoid schizophrenic three years later and tried to murder his janitor in 1985. 

A victim of the murder suicide
on Berri

13 29 May Hanh Nguyen, 22, and Luc Tran, 26, were found dead in a murder-suicide on the upper floor of duplex on Berri in Villeray. Tran was a university graduate who had trouble finding work. Nguyen had turned down his advances, preferring that they remain only friends. Tran gagged Nguyen and tied her up. He also tied his own ankles with the same wire or cord and then set the bedroom alight. Neighbours smelled smoke at about 2:30 a.m.  Police found a suicide note Tran had written in Vietnamese. 

14 7 June James Ollerhead, 71, was shot dead in his hospital room at Lakeshore Hospital in Pointe Claire. He had Alzeheimers and had been hospitalized two years earlier. Therese Morin-Blais, 64, his long time common law wife shot him and then immediately shot and killed herself in the same hospital room that Sunday evening. She was apparently distressed because Ollerhead was an English-speaker, from England and was going to be transferred the next day into a French-speaking long-term care facility known as Jacques Viger, in downtown Montreal.  

15, 16, 17 11 June Mariluz, 14, Luis Antonio, 9, and Jose Alonzo Ortiz Lopez, 3, were strangled at their home at 6371 Pierre de Coubertin Ave. Luiz Humberto Ortiz Echaiz, 41, a former Peruvian cop, who came to Canada two years earlier, confessed to police soon after halfheartedly slashing his wrists. His wife, the children's mother, Bertha Lopez Ortiz had just learned that she had incurable colon cancer a week prior and died on 12 June. She came to Canada to do post-doctoral studies at UQAM and had just been hired by a research institute in Varennese. She was in a coma and died before learning that her children had been murdered. Echaiz was sent to Pinel and deemed too insane to stand trial. He had the idea that his wife had AIDS and his kids would die of the same thing. 

Belair

18 16 June Christopher Belair, 19, was stabbed to death on University just north of Sherbrooke at about 7:30 p.m on a Tuesday evening. Belair had attended Centennial Regional High School in Greenfield Park but had failed to graduate after falling into disfavor from school authorities when he launched a petition to allow dyed hair and piercings. Kenneth Yip, 19, and Samy Peretz, 18, were charged in the affair but their sentencing is unclear. Belair lived with his parents in Greenfield Park and was taking courses to get his high school leaving certificate at the nearby school on University. Kenneth Lee Yip - likely the same offender because of the similar name and age - was busted in the South Shore in 2009 and charged with cocaine-related crimes.

Andrew Collie

19 29 June Lance Snape, 21,was stabbed to death in the chest in front of Club 281 at St. Catherine and Sanguinet. Jason Mascoll, 30, was sentenced to two years in jail for aggravated assault, while Andrew Collie, 25, was charged with murder. After the stabbing Collie kicked and beat the victim for no reason. Collie was sentenced to seven years but in 2002 was declared a dangerous offender, which allows authorities to keep him behind bars indefinitely. Mascoll was given two years. Snape was mourned by his mom Deanna, sister Jessica and brothers Jeremy, John and Justice. 

20 29 June Duane McKenzie, 21, a Torontonian visiting Montreal for the Carfiesta event, was shot to death with four bullets in front of The Heaven Club on Mountain after he refused to hand over a gold chain and crucifix that his mom gave him for his birthday. Paul Hugens Denis, 19, of LaSalle, was charged with murder. The attack took place at around 3:30 a.m. on the same day as the unrelated murder at Club 281. The judge called Denis, "a parasite on society and a young liar," as he sentenced him to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. McKenzie and his friends had their jewelry snatched by the armed gang but McKenzie challenged one of them. Denis denied being involved in the robbery and blamed someone named Buster, however the stolen crucifix was found in Denis' pocket. 

21, 22  18 July Mario Patitucci, 37, and Tien Huu Tran, 30, were shot dead at Pleine Lune bar on St. Lawrence near Bellechasse. The killer walked in at about 12:20 a.m. and without a word, shot Patucci, who was playing video poker, in the head. Tien Huu Tran was believed to be an innocent bystander. No arrests. Police noted that Patitucci was an associate of Michael Fidanoglou, who was a suspect in a few murders at around that time. UNSOLVED

23 28 July Maxime Ayotte McPhee, a baby of just eight weeks old, living with his mother on Galt Street in Verdun, died at Montreal Children's Hospital after being beaten to death. His father Patrick Ayotte, 21, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter. The mother, 19, left the baby with her boyfriend Patrick while she drove her other child, aged two, to her parents home.

