For more than 20 years, Toronto resident David Pichosky flew south to winter in a sleepy Florida neighbourhood popular with fellow snowbirds.
He bought the two-storey condo in Hallandale Beach, between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, with his wife, Sandra, in the 1980s.
Following his wife?s death from cancer in 2006, Pichosky, known to friends and family as Donny, married Toronto educator Rochelle Wise, and the retiree newlyweds carried on the tradition of happily escaping to the sunny state.
But when Pichosky, 71, and Wise, 66, failed to show up for a lunch date Thursday, friends began to worry. A neighbour noted that Thursday?s paper sat untouched on the doorstep. Concerned that no one was picking up phone at the condo, a family member asked neighbours to check in.
Just after 6 p.m. Thursday, a neighbour with a spare key opened the door and found their bodies. Local police have deemed their deaths a double homicide.
Television personality and Star columnist Jeanne Beker said she was shocked to hear about the death of Wise, who she recalled as ?good vibes, personified.?
?She touched the lives of so many families, and really provided such a supportive, loving, happy place for kids,? said Beker, whose daughters attended Crestwood Valley Day Camp, where Wise was director.
?She seemed to always look on the sunny side, and just have such a zest for life,? Beker said.
Captain Sonia Quinones, of the Hallandale Beach Police Department, said the cause of death and the motive is under investigation. Local police swarmed the area and dispatched a canine unit Thursday, and police remained on scene Friday gathering forensic evidence.
?I?m very afraid,? said France Chouinard, a neighbour of Pichosky and Wise and a fellow snowbird. Neighbours have been instructed to stay in their homes and not even go into their backyards, she said.
The homicides have shocked the community, which hasn?t seen anything like this before, Chouinard said. She had just said hello to Pichosky on Wednesday.
The deaths have equally stunned the couple?s broad network of family and friends in Toronto. Contacted Friday at the home of one of Pichosky?s children, a relative said the family was asking for privacy.
A colleague of Pichosky?s son, Mark Pichosky, said he and his family were already in Florida at the time of the homicides. Recent social media posts by Pichosky?s grandchildren show them vacationing in Florida with ?Zaida,? or grandpa.
Wise recently retired from her job as vice-principal of the preschool division at Bialik Hebrew Day School, located near Bathurst St. and Glencairn Ave. The head of the school, Shana Harris, sent an email to parents on Friday.
?We are all profoundly shocked and distraught by the tragic loss of Rochelle Wise and her husband, Donny. Rochelle was a beloved member of the Bialik community and respected as an outstanding educator and wonderful human being,? Harris wrote.
Wise had also worked as director of the Crestwood Valley Day Camp in Toronto from 1999 until 2005. The camp?s directors issued a statement Friday, saying the camp was shocked by the couple?s sudden and tragic death and describing Wise as ?an inspiration to a generation of kids.?
?Rochelle was a selfless individual who took a genuine interest in the lives of everyone she came across,? the statement said.
The couple lived in Toronto?s Bathurst and Eglinton Ave. area. A neighbour in the building, who identified herself only as Sherry, said Pichosky and Wise were a ?lovely couple.?
?It looked like a beautiful second marriage and they always looked so happy together,? she said. ?When you know that these people got a second chance at happiness and then it was taken away from them, it feels like a double whammy.?
With files from Victoria Ptashnick and Rachel Mendleson
Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1313603--canadian-couple-found-slain-in-florida-townhouse
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