Canada - Gladys Little, 79, retired nurse, murdered in her apartment, Hamilton, Ontario, May 2020

[dotr]

Hamilton police investigating murder of 79-year-old woman found dead in her apartment
May 21, 2020 rbbm.
''Police in Hamilton say they are investigating the murder of a 79-year-old retired nurse who was found dead in her apartment after missing a check-in with her family.

Gladys Little’s family went to her apartment to check on her on Saturday around 4 p.m. after she missed her daily check-in with her son. They discovered her body after entering the apartment at 187 Park Street South and immediately called 911, police said Thursday.

In an interview, Hamilton police told CP24.com that Little was found with “obvious injuries.”

Hamilton police said they undertook a “complete canvass” of the 22-storey apartment building yesterday and are combing through security camera footage for clues.

Thom called the murder “strange” and advised people in the area to be vigilant.

“Obviously it’s disturbing that this type of thing has happened,” he said. “Until we have a better idea of what caused it and who’s behind it, just a reminder to people to maintain some vigilance when they’re out and about and when they have individuals knocking at the door.”

''He said criminals who wander into apartment buildings can sometimes take advantage of unlocked doors.''


''Investigators are asking anyone from the building who saw or heard any suspicious activity or people between 1 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday to call the Major Crime Unit.''

 

[dotr]

Senior found dead in Park Street South apartment is Hamilton’s fifth homicide
''Police found no signs of forced entry, nothing appeared to be missing.

Initially it did not appear that someone had been in Little’s apartment and detectives wondered if her death was perhaps medical, said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, of the major crime unit.

“But that has since changed,” he said, adding that as soon as the autopsy began Wednesday afternoon it was “very obvious it wasn’t medical or natural causes.”

Police are not revealing cause of death, even to the family, Thom said.''

“We don’t know the motive,” Thom said, adding that police do not know if she knew her killer or let them inside her apartment.''

''Little was also an avid baker, said Gault, and she would frequently drop off cookies and muffins to some of the other seniors in the building. If Little had made too much soup, she’d drop it off to Gault.''
the end.”

The black and white photo of Little in her nurses’ uniform from many years ago was one Little had picked out herself for her own obituary.
''Police are asking anyone who saw or heard suspicious activity or people between 1 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday to call Det. Andrew Coughlan at 905-546-3874.

To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or crimestoppershamilton.com.''

 

[dotr]

Killer sought after family find Hamilton woman, 79, dead

Gladys Little, 79, was found slain inside her apartment at 187 Park St. S. in Hamilton on May 16, 2020.Screengrab / Google Maps

 

[Snoopster]

Killer sought after family find Hamilton woman, 79, dead

Gladys Little, 79, was found slain inside her apartment at 187 Park St. S. in Hamilton on May 16, 2020.Screengrab / Google Maps

That is totally strange. I've got to think it was someone who knew her. Many, many years ago I lived in an apartment in that area....and it was a pretty good area.

 

[deugirtni]

So they wo9uldn't have bothered to do an autopsy if the 'circumstances at the scene' had NOT been found? I thought all deaths that weren't in a medical/known healthcare setting, were autopsied?

"“Due to the circumstances found at the scene, a post-mortem was ordered to determine the cause of death,” Hamilton Police said in a news release. “The apartment was secured and held by police pending the results of the autopsy.”

Cops would not elaborate about what they discovered."

Killer sought after family find Hamilton woman, 79, dead

 

[deugirtni]

Senior found dead in Park Street South apartment is Hamilton’s fifth homicide
''Police found no signs of forced entry, nothing appeared to be missing.

Initially it did not appear that someone had been in Little’s apartment and detectives wondered if her death was perhaps medical, said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, of the major crime unit.

“But that has since changed,” he said, adding that as soon as the autopsy began Wednesday afternoon it was “very obvious it wasn’t medical or natural causes.”

Police are not revealing cause of death, even to the family, Thom said.''

“We don’t know the motive,” Thom said, adding that police do not know if she knew her killer or let them inside her apartment.''

''Little was also an avid baker, said Gault, and she would frequently drop off cookies and muffins to some of the other seniors in the building. If Little had made too much soup, she’d drop it off to Gault.''
the end.”

