Canada - Cynara Ali, 16, disabled, found dead, Toronto, 19 Feb 2011

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Cindy Ali called 911 in February 2011 and claimed that two men wearing balaclavas had broken into her home and killed her daughter Cynara Ali, who was 16 years old and suffered from cerebral palsy.

“Somebody broke in,” the hyperventilating mother gasps.

That 911 audiotape was played for a Toronto jury last week. Within two minutes, the doorbell is overheard ding-donging. Emergency responders have been quick to arrive, a fireman pushing open the door. There’s broken glass in the hallway...

To the 911 dispatcher, Cindy Ali had said there’d been a break-in at her Malvern neighbourhood townhouse. But on the tape later, a man says: “There’s no other footprints, so there’s no one that’s come in here. Lady, get up! Hey! You! Get up! Get off the floor. There are no footprints in the front, don’t bulls--t me.”

http://thestar.com/#/article/news/g...es-mothers-story-of-childs-death-dimanno.html

Cindy Ali is currently on trial for first degree murder of her daughter. The prosecution say that she smothered her.

Cynara Ali
cynara.jpg.size.xxxxlarge.letterbox.jpg
 
23Rd Feb 2016:

A pathologist testifying at the trial of an Ontario woman accused of killing her severely disabled daughter told court Tuesday there was "no physical evidence" to suggest the girl had been smothered to death.
Dr. Michael Shkrum presented his views as the first witness called by Cindy Ali's defence lawyer.
His testimony followed weeks of evidence from Crown prosecutors who argue Ali murdered her 16-year-old by smothering her with a pillow and then spun an elaborate web of lies about a home invasion to cover up the crime.

http://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/sei...e-for-teen-mom-s-murder-trial-hears-1.2789674

24th Feb 2016 - Cynara's sister on the stand:

Amanda Ali says that despite the disabilities, her 16-year-old sister was considered a blessing, not a burden on the family...

Amanda, who was 21 years old when her sister died, says their mother was the primary caregiver of Cynara, who known to have seizures and lung infections. But she says the family was a normal and happy one.

http://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/dis...-burden-mother-s-murder-trial-hears-1.2791276
 
Cindy Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of her 16-year-old daughter Cynara, who had cerebral palsy and couldn't walk, talk or feed herself...

Ali claimed two masked men in black suits rang her door bell and pushed their way into her home demanding a mysterious package -- which they never found -- and harmed her daughter, her trial has heard.

She claimed she saw one of the intruders hold a pillow over the girl's face, but later told police she only saw him with a pillow in his hands standing over Cynara, court heard.

http://m.en.canoe.com/CNEWS/Crime/2016/02/24/22606987.html

The murderers were looking for a McGuffin? :facepalm:
 
26th February 2016:

Cindy Ali’s husband showed a remarkable lack of curiosity around the circumstances of his daughter’s death during what Ali told police was a home invasion, the Crown suggested during cross-examination Thursday...

Three weeks [after the alleged home invasion], the jury heard, her husband Allan Ali found a strange handwritten letter in their mailbox apparently from the robbers, claiming they had the wrong address and signed off with a smiley face.

Allan testified that he read only the first few lines of the letter, then called the homicide detective, who told him to give the letter to police. The first time he read the full letter was at the preliminary hearing, he agreed.

After he received the letter, he asked his family members and fellow parishioners if they had written it, he testified. Crown prosecutor Rosemarie Juginovic pointed out that he asked his wife more than once if she wrote the letter.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...t-strange-letter-found-after-girls-death.html

The mysterious letter:
IMG_20160227_104453.jpg
 
Earlier article, from March 2012:

Thirteen months later, police now say they have a better idea what happened as they have charged Ali with manslaughter in Cynara’s daughter’s death. She was also charged with criminal negligence causing death, failure to provide the necessities of life, obstruct justice, public mischief and two counts of fabricating evidence.
Police are not releasing the cause of Cynara’s death.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news..._in_death_of_16yearold_disabled_daughter.html
 
Oct 2012:

“I believe my wife is innocent.”

Allan Ali made his comments on Wednesday, after his wife had her charges upgraded to first-degree murder from manslaughter. She was also granted bail.

He said the ordeal has been difficult for his entire family...

