AJAX IN MOURNING OVER HORRIFIC TRIPLE SLAYING
Residents grieve for loving mom, two children as accused makes court appearance AJAX continued on A10
The Pejcinovski kids used to play basketball together outside their father’s house — and they’d always be laughing.
The three teens came from a kind, caring family. Their mother, Krassimira, would smile and wave at neighbours, and the kids would follow suit.
Krassimira Pejcinovski, 39, was killed inside her home Wednesday. Her 15year-old son Roy was also found dead in the house, and 13-year-old daughter Venallia died after being rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
One daughter, Victoria, wasn’t home at the time of the attack.
Cory Fenn, 29, has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder. Bankruptcy documents from October 2015 list him as a seasonal worker for Toronto District School Board.
Police said he was in a relationship with Pejcinovski, but is not the father of her children.
Michael Curtis, a 28-year-old neighbour, remembers Venallia — who went by Vana — having10 or12 friends over on weekends for slumber parties. He remembers Roy’s face lighting up when Curtis’s infant daughter learned to say his name.
“I just know how loved they were,” Curtis told the Star.
He said the next time he sees the kids’ father, who is currently caring for his daughter Victoria, he’s not sure what he should say.
“Do you say ‘sorry for your loss?’ ” he wondered. “Is that enough?”
“She was one of the most beautiful people on the planet.” VANIA DIMOVA LONGTIME FRIEND OF KRASSIMIRA PEJCINOVSKI
Across the city, many were feeling the same anguish. The Spa Sedona, where Krassimira — also known as Krissy — worked, was locked Thursday. Inside, a woman could be seen consoling another employee. A few doors down at Mixmax Deli Market, owner Tatjana Naumovski remembered how Krissy would come in during her lunch breaks, bringing Bulgarian cheeses, soups and sandwiches.
“She always smiled,” Naumovski said.
Naumovski met Krissy’s mom about two years ago when she was visiting from Bulgaria. Apart from mentioning her son, Krissy otherwise did not reveal much about her private life.
“I didn’t see anything wrong,” Naumovski said.
Ryan Furze said he dated Krissy about four years ago.
When Fenn and Krissy began dating around 2016, Furze said there was “jealousy.”
Fenn “knew I was with her so he forced her not to talk to me or be friends and would always threaten me,” Furze alleged in a Facebook message to the Star. Furze said he avoided Fenn as much as he could.
“The only time I (would see) him was at the gym,” Furze said. “He would walk around like the toughest guy there and would throw air punches during his workouts.”
The last time Furze saw Krissy was this past Valentine’s Day.
“She broke up with him sometime before Valentine’s Day and (asked) me if I was available to go for dinner and I said yes, so we went out for some wings,” he said.
“She was very sweet, kind and caring. (She) was a great mother. Everything was about her three kids that she had most of the time.”
Krissy was into fitness, Furze said, “and was always happy” when they were together.
Vania Dimova said her longtime friend Krissy was “one of the most beautiful people on the planet.”
She was “always smiling, always polite,” Dimova recalled. The pair met as neighbours in Bulgaria, and reconnected in Canada when Krissy immigrated in the 1990s.
“The entire Bulgarian community is absolutely shocked,” Dimova said. “Nobody would have expected anything like this. We all love her.”
Dimova said her friend was “one of those happy people” and a “devoted mother.”
Wednesday night, at a local rink, Roy’s hockey team processed the news together, letting the tears fall.
Roy had been a beloved team member, a star goalie with the Don Mills Flyers bantam AAA team with promising prospects in the Ontario Hockey League draft next year.
“It’s senseless,” manager Nick Slawson said. “We’ve had Roy in our system since he was 7 years old. He’s more than a hockey player, he’s part of our family.”
The team’s Friday night game in the city finals has been cancelled, but they will hold a prac- tice Saturday where grief counsellors will be brought in, Slawson said.
Over the years Roy played for them, Slawson said he also got to know the family.
Krassimira, her two daughters and Roy’s father were “a great supportive family,” he said, not only of each other but of their program.
Retired NHL veteran Tie Domi tweeted his condolences to the family, saying he’d watched Roy play when he was just 10 years old.
Last week, he watched Roy play again and he was the difference in the win, Domi wrote.
Phil Santomero, vice-principal at Crestwood Preparatory College where Roy studied for the last year and a half, said it was both “good and bad” that their students were on March Break for another week and a half.
It gave them time to process the news, he said, but “students are looking for that support from their peers that they might not be able to get with March Break happening.”
When classes resume next Monday, Santomero said the school would be bringing in grief counsellors to help with the loss, and plans to hold a memorial for Roy.
“He was a wonderful young man. Always sort of had a smile on his face,” he said. “He integrated so easily into the school when he joined us last September.”
Families of students have been reaching out, asking what they can do to help. Hundreds of comments have been posted by grieving teens on Roy’s Instagram account.
Vince Pagano, the school’s headmaster, said he met Krissy only once or twice at parentteacher interviews, but found her to be kind and charming.
“(She was) a loving young mother who should have been given a lot more life to do that with,” Pagano said. Court records show that in 2009, Fenn was given a suspended sentence and 12 months’ probation after he was charged with assaulting police.
In 2011, he received a suspend- ed sentence and 12 months’ probation after he was charged with mischief under $5,000.
Fenn appeared in an Oshawa courtroom Thursday, his face bearing scratches and lacerations. An “S” shaped mark stretched from under his eye to his right ear.
Tall and bearded, with a muscular build, Fenn wore dark jeans and a black T-shirt.
His hands were cuffed in front of him, with a blue wristband appearing to be from a hospital. Fenn winced while his charges were read out.
Justice of the Peace Ronald Prestage said he should ask for medical attention when he returned to jail.
Fenn returns to court March 29 via video link.
The suburban street where the Pejcinovskis lived was roped off with police caution tape Thursday.
Police cruisers and a large forensics trailer were parked outside the home on Hilling Dr. Officers went back and forth from the vehicles into the home, its garage door open.
Mourners, including strangers moved by the news, came to pay their respects throughout the day.
Durham Region police Const. George Tudos said the family was well-regarded.
“I know that they were very well-liked within the community,” he said.
“We have a lot of people, a lot of community members that have been sending their condolences.”
Police have not said how the Pejcinovskis died, but have noted that autopsies were expected within a day or so.