Homicide victim had been convicted of sex offences

KITCHENER — When Ronald Chandler’s former stepdaughter heard he was killed in his Kitchener home, she felt relief that her former abuser was gone.

Chandler was convicted in June 2006 of sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching involving a person under 14.

He was sentenced to three years in prison, banned from going to parks or other public places where children might be for 10 years, banned from possessing weapons for life, and placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years.

Chandler, 66, was found stabbed to death last week in his home — a unit in a townhouse complex located on Courtland Avenue East, near Hayward Avenue. Police have not made an arrest in the homicide and do not know if the attack was random or targeted.

“For over 20 years that man has been the monster of my nightmares,” said the Kitchener woman who was abused by Chandler when she was a young girl. She cannot be named as a publication ban on the case is still in effect.

“I always had the nightmare that he would come after me for revenge because (of ) anger that I put him in jail, anger that he had to deal with the consequences of his actions.”

After hearing the positive tributes to Chandler, the woman contacted The Record over the weekend with her story. She said she wanted the public to know what Chandler did.

“I wanted the public to not believe that he was this lovely, kind, friendly man that people were portraying him to be when he wasn’t,” she said. “He was literally a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Her mother and her family began living with Chandler when she was about five or six years old, she told The Record.

“Around seven, that’s when the sexual abuse started,” she said.

She said he forced her to perform sexual acts and that he took naked pictures of her without her knowledge and stored them on a computer.

“He was a nightmare to the point where I had a dog that would lay in front of my bedroom door at night and would bark and bite at anyone who would try to open my door — even my mother — because he thought it was Ron trying to come into my bedroom at night,” she said, crying.

Chandler told her if she said anything about the abuse he would be taken away from her mother, she said.

At age 14, after seven years of abuse, she told her mom what was happening.

Her mother moved them out of the home.

It was a few years later, after therapy, that she decided to press charges, she said.

On Sunday, when asked, Chandler’s 31-year-old biological daughter, Alicia Chandler, said she knew of the conviction but did not know of any others.

Ronald was again convicted of sexual assault in March 2010. He was jailed 60 days and again placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years. He got another 30 days for breaking a court order.

In November 2010, Chandler was convicted of failing to comply with the parks ban and was sent to jail for 25 days. This conviction was registered in Goderich.

Police have not identified any suspects in Chandler’s death.

“At this point in the investigation, we do not know if the homicide of Mr. Chandler was targeted or random,” said Insp. Mike Haffner in a statement. “We’remainly concerned that there is someone in the community who has committed a murder, and we want to continue to encourage members of the public to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity.”

On Monday, police released a video of a man they want to speak to in connection to the homicide. Police describe the man, who was seen in the area at the time of Chandler’s death, as white, in his late 20s to early 30s, with a thin build and short, lightcoloured hair. He was wearing a black backpack and carrying a guitar.

Anyone with information can contact police at 519-570-9777, ext. 8424, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.