The boyfriend in the basement who killed mum and two children
Krissy Pejcinovski had no idea of the danger to her family when Cory Fenn moved in
Spa Sedona in Ajax, Ontario, promised visitors escape and relaxation, and skilled beautician Krassimira “Krissy” Pejcinovski was loved by her clients and popular with her colleagues, too.
As a single mum, 39-year-old Krissy worked hard to support her three children – her daughters Victoria, 16, and Venellia, 13, who went by the name Vana, and her son Roy, 15. Krissy was so proud of how well they were doing. In 2018,Vana was in eighth grade, months away from going to high school, and Roy was a talented hockey player.
But in 2016, Krissy had met Cory Fenn at a local gym and her world started to change. Fenn was 10 years younger than her. He was an imposing character with his tall, muscular physique, took steroids and could be aggressive, according to some accounts.
While their relationship was on and off, Krissy allowed Fenn to live in the basement of her home.
Friends could see changes in the hard-working mum, under the controlling ways of Fenn. He was jealous of her work at the spa – refusing to let her have male clients. And while he was rumoured to be unfaithful, he’d accuse Krissy of seeing other men.
Colleagues also noticed that Krissy stopped wearing make-up and started to dress in baggy clothes that hid her figure.
Fenn had a criminal history for assaulting a police officer and he had a cocaine addiction. He and Krissy would also do cocaine together, which was so unlike her usual behaviour.
He seemed to get on well with Krissy’s children. But then, on 13 March 2018, Krissy’s daughter Victoria found drugs in the house and told her mum that Fenn had to go. Krissy agreed to end it for good. At around 9.30pm, Victoria left to stay with her dad.
Vana had a friend at the house for a sleepover and they were watching films in her bedroom. Roy was playing video games in his mum’s bedroom. Krissy went down to the basement to talk to Fenn.
The following morning, Krissy was due to pick Victoria up to take her to a driving lesson, but she didn’t arrive, so Victoria phoned her sister. The call woke Vana up and she agreed to go downstairs to check on her mum. Vana left her friend in her room, and headed down to the basement. Meanwhile, Krissy’s colleagues were worried that she hadn’t shown up for work. They had heard that Krissy was having problems with Fenn, so Krissy’s boss, Sherry Robinson, went to her house. She arrived around 10 minutes after Vana had gone looking for her mum. Fenn answered the door and said that Krissy wasn’t very well. Sherry asked to see her, but he refused to let her in. When she saw blood on Fenn’s arm and foot, she quickly left and called the police. When officers arrived, Fenn was gone but they found the home covered in blood. Underneath tyres and bin bags, police found Krissy’s body in the garage. She had multiple fractures to her head, 17 broken ribs and there were also stab wounds to her chest from a serrated knife. There was even a patterned injury on her neck and upper chest from a trainer. A knife lay nearby.
Upstairs, Roy was found dead next to Krissy’s bed. He had been strangled and had blunt force trauma to the head. They had both been dead since the early hours.
Vana was in the basement, under a bed, clinging onto life. She had been brutally beaten and then stabbed in the chest and neck with a butter knife.
Her friend was unharmed. She said that Vana had gone to find her mum but didn’t return. Fenn had walked up the stairs breathless, like he’d been running, asked her where Victoria was, then vanished.
Vana was rushed to hospital, but died of her injuries that evening. The pathologist said she might have been saved if she had received medical attention sooner.
BRUTAL ATTACK
Police hunted down Fenn. He had fled in his car, which he quickly abandoned at a petrol station before taking a taxi to the neighbouring city of Oshawa, where he was found hiding in a shed.
In custody, Fenn said he was in a “cocaine psychosis” after a five-day drug binge. He said he’d attacked Krissy in the garage. “The knife was afterwards,” he said.“I just strangled her in the garage… because she kept breathing and breathing… I went and I got a knife. I just wanted her to die.”
Fenn admitted to kicking Vana but said he’d looked away when he did it. Although he wouldn’t say why he’d killed Roy, he’d put a blanket over him and said he’d believed the teen was still breathing when he left. When it came to a motive, he
Fenn claimed he was in a ‘cocaine psychosis’
said that Krissy would get paranoid when using cocaine and search the home for other women.“She started f***ing with my head so much with her psychosis,” he said.
Investigators who spoke to Vana’s friend learnt that Fenn was calm when they spoke. The taxi driver who drove Fenn said the same thing. None of it fitted with the story that he’d been in a state of psychosis.
Fenn was charged with three counts of second-degree murder.
He pleaded not guilty and before his trial this year, he fired his lawyer and announced he would be representing himself. In court, he was erratic and would constantly interrupt people.
The prosecution said that Fenn had killed Krissy because she wanted to break up with him.
While Fenn said he had memory loss, the court heard that cocaine isn’t known for causing blackouts.
Fenn said he was like “the walking dead” at the time of the killings. “The mental element was not there, ”he said.“It’s like The Wizard of Oz going down the path, ‘if only I had a brain’ – I didn’t have one, guys.”
In February this year, Fenn was found guilty of three counts of second-degree murder. The judge branded the attacks “vicious and brutal”. When he began talking about possible sentencing with the court, Fenn, now 33, remarked, “Ten years would be perfect, right?”
Then, at a sentencing hearing in March, he butted in again when a family friend was reading a statement from Vana and Roy’s paternal aunt, Natasha.
She described picking out a pink and white dress for Vana to wear in her coffin. “I had to search for a scarf to go with her outfit because the funeral home had told me that her throat was not able to be exposed due to horrific injuries,” Natasha had written. Fenn interrupted, by saying, “Don’t blame me, lady.”
A FAMILY DESTROYED
During sentencing in April, an emotional statement from Krissy’s daughter Victoria was read in court, saying her mum had been beautiful inside and out. “She was so strong and worked hard to make sure we had a better life than she did growing up,” she said.
Victoria described her brother as kind-hearted and respectful, and said that Vana, who had died in her arms, was her best friend.
“She knew how to brighten anyone’s day with just a smile and a few jokes,” she shared.
The judge said Fenn had destroyed Krissy’s family and
caused considerable harm to the community. He sentenced Fenn to life in prison with the chance of parole after 25 years.
Krissy had unwittingly invited danger into her home and tragically it proved fatal.