HUNTER: Elusive Answers in 2021 Fort Erie Airbnb Double Murder

Christina Crooks, 18, of Toronto, and Juliana Pannunzio, 20, of Windsor, were both shot

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COVID-19 still had a grip on our societal life force.

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It was January 2021 and we were in the middle of another lockdown. The world was calmer then. And then it wasn’t.

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On January 19 of the second year of the pandemic, Niagara Regional Police received a 911 call at approximately 4:15 a.m. The caller was reporting a possible firearm incident at 4197 Niagara Pkwy. just outside Fort Erie.

The location was a notorious Airbnb rental where there had been issues in the past. On this occasion, detectives said the house was packed with people celebrating a birthday.

The Fort Erie Party Palace where two women were murdered in January 2021.
The Fort Erie Party Palace where two women were murdered in January 2021. RESERVATIONS.COM

Residents said the chic waterfront cottage had long been a problem with rowdy foreigners drinking and blasting music until the early hours. The tragedy hovered in the shadows.

But what the cops en route to the scene didn’t and couldn’t know was that inside the mansion two young women were dead.

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Christina Crooks, 18, of Toronto, and Juliana Pannunzio, 20, of Windsor, a student at St. Clair College, were the victims. Both had been shot.

After a lengthy investigation, cops have charged three people in connection with the murders.

Niagara Regional Police detectives investigating a double murder are looking to identify the two people not wearing masks in this image from a party in Fort Erie on January 19, 2021.
Niagara Regional Police detectives investigating a double murder are looking to identify the two people not wearing masks in this image from a party in Fort Erie on January 19, 2021.

Scarborough rapper Christopher El Plaga Lucas, 22, and Trevor Barnett, 30, are charged with two counts of first-degree murder while Heidi Bahler, 29, is charged with being an accessory after the fact.

The trio will likely go on trial at the end of this year or in 2024.

What connection – if any – the two victims had with their accused murderers remains unclear. Media reports suggest that neither Crooks nor Pannunzio had any prior relationship with the defendant.

In fact, why the two women were at the party is one of the mysteries that will likely be unraveled at trial.

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Juliana Pannunzio, 20, of Windsor, pictured, was shot dead with Christina Cross, 18, of Toronto, at a party house in Fort Erie in 2021.
Juliana Pannunzio, 20, of Windsor, pictured, was shot dead with Christina Cross, 18, of Toronto, at a party house in Fort Erie in 2021. Photo by HANDOUT /GOFUNDME

Nothing has emerged as to the why and why of the killings. Were the two women targeted or were they collateral damage?

“We’ve been without her for over a year now, and it doesn’t get any easier,” mother-in-law Shellie Pannunzio told the Windsor Star last February.

“There’s no time you go, OK, now we’re over the worst. You’re never really over the worst. Grief is all-consuming some days, and some days you can actually function.

“But it never goes away. Your heart is always hollow.

She added: “These are not people our daughter has associated with in the past. She did not know them in advance.

Christine Crooks, 18, of Toronto, was one of two women murdered at an Airbnb in Fort Erie in January 2021.
Christine Crooks, 18, of Toronto, was one of two women murdered at an Airbnb in Fort Erie in January 2021. Photo by HANDOUT /PROVIDED

But like many families affected by the crime, there are fears the accused could evade charges or get a happy pat on the wrist. Juliana’s birth mother, Lisa Mulcaster, plans to attend the trial every day because she needs justice.

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“She doesn’t get parole. She won’t be dead for a month, two months or five years,” Mulcaster told the Windsor Star. “She left. And she was silenced.

She added: “We need judges to use the laws that exist. When do victim rights become important? She died. There is nothing left for her. She has no life. If they’re doomed, why do they get a life? »

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In the aftermath of the horrific murders, a river of tears flows. Plans were forever shattered, dreams shattered.

“You unconsciously have plans for your daughter. We’re going to have grandkids, she’s going to get married, she’s going to graduate school,” Mulcaster told Postmedia.

“Tomorrow is empty,” she said. “How do you rejoice in tomorrow? »

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