Cindy Ali’s bail was set at $100,000 with a $50,000 deposit. Family members and her pastor bailed her out, said CTV Toronto’s Tamara Cherry.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/mobile/husband-says-wife-innocent-of-murdering-disabled-daughter-1.999261
 
An autopsy found Cynara's immediate cause of death was a brain injury from deprivation of oxygen, which was caused by cardiac arrest. That cardiac arrest, court heard, could have been caused by suffocation...

Smothering... is difficult to determine during an autopsy because there may be very few signs of it, Shkrum said.

Scrapes or bruises on a person's nostrils, lips, or tears inside the mouth, as well as pieces of material or fibre in the mouth area are potential signs, he noted.

But no fibres were found in Cynara's mouth, and there was only a superficial bruise on the right side of her mouth which was likely caused by a tube placed there while she was in hospital, he said....

Under cross-examination from the Crown, however, Shkrum agreed that Cynara being found in her home with a blood-smeared pillow over her forehead and a towel over her neck "are not benign circumstances."

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/murder-trial-1.3460560
 
29th Feb 2016 - Cindi Ali takes the stand in her own defence:

On the morning of Feb. 19, 2011, when Ali and Cynara were home alone, the doorbell rang, court heard.
"There were two masked men that pushed the door in," Ali said, noting that the men were "well-dressed," with black coats, black shoes, ski masks and gloves. They appeared to have dark skin and Jamaican accents, she said.
Ali recalled that her immediate concern was Cynara, who she had left lying on the living room couch.
The woman testified that she ran through the kitchen to get to the living room, grabbing two kitchen knives laying on the counter and hurling them at one of the men, who was pursuing her.
At that point, Ali noticed one of the men had a gun, court heard. That man started asking her about a "package," she said.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/mobile/mo...daughter-s-death-testifies-in-court-1.2797260
 
The armed man grabbed her and made her go upstairs, where he searched the bedrooms for a “package” that was never found, she said.

Eventually Ali said she managed to run downstairs to Cynara, but tripped and fell to the floor. One of the men kicked her right shoulder, she said.

The armed intruder made Ali go with him to the basement, she said, but she again broke away. When she got back to the room where Cynara was, she saw the other intruder holding a pillow.

The armed man said: “I think we have the wrong house,” she said...

Ali also denied writing a strange letter left in her home’s mailbox three weeks after the break-in that purports to be from the home invaders. She said she believed it was written by someone who was trying to steer the police away from suspecting her, or that the police themselves sent it.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...ters-murder-testifies-in-her-own-defence.html
 
Juginovic said Ali’s ever-changing account of events always placed a pillow in the hands of one home invader for a simple reason.
“You thought the police would find evidence that Cynara was suffocated — that’s why you put the pillow in the hands of a home invader,” [Crown attorney Rosemarie] Juginovic said...

Ali phoned 911 and then collapsed, blocking the emergency personnel from helping Cynara on the couch, court heard.

“You failed miserably in your duty to protect your child,” suggested Juginovic.
“No, I did not. I was numb. My body was just shutting down. I had pain, but nothing was broken,” replied Ali.

http://m.torontosun.com/2016/03/01/accused-killer-pretended-to-be-grieving-hysterical-mother-crown
 
She denies telling a police officer that she saw one of the intruders place a pillow on Cynara’s face.
Ali repeatedly told the Crown that she would have done anything to save Cynara, even risk being shot.
Why then, since Ali had been fighting and resisting, did she not run over to check on her daughter when she saw the man holding a pillow, prosecutor Rosemarie Juginovic demanded...


The Crown also suggested Ali did not attempt to help her daughter after calling 911 or get out of the way to allow first responders to assist...

Juginovic questioned why one of the men remained with Cynara at all and why the intruders would have harmed Cynara when they did not shoot or kill Ali, who was actively resisting...

The defence has suggested Cynara had a seizure, brought on by the presence of strangers or loud noises...

Ali agreed that caring for Cynara had challenges, but maintained it was a “joy” for the family to look after her.
“Cynara was my life; she meant everything to me,” she testified.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...-ali-did-in-home-invasion-crown-suggests.html
 
Just found a new bit of info...

n July 2010, the immigration department ruled Cynara wasn’t admissible to Canada because her cerebral palsy and cognitive impairments would be too expensive for the health and education systems...

