Hamilton and Niagara attack victims remembered as loving fathers
CBC
Hamilton's Mario Bilich, 77, was the type of teacher who inspired students to enter the profession themselves and a helicopter parent before it was popular, his daughter said in a Facebook post Friday afternoon.
Niagara's Lance Cunningham, 47, was the fun dad to his 13-year-old daughter and an outdoorsman who loved to hike with his dogs, his wife told CBC Toronto.
Earlier Friday, police said Bilich and Cunningham are two of three people believed to have been killed by Sabrina Kauldhar, 30, in Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Falls. Niagara police arrested Kauldhar on Thursday, and have charged her with second-degree murder in the death of an unidentified Toronto woman, second-degree murder in Cunningham's death and first-degree murder in Bilich's death.
Police said both men were randomly attacked.
Security camera footage from local resident Daniel Myles shows Bilich and Kauldhar walking in the same area, only minutes before police were called to a parking lot for reports of an unresponsive man suffering from stab wounds.
Myles said police were at his home on Thursday asking for video of the attack, which he said happened across the street from him.
"Once I started looking through the footage, I began to realize it was a targeted attack on a totally defenceless, harmless elderly man," Myles said.
Bilich's daughter, Antonella Bilich Greco, said his death may have been before or after he made his daily trip to visit his wife's grave at the cemetery.
"Our dad, babbo, papà was a poet, an extremely devoted husband and father and nonno, a very funny and quirky guy," she wrote. "A frequenter of Italian and Portuguese coffee hang-out spots, a buyer of eggs and cheese, a constant shopper at the Jackson Square market, a lover of walking, and the best purchaser of perfectly ripe fruit that ever existed."
Police said Bilich was well-known in the community as a retired teacher with the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. He was found unresponsive in the parking lot of 209 MacNab Street North just after noon on Thursday in Hamilton, police said.
Patrick Daly, chair of the school board, said in an email Friday that Bilich was held in the highest regard by his students.
"We are shocked and saddened and will remember the repose of his soul, family and all who loved Mario in our prayers," Daly said.
Bilich Greco said her father leaves behind several grandchildren from seven-and-a-half weeks to 15 years old.
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