Hanged killer removed from Old Montreal
building following triple pedicide

  24 25 26 28 July  Sun Ok Hu, and her sons Jae Woo, 6 and Jea In, 2,  were stabbed to death at their downtown Bishop Street apartment by their husband and father Soung Nun Koak, 34. He then went to an elevator shaft of a vacant building on St. Sacrement Street in Old Montreal and hanged himself. He left a note confessing to the heinous familicide. The family were South Koreans living in Montreal illegally since 1995. They spoke little English or French and had no friends or family in town. Koak was a drinker, according to building manager Zion Shoshan. Koak worked in a restaurant downstairs but stopped working there about three months prior to the killings. He was always polite and never angry until the fateful day when Shoshan knocked on the door asking for rent money. 

27 31 July Marguerite Boka, 31, stabbed to death while moving out of her Decarie Blcd apartment in Snowdon. Her jilted ex, Felix Kouadio, 31, also of The Ivory Coast, was charged with murder. Kouadio also attacked another man helping her move, leaving him in bad shape. Kouadio then tried to commit suicide by tossing himself in front of a metro train in the Snowdon Metro. The couple had a seven-year-old daughter who was placed with relatives. His sentence is unknown.  

28

Killer Lafond

8 August  France Beauregard, a 34-year-old sex worker, was found dead in a garbage bag hidden in a close in an aparment at 2010  Nicolet  Her body had been there for a dozen days. Louis Lafond, 35, was and charged. Lafond worked in computers at UQAM. He got drunk and confessed to killing somebody in self defence to his roommate, student Antoine Lemieux, while they were both drinking beer and doing blow on the roof of the building. Lafond offered grisly detail about sawing the body in half but he claimed the victim was a man who had owed him money. He showed Lemieux the body. Lemieux told Lafond that he should bury the body in the woods but he then tipped the police off and they made the macabre discovery of Beauregard's body chopped up and place in 126 garbage bags. Lafond burned lots of incense to cover the smell of the body. Lafond had hired Beauregard and then stabbed her to death on Monday 27 July.  Lafond was gone by the time police arrived but was captured at an Ottawa homeless shelter a month later. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in March 2000. Beauregard had left her home that day promising to earn some money so she could buy her 14-year-old son a pair of in-line skates. She had a cocaine addiction. 

29 22 August Tina Diaz, 18, was stabbed to death with a small knife to the heart on Beaconsfield Ave in NDG. Sean Small, 32, dumped her off at the St. Mary's Hospital in a taxi and fled. They had been seen quarrelling earlier in the evening at the Stripes bar on St. James Street and they were seen slapping each other walking home to their place at about 2 a.m. Police intervened but let them go. A friend came over and Small told him something was wrong with Diaz. Once at the hospital medical staff found a small knife wound in her chest. She died in hospital soon after. Small turned himself in to police two days later. He denied killing her nonetheless. He was charged with murder and sentenced to life in April 1999 with the judge calling him a hardened, violent and unrepentant criminal. He served at least 10 years according to the sentence. Sean Small, at the age of 19, was present when his brother Wendell, 21, was killed by Phillip Bird, 22, outside of the College Metro station. Bird had been enraged after being threatened in a street dispute and drove into a crowd, killing Wendell Small and Magalie Joachim, 18. 

 30 27 August Robert Horth, 55, a welfare recipient, was beaten and set afire on Fullum Street at about 10 a.m. following an argument with a neighbour named Norman, another welfare recipient, aged in his 40s, nicknamed Jesus Christ. A neighbour attempted to save Horth as he was lying on a burning mattress but it was later determined that he was already dead. Horth walked with a cane and had mobility issues. Police made no arrests. Many visited Horth in his first-floor apartment with a balcony and the neighbor Norman had been pestering Horth to allow him to move in with him. UNSOLVED

Luigi removed from home after killing

Guillemette

 31 3 September Biagio Luigi, 72, was beaten to death at his low-rent apartment at 2365 des Erables near Sherbrooke E. One of Luigi's two sons found him dead on a Thursday afternoon. He had been savagely beaten and kicked, with his apartment in a mess. Luc Guillemette, 33, who lived across the hall, was charged with murder.Their dispute was over a TV set that Luigi had lent Guillemette. Instead he had sold it at a pawn shop. Luigi wanted the TV back, which sparked the argument. His sentence was not evidence from newspaper searches.  

32 11 September Jayshri Patel, 42, a mother of three teenage boys, was stabbed to death at her sister's home at the Cote St. Luc Housing Cooperative, where she was visiting her sister Damanti and her husband Deepak. Jayshri Patel's brother Kiran Patel, 32, was charged.  He was deemed mentally unstable and blamed her for his failed marriage in India. Kiran had recently moved out of the apartment after frequent fights. They all came to Canada in about 1983 from Gujarat, India. 