The black and white photo of Little in her nurses’ uniform from many years ago was one Little had picked out herself for her own obituary.
''Police are asking anyone who saw or heard suspicious activity or people between 1 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday to call Det. Andrew Coughlan at 905-546-3874.

To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or crimestoppershamilton.com.''

They 'wondered if her death was perhaps medical', but yet in the other article, it said this? How do those two ideas go together?:

"In an interview, Hamilton police told CP24.com that Little was found with “obvious injuries.”"
Hamilton police investigating murder of 79-year-old woman found dead in her apartment

Initially it did not appear that someone had been in Little’s apartment and detectives wondered if her death was perhaps medical, said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, of the major crime unit.

“But that has since changed,” he said, adding that as soon as the autopsy began Wednesday afternoon it was “very obvious it wasn’t medical or natural causes.”
Senior found dead in Park Street South apartment is Hamilton’s fifth homicide

 

[Lusitana]

Oh man, this is absolutely despicable. Someone who knew her probably did this.

 

[deugirtni]

I wonder if the four day autopsy delay was due to it being performed in Toronto, or more due to being overwhelmed with Covid deaths? In any case, that really sucks. Although if police found her with 'obvious injuries', one might hope and expect they would start investigating it as a murder right away, even before the autopsy results?

The autopsy took place at the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service in Toronto, following the controversial closure of Hamilton’s forensic pathology unit in March.

In Hamilton, police never saw a four-day delay for autopsies in suspicious deaths, Thom said.

That delay “held us back in some respects,” he said. “It would have been preferable to have it done sooner than four days.”

Senior found dead in Park Street South apartment is Hamilton’s fifth homicide

 

[dotr]

rbbm.
May 22, 2020
Police believe Gladys Little’s killer walked through the front door
''Whoever killed 79-year-old Gladys Little walked through the front door of her seventh-floor apartment.

“Either she answered the door, it was unlocked or someone has a key,” said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, who is leading the probe into the homicide for the Hamilton police major crime unit.''

''What is known is that the 79-year-old retired nurse, avid gardener and baker, last spoke to a friend by email around 1:45 p.m. on Friday, May 15.

Thom described Little as a very private person with a small circle of friends, who were mostly homebound. Little still drove and shopped for her own groceries and often dropped baked goods off for family. She had been observing physical distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic and did not have visitors at her apartment.''

“There are a few aspects of the scene that were unexplained,” Thom said, adding that he cannot elaborate to protect the investigation.

What makes the case more perplexing is that there was nothing obviously amiss inside the unit — nothing damaged or stolen, including her purse, wallet and electronics''

 

[deugirtni]

Is this standard?

"Police are not revealing cause of death, even to the family, Thom said."

 

[Lusitana]

Oh man, I hope this wasn't sexually motivated or something like that.

 

[Snoopster]

They 'wondered if her death was perhaps medical', but yet in the other article, it said this? How do those two ideas go together?:

"In an interview, Hamilton police told CP24.com that Little was found with “obvious injuries.”"
Hamilton police investigating murder of 79-year-old woman found dead in her apartment

Initially it did not appear that someone had been in Little’s apartment and detectives wondered if her death was perhaps medical, said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, of the major crime unit.

“But that has since changed,” he said, adding that as soon as the autopsy began Wednesday afternoon it was “very obvious it wasn’t medical or natural causes.”
Senior found dead in Park Street South apartment is Hamilton’s fifth homicide

Regarding your bolded comment....Gladys could have had a head injury, and they presumed it was a fall, perhaps hitting her head on the corner of a table, or something similar? Just one idea.

 

[deugirtni]

Regarding your bolded comment....Gladys could have had a head injury, and they presumed it was a fall, perhaps hitting her head on the corner of a table, or something similar? Just one idea.

To me, the two just don't go together. She was said to have had 'obvious injuries', but they 'wondered if her death was perhaps medical', and yet 'as soon as the autopsy began', it was 'very obvious it wasn't medical or natural causes'. How terrible that in 'real life', autopsies have to wait four days, and that death investigations don't seem to commence until the autopsy deems it is necessary to bother investigating, imho.