If the Alis could present a “workable plan,” eliminating the excessive costs, the decision could be reversed, immigration authorities told the family.

Cynara’s three sisters, parents, grandparents and other relatives wrote to immigration officials about how much they love Cynara and pledged to care for her, court heard...

The letters worked and the immigration department reversed its decision in October 2010.

It declared the Ali family permanent residents on Jan. 19, 2011.
A month later, Cynara was killed.

http://m.torontosun.com/2016/02/17/mom-blamed-home-invaders-after-smothering-disabled-daughter-crown


Now, how does this fit in? :thinking: Maybe Cynara's mother realised that she was going to be stuck caring for Cynara without any help from the system, and she decided she'd had enough?
 
Another defence witness and former neighbour to the Ali family, Sureerat Chariyaudom, testified Wednesday through a Thai translator that she saw two men with “very, very dark skin” and black knit caps standing at the entrance to the building’s underground parking garage as she left to go to the bank on the morning of the 911 call.

That would have been at about 11:20 a.m. on Feb. 19, 2011, based on her bank receipt. The jury has heard Ali made her 911 call at about 11:40 a.m. Ali also told police the men fled through a door leading to the underground garage.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...hter-takes-stand-in-mothers-murder-trial.html

Hmmm... That seems very convenient.
 
5th March 2016:

Several weeks later, Ali’s husband supplied police with a handwritten apology letter purportedly from the home invaders, saying they’d been sent to the wrong house by “the boss.”

Crown attorney Rosemarie Juginovic said the letter “makes a completely unbelievable story even less believable.”

Defence lawyer Christopher Hicks said Cynara was a “a handicapped child treasured by all as a blessing, a gift, not a burden.”

Ducharme instructed the jury it can find Ali guilty of first- or second-degree murder, or find her not guilty.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2559925/j...-mother-accused-of-killing-disabled-daughter/
 
7th March 2016 - guilty of 1st degree murder.

A Trinidad and Tobago woman who moved to Toronto with her daughter in 2010, has been found guilty of murdering the 16-year-old girl.

Loud sobs and wailing erupted from a Toronto court’s public gallery on Sunday morning as a judge told Cindy Ali she'll face the mandatory sentence — life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years — for the murder of her handicapped 16-year-old daughter Cynara.

http://www.cnc3.co.tt/tags/cynara-ali
 
The prosecution mentioned the residency in their closing arguments:

The Crown says a Scarborough woman suffocated her defenceless daughter a month after they received permanent resident status in Canada — and the timing is no coincidence...

“Perhaps one reason is that the Ali family had been trying for a decade to obtain status in Canada and it would not be wise to kill Cynara and attract the potential of a police investigation into a suspicious death while you are still trying to get status in Canada.”

Once their status was secured, “the time had arrived when Cindy Ali could kill Cynara,” Juginovic said.

http://m.torontosun.com/2016/03/04/residency-green-light-to-kill-crown
 
[Cindy Ali] broke down in court upon hearing the verdict.

“You never know what the jury will decide. (Ali) is understandably very upset. We had a viable defence,” lawyer Christopher Hicks said outside court.

He said the defence will appeal the verdict, which was followed by a mandatory sentence of 25 years without parole.

“The Crown asked the jury to consider if she staged the home invasion. We will appeal around the Crown theory she staged the home invasion ... there is a lack of evidence,” Hicks said.

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/03/06/mom-found-guilty-of-murdering-disabled-girl
 
In closing submissions, Crown prosecutor Rosemarie Juginovic pointed to several pieces of evidence to argue the break-in was staged, including a firefighter’s testimony about seeing no footprints in the snow outside the Scarborough townhouse and Cindy Ali’s unprompted explanation to police for why some drawers and rooms were untouched.
“It defies belief (that one of the robbers) would kill a defenceless and immobilized human being like Cynara who could not identify who they are and what they did, when they left someone alive who could,” Juginovic told the jury...

Hicks told the jury there was no reason for Ali to kill Cynara because the family of six was in a “sweet spot” having just obtained permanent residency. He stressed that the family, and Ali in particular as Cynara’s primary caregiver, viewed Cynara as a blessing not a burden and devoutly followed their church’s belief that life can only be given and taken by God.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...er-guilty-of-murdering-disabled-daughter.html
 

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