33 29 September Agnes McCormack McKenzie, 95, was killed at Lakeview Memorial Gardens cemetery in Pointe Claire. Ronald McKenzie, 58, her son, who lived in Westport, Ontario, also tried to kill himself with fumes from an exhaust pipe of his car. He was initially charged with murder, then attempted murder after an autopsy determined that his mother did not die of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

34  16 October Robert Choquette Jr. 18, a CEGEP student, was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver by Guy-Adrien Langlois, 20, while waiting for a bus with a friend at Frontenac and Sherbrooke. Langlois was a total stranger who aggressively demanded why Choquette was looking at him. Choquette and his pal had just celebrated Choquette's 18th birthday at a downtown bar. He died in hospital four days later. Choquette's parents threatened to sue parole authorities for freeing Langlois earlier in the year following a similar violent screwdriver attack. The parole authorities were also aware that Langlois had been suicidal and three of his family members had already killed themselves. Langlois was placed in the Riviere des Praireis prison while awaiting his sentence when he was savagely beaten by fellow-inmates Pascal Almonacy and Adonis Stevenson, who later became a boxing champion. Langlois was sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter in October 2000 and would have been eligible for parole in 2010. 

Abrar

 35 20 October Milia Abrar, 22, Dawson College student was stabbed to death in public bathroom at Angrignon Park. There were signs of a struggle. She had been stabbed 20 times and splattered with acid. She had come to Montreal with her family from Bangladesh in 1990 and had been planning to attend Concordia. She was an outgoing character who had been involved in school dance shows. She was found fully clothed on a toilet stall and had no ID on her at the time. Her brother Milky Faruq remains vigilant in his attempts to solve the case and has held memorials for her. Police questioned a suspect who had been pestering her for dates. The suspect had failed a polygraph test. He was a South Asian who moved to Toronto immediately following the attack. He was not charged. UNSOLVED

Morgan and Boulet

36 37 10 November Stephane Morgan, 30 and Daniel Boulet, 30, were shot to death by machine gun while sitting in a car at J.J. Gagnier and Henri Bourassa.Morgan had been a Rock Machine member for at least three years, and Boulet was an associate.  The two men were born on the same day and died on the same day. Morgan was likely aware that he was a target because he was armed at the time, with a loaded weapon in his old black '85 Chevrolet Celebrity. Morgan was pals with Rock Machine co-founder Johnny Plescio, who had been shot on 7 September. Other 1998 Rock Machine victims included Jean Rosa, 33, and Pierre Bastien, 41, killed in Fabreville a few weeks later, as well as Richard Lagace, in St. Lin and Yvon Roy in Repentigny. Those murders don't make this list because they happened off the island of Montreal. Police found a recent-model stolen Ford Windstar on fire a few blocks away from the double killing with a machine gun inside. UNSOLVED

Marie-Jeanne, 3

38 25 November Marie Jeanne Mathieu, 3, died of brain injuries. Foster mom Line Lafond, 31, charged. 

 39 26 November Armando Pereira, 36, a bartender at the Oiseau de Nuit bar on Park near Mount Royal was stabbed to death. It was a basement bar. He had only ben working there for a few weeks. UNSOLVED

Guy Joly

 40 3 December Marie Pier Joly, 4, stabbed to death in her family home on a Thursday evening on 14th Ave in St. Michel. Guy Joly, 29, her father, was charged with murder.  He was also charged with stabbing his girlfriend Valerie Girard, 24, over 20 times. Nonetheless Girard survived to get help from a neighbour. The couple had separated several weeks earlier. Joly worked at 911 services and was a compulsive gambler who constantly lost his money at the casino and on VLTs. He tied his daughter up and beat her to death with a hockey stick before killing her. In June 2000 a judge sentenced Joly to life in prison without possibility of parole for 18 years. 

Family members of Bellas

41 21 December Lawrence Bellas, 38, was shot dead in the chest in a east end restaurant in front of 30 customers by two masked men. Bellas had been eating alone at the Maison des Bieres Importees at 1420 Cartier, across from the Papineau metro. Two innocent diners, aged in their 40s, were also hit but survived. Bellas was close to Hells Angels leader Mom Boucher and was a member of the elite Rockers squad. Bellas was said to control drug dealing in the Gay Village. Bellas had received a pardon from the Canadian government in 1996, erasing his criminal record. Police blamed the rival Rock Machine for the attack. A week later the restaurant was firebombed and gutted. Bellas lived at 9200 Emile Legault in Anjou. UNSOLVED