Initially it did not appear that someone had been in Little’s apartment and detectives wondered if her death was perhaps medical, said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, of the major crime unit.

“But that has since changed,” he said, adding that as soon as the autopsy began Wednesday afternoon it was “very obvious it wasn’t medical or natural causes.”
Senior found dead in Park Street South apartment is Hamilton’s fifth homicide

The definition of 'natural' cause of death, just generally, from an online article:

"In simple terms, natural causes refer to internal factors — like a medical condition or a disease — as opposed to external factors, like trauma from an accident. In other words, natural causes could be anything from cancer to heart disease to diabetes.

"It just means there was nothing non-natural that happened in [the patient's] cause of death," said Dr. Patricia Allenby, director of autopsy services at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center."
What Exactly Does It Mean to Die from 'Natural Causes'? | Live Science

So we have a dead 79 year old woman with obvious injuries on the 7th floor of a 22 floor apartment building in a relatively good area in which she had lived for 16 years, no sign of unauthorized entry, seemingly nothing out of place, no mess, nothing apparent stolen, and the cause of death being withheld, even from family.

 

[Snoopster]

I don't think we know enough about the circumstances of how she looked, and where she was specifically, when she was found to explain why at first in situ examination they thought it was medical. A heart attack or stroke can cause someone to fall. The death could be natural causes. Perhaps there was blood but not enough to look like it was the source of her death. Maybe what looked like a gash, ended up being a deep stab wound. (Again, I'm just making up possible scenarios.)

Sorry, I sound like I'm defending the autopsy delay, and I really don't know if it was inappropriate or not. I bet if she had been a younger woman, they might have looked at scene through a different lens, rather than assuming medical.

Regarding not releasing the cause of her death to her family, based on Gladys' limited interaction with people, they've likely drawn a fairly narrow circle of potential suspects to start with (family and immediate neighbours), before expanding the circle. They will want to keep that info secure in case anyone being interviewed accidentally lets a non-public fact slip.

All JMO, naturally.

 

[asmi106082]

I think the cops meant that when they first heard a report about an elderly person found deceased, they assumed natural causes but when they arrived on scene it was obviously a murder. Strange wording but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. JMO.

 

[Snoopster]

Hopefully they caught something on one of the five CCTV cameras at the building.

 

[deugirtni]

Police identify suspect in murder of 79 year old Hamilton woman

Police are obtaining an arrest warrant for the suspect of a recent homicide in downtown Hamilton.

Police say an arrest warrant for first-degree murder will be obtained on Sunday morning (May 24) for 26 year old Larissa Shingebis.

“Due to the random and violent actions of Shingebis in the murder of Gladys Little, the Hamilton Police Service have decided to release her name and photo for public safety reasons prior to the warrant being issued,” police said.
....
Police say the victim did not know her assailant.

Police identify suspect in murder of 79 year old Hamilton woman

 

[dotr]

That was fast! rbbm.
Hamilton police say 79-year-old woman was killed in random act by stranger
''They say they will seek an arrest warrant for their suspect, a 26-year-old woman originally from Thunder Bay, on Sunday morning.

But they say that because of her “random and violent actions,” they’re releasing her name ahead of time as a matter of public safety.

Police say they’re seeking an arrest warrant for Larissa Shingebis, who they describe as living a transient lifestyle.''

Hamilton Police Service

 

[Lusitana]

What? That is so odd. Wasn't it reported that this wasn't a robery situation? Why kill someone for no reason?

Her Twitter
Her Facebook

 

[Lusitana]

Thunder Bay Courthouse - Inside Edition, from 2017:

She's pleading guilty with failing to comply with probation. She's represented by Daniel Kiesman. Admitted facts before the court are that she was sentenced to 12 months probation on August 25,2016 for assault by Judge Pelletier. She never reported to her probation officer until late October.

The Gladue component hears that she is a member of the Osnaburgh Indian Reserve. She has 2 children ages 7 & 3 whom are being cared for by her Aunt in Thunder Bay. Both her parents were in residential school.

SHINGEBIS sniffed gas as a teenager as well as her father and numerous relatives. She identifies as an alcoholic as well as a user of OxyContin and cocaine.