HUNTER: Toronto woman among two murdered at Airbnb and 'friends' did nothing
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Christina Crooks and Juliana Pannunzio were left behind.
No one called 911, no one took them to the hospital, no one bothered to comfort them in their anguish. All alone as their young lives ebbed away.
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Cops say they received a 911 call around 4:15 a.m. on Tuesday regarding a possible firearm incident at 4197 Niagara Pkwy. — outside Fort Erie.
When officers arrived, they found the bodies of two young women. Their so-called friends and acquaintances had left them there alone to die. So far, it doesn’t look like anyone bothered to call for help.
It had been a large bash with a lot of out-of-towners, including the two victims.
Late Thursday, Niagara Regional Police finally identified them as Christina Crooks, 18, of Toronto, and Juliana Pannunzio, 20, of Windsor, whose Facebook page states she is a student at St. Clair College. Both had been shot.
Pannunzio’s best friend, Kelly Gallacher, described her on a GoFundMe page as “a sweet angel and a kind soul.”
“She loved everyone and she always wanted everyone to be happy. She never failed to make me laugh and she will forever live on,” Gallacher wrote, adding her family is devastated.
Residents told local media that the waterfront chalet had long been a problem with rowdy out-of-towners boozing and blasting music until the wee hours. So, perhaps it was sadly inevitable that tragedy was hovering in the wings.
Homicide detectives have been tight-lipped but it doesn’t take much to read between the lines — and start asking questions.
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Who holds a balls-to-the-wall bash on a Monday night in January?
Who put their John Hancock on the rental agreement? Who owns the joint?
What were the two young women doing there?
Why did no one call for help?
And what kind of maniac pulled the trigger? What sparked their outrage?
Were the two women targeted or were they collateral damage?
Questions that will hopefully be answered in the coming days unless, of course, there’s a case of mass amnesia, which would not be unheard of.
Leaving those two young women to die alone should probably give you your answer.
And what of Airbnb? Murders at the short-term rental are hardly unheard of. Last year there were homicides at Airbnb properties in Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto and elsewhere.
Airbnb told local media in Niagara the murder mansion has now been delisted and they are investigating. But 4197 Niagara Pkwy. lives on via Booking.com, which states it is “unavailable.”
Already, bylaw officers have dinged the owners for lockdown and pandemic breaches. That didn’t seem to matter not one whit. Party on.
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Two families will now have their grieving poisoned by an insidious pandemic, but it won’t be the most bitter pill they have to swallow.
It will be the knowledge that when their girls were dying, people did nothing at all.
Detectives are asking the public to contact them if they have any information about the deceased or the incident in Fort Erie at 905-688-4111, dial 3, ext. 1009134.
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