Charges laid in stabbing death of 22-year-old Kitchener woman
KITCHENER — The yellow police tape outside the entrance to a low-rise apartment building at 38 Country Hill Dr. had blown to the ground on Sunday morning.
A police cruiser remained parked a few feet away.
The investigation into the murder of 22-year-old Melinda Vasilije continued two days after police found the body of the aspiring hairstylist inside her Kitchener apartment.
Vasilije died of multiple stab wounds, police said Sunday evening.
A Hamilton man — 24-year-old Ager Mohsin Hasan — is facing second-degree murder charges in a case that police described as a targeted attack. Hasan and Vasilije were known to each other and had been in contact on Friday.
Police said, as of Sunday evening, Hasan was still unaccounted for and believed to be in the U.S. Authorities believe Hasan’s black Honda HR-V had used the Peace Bridge to cross into Buffalo on Friday.
“Investigators are continuing to liaise with our U.S. law enforcement agencies,” Insp. Mike Haffner said in a media statement on Sunday evening.
Those who knew Vasilije well, like Dave Zoerner, were still in shock over her death.
“She was such a kind, sweet kid,” said Zoerner, a 55-year-old hairstylist who took on Vasilije as an apprentice about three years ago.
“She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She was always smiling. People loved her.”
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Most recently, Zoerner said he and Vasilije worked together at a salon in a plaza at Ottawa Street and Weber Street. But it closed in October. He said Vasilije took a job as a cleaner and also worked at a tanning salon part-time.
A year ago, she got a car. Recently, she got an apartment.
Weeks ago, Zoerner signed all her papers so she could go and write her hairstylist exam. Zoerner isn’t sure if she ever did. He last spoke to her on Wednesday night. Zoerner said she informed him she had broken up with a boyfriend. By 3 a.m. on Friday, police had been called to her apartment.
“You never think this is going to happen to anybody you know,” said Zoerner, who recalled Vasilije was just a toddler when she would first visit the salon he once had in Market Square with her mother. I watched her grow up. She turned into this beautiful kid. So sad. And now she’s gone.”
When they worked together recently, Zoerner said he would call Vasilije “Jimmy.”
“I would treat her like a buddy, not a beautiful young girl,” Zoerner said of the Jimmy nickname. “It just stuck.”
Soon, he said, customers started calling her Jimmy. She didn’t mind, playing along with the gag. She responded by jokingly referring to Zoerner as “Bertha.”
“She’s going to be missed,” said Zoerner, who believes he became a mentor and father figure to Vasilije over the years, even though she had a dad and stepdad.
Saturday, a gofundme.com account to raise money to help the family pay for Vasilije’s funeral appeared online. By noon Sunday, pledges had surpassed a $10,000 goal.