Stalled hope amid a family’s heartbreak
Despite $50,000 reward, no leads in the murder of Etobicoke woman
Whenever Jackie Weir hears about a shooting, she thinks about the murder of her daughter, Candice Rochelle Bobb.
“We take two or three steps forward, and every time there’s a shooting or anything, it brings us right back,” Weir told Metroland Media. “It never ends.” It was a shooting that shocked the city: Bobb, a 33-year-old pregnant mother of two, was gunned down while sitting in a car in Etobicoke’s Jamestown community on a warm spring night in 2016. The case remains unsolved.
“We’re still trying to figure out why,” Weir said.
“It’s as if we’re not moving forward. We’re just stuck. We’re waiting for answers.”
Though it’s been more than two years since Bobb was murdered, police remain hopeful someone with information will point them to the killer.
“We remain optimistic. We continue to go through the evidence we have,” lead investiga- tor Det. Sgt. Mike Carbone said in a recent interview.
“We make small advances every so often, but I am optimistic that someone will come forward and bring us closer to the person responsible.”
It was 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 15, 2016, when Bobb and two others travelled by car to Jamestown Cres. and John Garland Boul. to pick up a fourth person.
The foursome then went to a basketball game in Scarborough. One person in the car played in the organized basketball league; the others watched the game. And when the game ended, the four people piled back into the car and returned to Jamestown.
Among the people in the vehicle were Bobb’s boyfriend and his cousin.
The car entered John Garland from Martin Grove Rd. and proceeded eastbound to Jamestown Cres., where it made a U-turn before stopping. Someone then opened fire on the vehicle, striking Bobb, who was in the back seat.
Carbone said the vehicle may have been targeted but stressed Bobb was not the target. “The movement of the vehicle may have drawn the attention of the offender and caused him or her to shoot at this car.”
No one else in the car was hit; the driver sped to nearby Etobicoke General Hospital, where attempts to revive Bobb failed. Police were called to the hospital at 10:51 p.m.
Bobb, a Malton resident, was five months pregnant. An emergency caesarean was performed and baby Kyrie was born. He was initially listed in stable condition and was transferred to a trauma centre. He died at about 7:10 p.m.on June 5, 2016.
At a news conference on Feb. 28, 2017, police announced that baby Kyrie was also being treated as a homicide victim, meaning if the shooter were apprehended, he or she would be charged with the murders of both Bobb and her baby.
The decision was made after consultations with senior prosecutors, police said.
“We certainly feel comfortable proceeding in this way,” Carbone said of the decision. “There is precedence for it in Canada.”
On May 17, 2017, police held another news conference, this time to announce a $50,000 reward in the case.
At that news conference, Weir spoke to the media about her family’s “very difficult” year.
“Rochelle was a young mother who was brutally gunned down,” Weir told reporters at the time. “She was pregnant and we lost baby Kyrie. He came into this world way too early and under extremely difficult circumstances. He didn’t make it. Their deaths have been very difficult for us. It has left a void in our lives.”
Weir told reporters Bobb was the “life of the family” who had a “great sense of humour” and kept the family together.
“We miss her laughter, we miss her smile and we miss her beautiful, beautiful hazel eyes,” Weir said. “She left behind two boys, and they miss their mom every minute of the day.”
Weir also delivered a message to the community and the killer. “We know someone in the neighbourhood knows something, and we’re asking each and every one to just search your heart,” she said.
Police don’t have descriptions of the suspect or suspects. Police had said the surviving occupants of the shot-up car have co-operated.