CANADA Canada - Patricia Paraszczuk 26, nurse, ligature hanging/in burning house, Hamilton, Ont 3 Mar 1982

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Patricia Paraszczuk
Patricia Paraszczuk

On the evening of March 3, 1982, neighbours noticed flames coming from the home of Patricia Paraszczuk. They broke down the doors in an attempt to rescue Patricia but were overcome by the fire. Hamilton Fire Department distinguished the fire and eventually found Patricia’s body. She had been strangled in an apparent attempt to stage the death as a suicide. The house was set on fire afterwards. Patricia was in the midst of a divorce at the time but unfortunately not enough evidence was produced to establish a firm suspect and make an arrest. Patricia was a popular smart young professional nurse who had her whole life ahead of her. Witnesses who were reluctant to come forward or tell the truth at the time are encouraged to do so now.

Anyone with information about this homicide is being asked to contact S/Sgt Dave Oleniuk in Major Crime at 905-546-3829."

Referenced in these pages..
Death's Shadow
Death's Shadow: True Tales of Homicide
By Jon Wells

 

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Chapter 1-5, lengthy and very interesting .
Eternal Pain
May 06, 2010 by Jon Wells
"It is late on the night of March 3, 1982. A young woman’s body is found in the basement of her burning home on Montclair Avenue, just east of Gage Park. She was strangled. Suicide? A hard-boiled detective on the case believes otherwise. So does the woman’s family. But there are far more questions than answers. The questions continue to this day."

"Firefighters had put out a house fire at 944 Montclair Ave. A body was inside.

At the scene, Crath, in suit and overcoat, spoke to a deputy fire chief.

“We have a dead body in the basement, “ the firefighter said.

The house still smouldered, the detectives moved down through the heat and charred stench to the unfinished basement, the floor covered in water. Crath saw a woman’s body, fully clothed, soaked. Her face was a bit dirty from the smoke, but she had suffered no damage from the fire.

He saw a thin chord, like twine: a ligature. She likely had strangled. The ligature had also somehow ridden up from her neck to her face.

Suicide? Possible, except Crath had been trained to treat every sudden death as a homicide. He grimaced. If it was a crime scene, it was a lousy one, he thought, evidence destroyed by either fire, smoke, water, firefighters trampling through the place. He didn’t begrudge the fire guys, they had to soak it, Montclair was a street of old homes, they could not risk fire spreading.

A couple of senior police officers arrived. Had to be suicide, one of them offered.

Crath knew most hangings are suicides but women usually don’t use that method. Most use pills.

The scene was odd. The fire had started in the basement, spread up to the first and second floors.

Some boxes and debris in the basement caught fire; Crath figured an accelerant of some kind had been used.

If she committed suicide, how would she have set the fire?

Then there was the hanging. She was not hanging from a rafter, kicked a bucket. No, the ligature had broken, and one severed end was still tied to a wooden post on a bearing stud wall—a joist, or firestop, part of an unfinished wall where insulation and drywall had not been added. The joist was only about three feet off the floor.

Very unusual. Crath knew some inmates in prison used a “low hang” to kill themselves, tied onto bars for leverage. But a woman in her own basement?

He also noted that her arms lay straight at her side. He knew that after a hanging, the hands are often near the neck, a sign that at the last moment they tried to save themselves. It was as though her arms had been placed in position.

Suicide?

Don Crath’s gut said otherwise."

"Ray Roach visits Trisha’s grave all the time. Cathy comes frequently, too. They both met there on June 11, Trisha’s birthday. Cathy wants the killer to know they are not going anywhere. They will stay in touch with police and the media to keep the case alive. She vows they will not let him get comfortable, ever.

They may wait a long while for a guilty conscience to take its toll. For 28 years someone has lived with the knowledge that the defining moment of his life was killing a small woman in cold blood, trying to make it look like a suicide, then leaving her to burn. He has lived like this a long time, perhaps not comfortably, but lived all the same."

 

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Case Number: 82009630
Patricia Paraszczuk
03
March
1982
Patricia Paraszczuk

On the evening of March 3, 1982, neighbours noticed flames coming from the home of Patricia Paraszczuk. They broke down the doors in an attempt to rescue Patricia but were overcome by the fire. Hamilton Fire Department distinguished the fire and eventually found Patricia’s body. She had been strangled in an apparent attempt to stage the death as a suicide. The house was set on fire afterwards. Patricia was in the midst of a divorce at the time but unfortunately not enough evidence was produced to establish a firm suspect and make an arrest. Patricia was a popular smart young professional nurse who had her whole life ahead of her. Witnesses who were reluctant to come forward or tell the truth at the time are encouraged to do so now.

Anyone with information about this homicide is being asked to contact S/Sgt Dave Oleniuk in Major Crime at 905-546-3829.

 

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rbbm.
'To Catch A Killer' digs up new evidence - CHCH
''Patricia Paraszcuk’s case continues to haunt the loved ones left behind in the wake of her violent murder at her East Hamilton home in 1982.

Trisha, as her friends and family called her, was found dead in the basement of her burned-out home at 944 Montclair Ave. on the evening of March 3, 1982. She was working as a nurse at Hamilton’s General Hospital and just 26 years old at the time of her death.

Her body was found with a ligature wrapped around her neck. Initially, police ruled her death a suicide, but just days later, further investigation determined that her death was likely a homicide.''