The owner of a travel agency stabbed Friday in a robbery has died from his injuries. Paulson Chellakudam was pronounced dead around noon yesterday, three days after Suzette Augustin died in the same attack at Travel Media in the York Plaza on Wilson Ave. at Jane St...
News Source: Toronto Star
"It's a horrific scene of blood," Giroux said. "Anyone would describe it as two people clearly fighting for their lives within a confined area."
Chellakudam, 45, of Toronto had been robbed twice before last week's attack. Augustin, 26, was a tourist from St. Lucia in Toronto to visit a friend and was picking up a return ticket to Cuba.
Chellakudam's family had maintained a vigil at the hospital, but he died without regaining consciousness. Giroux, who is probing the double slaying with his partner Detective Joel Kulmatycki, said it's possible the killer may have been injured while carrying out the attack.
He wants anyone who sees an acquaintance with an unexplained injury to his hand or arm to call police.
Augustin's common-law husband, Andrew Haynes, and her father, Gabriel, flew to Toronto late Sunday to identify the body and make arrangements for her remains to be taken to St. Lucia.
Haynes looked after their 8-year-old son, Dahved, in St. Lucia while Augustin was on a scholarship in Cuba earning her degree. They were in touch every day even though they were living in separate Caribbean countries.
Haynes, 36, got an e-mail saying Augustin was visiting a friend in Toronto and then another message saying she'd be back in Cuba on Sunday.
Minutes after identifying Augustin's body at Toronto's morgue, Haynes said he hardly recognized her.
"Why would someone take her life?" he said as he broke into tears. "Watching my lady with all the scars on her face. It isn't her. That can't be her. She's pretty ... she's sweet."
They were last together at Christmas when Augustin came home to be with family but most importantly to celebrate her son's 8th birthday. He was born on Dec. 28 and Haynes said Augustin always wanted to make sure their son had a birthday party.
Haynes, a musician who travels the Caribbean, said when Augustin became pregnant he promised her she could still go after her dreams. He said she wanted to complete high school and get a degree.
"I never wanted to be the one to stop her goals," he said.
She finished high school in St. Lucia after Dahved was born and got a job with Air Jamaica but never gave up the idea of getting a degree. Haynes said she had a talent for languages and hoped to be a teacher, continue working with the airlines or work in the foreign service.
"She was an exceptional person," he said. "Even though she had her own goals she was devoted to her family. She also loved our son so much."
The prime minister of St. Lucia, Kenny Anthony, contacted the family Sunday to offer his condolences. The consulate general of St. Lucia in Canada, Winall Joshua, escorted Haynes and Augustin's father all day yesterday.
The deaths of Chellakudam and Augustin were just two of four slayings over the weekend in Toronto.
Police continue to look for clues in the fatal shooting early Saturday of Elliot Reid-Thomas, 29, whose body was found in an alley behind a west-end after-hours club on Vaughan Rd.
Eion Rush, 27, of Malton was found dead in the driveway of a townhouse complex on Stevenson Rd., in the Albion Rd. and Martin Grove Rd. area.
An autopsy showed he had been shot numerous times and died as a result of bullet wounds to the chest.
Investigators have located one person who had been with Rush earlier in the day and is helping them piece together his last movements.
