Body parts killer accused of murdering, dismembering woman
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Melissa Cooper was never seen alive again after she had “one chance enounter” with Ian Albert Ohab in his apartment building elevator, a Crown attorney said Monday.
In her opening jury address, Bev Richards alleged that Ohab killed and butchered the troubled woman before distributing her body parts across Toronto.
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Surveillance video from his apartment elevator — taken early on April 15, 2016 — shows a chance meeting between Ohab and Cooper. She was visiting two friends who lived in the same building that day.
Ohab pleaded guilty Monday to performing an indignity to Cooper’s corpse, likely with a hacksaw inside his 220 Oak St. unit. Ohab, 41, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
On April 14th, 2016, Cooper had visited Tim Brown — her “friend with benefits” — in the Broadview-Gerrard area, enjoyed some drinks and was “intimate,” before she left around midnight, said Richards.
“See you tomorrow babe,” Brown recalled saying to Cooper. But he could never reach her again, phoning her cellphone which she always carried.
“Brown will tell there was never a ‘tomorrow babe’ again,” said Richards.
Cooper then visited a platonic pal named Maurice “Mo” Liberty who lived on the 18th floor at 220 Oak St.
They had a drink, spent a half-hour and Cooper left, saying, “I’ll be back” before stepping into the elevator, said Richards. Cooper appeared fine, neither drunk nor high.
“Ohab can be seen on an elevator that stops at the 15th floor. Melissa Cooper gets on there and there appears to be some interaction between them,” said Richards.
A minute later, both Melissa and Ohab exit the elevator at the 23rd floor and turn towards his home, said Richards. Cooper is never seen alive again.
The day after Cooper disappeared, Ohab was seen leaving his Oak St. home, carrying a large gym bag and later a large shopping buggy “wheeling out an item wrapped in a plastic bag,” said Richards.
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On April 19, a woman’s lower abdomen and pelvis was discovered behind Charlie’s Meat Shop on Broadview Ave. It was Cooper’s body part and the victim’s badly-decomposed right arm was found later at a northwest Toronto recycling plant on May 3.
The rest of Cooper’s body has never been recovered. Consequently, no cause of death can be determined, said Richards.
Cooper — a drug addict and alcoholic since she was 14 — “had begun rebuilding her life,” said Richards.
The trial resumes Tuesday.
spazzano@postmedia.com
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