Sabrina Kauldhar, a 30-year-old woman from Toronto, is charged with murder in the deaths of three people in three Ontario cities on three consecutive days in October 2024. Trinh Thi Vu, 66, died in Toronto on October 1. Lance Cunningham, 47, died in Niagara Falls on October 2. Mario Bilich, 77, died in Hamilton on October 3. Police said Kauldhar knew Vu, and they believe the two men were strangers to her who were randomly targeted.
She faces one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. None of the allegations has been tested in court, she has entered no plea that has been reported, and she is presumed innocent. Much of the case so far has turned on whether she is fit to stand trial. A judge found her unfit in March 2025 and fit in June 2025, and in October 2026 the Crown and the defence agreed that doctors should continue assessing her mental health before any trial begins. She is due back in court on January 27, 2027.
For most of the first week of October 2024, three separate police services were dealing with what appeared to be three unrelated homicides. The Toronto Police Service had the death of a woman in Toronto. The Niagara Regional Police Service had the death of a man in Niagara Falls. The Hamilton Police Service had the death of a man in Hamilton.
The connection came on the third day. According to the Niagara Regional Police, investigators linked the Hamilton death to the Niagara Falls death because the suspect matched the description given in both cases, and the two investigations were then linked to the Toronto case that was already open. Toronto police described the sequence the same way in their own statement: detectives connected Hamilton to Niagara Falls, and "an additional link was made to the active homicide investigation from October 1 in Toronto," Global News reported.
Toronto police were called just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. The Niagara Regional Police release later gave the time of the call as 2:08 p.m. A woman in her 60s was found dead. Police said she had trauma to her body but did not disclose the cause of death. CP24 reported the next day that police had not yet identified her and were still working to notify her next of kin, and that no information was available about a suspect or about what had led to her death. Her death was recorded as Toronto's 69th homicide of 2024.
On October 11, Toronto police identified her as Trinh Thi Vu, 66. Investigators said she and Kauldhar knew each other but did not say how. Global News reported that the two had been roommates, and CHCH News later described Vu as Kauldhar's roommate in its coverage of the court case. Toronto police said their working understanding was that the woman who died in Toronto knew the accused, while the other two people were believed to have been chosen at random. Little else about Vu's life has been made public. Reports have not named her relatives or described her work or background, and police have not said how she died.
At 2:49 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2, emergency services in Niagara Falls were called on a report of a disturbance. Two uniformed officers from the Niagara Regional Police district that covers Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake found a man with critical injuries. Niagara paramedics and the Niagara Falls Fire Service tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. He was Lance Cunningham, 47, of Niagara Falls.
Police said Cunningham had been out walking his two dogs. A police official told CHCH News that he had been "essentially just going for a walk with his dogs." He had planned, police said, to pick up his daughter from a nearby school shortly before 3 p.m. that afternoon, Global News reported.
The police Emergency Task Unit and K9 Unit searched the area and found no one. The Homicide Unit took over, assisted by district detectives and the Forensic Services Unit. In a release issued just before midnight, Niagara police said there was no information to suggest an immediate threat to public safety, and that a heavy police presence would remain for a couple of days. CHCH News reported that the suspect was still being sought.
Friends described Cunningham as a kind, funny man who loved his daughter. A family friend told Global News that he was a fun-loving baseball dad and a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Another friend, whose children had been in school with Cunningham's daughter since kindergarten, said the death "didn't make any sense." Cunningham's wife told CBC News that they had a 13-year-old daughter. "He did not deserve this," she said, according to CBS News, which carried her remarks. "I want my husband back." Friends of the family encouraged donations to a fundraising campaign for his wife and daughter.
On Thursday, October 3, Mario Bilich, 77, of Hamilton, was fatally injured in the city and died in hospital, Hamilton police said.
CHCH News reported a large police presence in Hamilton that afternoon, and that police had not yet identified him or said how many people were involved. Bilich did not know Kauldhar, Global News reported.
A friend told Global News that he was shocked by the death and remembered Bilich as a man who knew many languages. In a public post, his daughter asked for prayers for her family. CHCH News reported that many people in Hamilton knew him and that he would be remembered fondly, and that police said they knew of no connection between the people who died and no motive.
The suspect was identified from video footage, Niagara Regional Police Chief Bill Fordy said. Niagara police uniform officers arrested Sabrina Kauldhar at about 5:45 p.m. on October 3, 2024, in Burlington. Global News reported that she was arrested just before 6 p.m. after arriving at a hotel that investigators were securing; Fordy declined to say whether she had been staying there. She was held in the custody of the Niagara Regional Police.
The charges were announced on Friday, October 4. Niagara police, joined by Hamilton police, held a news conference that afternoon at Niagara Regional Police headquarters in Niagara Falls. One foreign report, by CBS News with Agence France-Presse, said she had been arrested on the Friday; the police release and Canadian outlets put the arrest on Thursday evening, October 3.
The first Niagara Regional Police release listed a charge of first-degree murder for the Hamilton death and second-degree murder for the deaths in Toronto and Niagara Falls. Some reports on the day of the announcement gave the count differently: CP24 and Global News reported one second-degree charge for Toronto and two first-degree charges for Niagara Falls and Hamilton. Later reports by The Canadian Press, published by CP24, Global News and others, consistently describe the case as one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
The charges are allegations. None has been tested in court.
At the October 4 news conference, Fordy was asked whether the term "serial killer" fit. "I think by definition she is a serial killer. By definition I think that is a fair comment," he said, according to CP24. Global News reported him explaining the definition as two or more offences. The phrase was the chief's description of a charged case, given the day after the last death and before any court had heard evidence, but it was carried in headlines in Canada and abroad.
Fordy said Mario Bilich and Lance Cunningham "were both going about their business and we believe they were random attacks." He said police were not aware of any connection between the two men and were not aware of a motive. He said more than 100 investigators from the three services were working on the case, and that agencies were checking with colleagues across the province for any other possibly related incidents.
He spoke about the risk of further offences when someone is alleged to have committed three in so short a time, and said it was hard to know whether there would have been more without the arrest. He said he was "very pleased that we were able to bring this to closure in a quick manner." He said that Kauldhar did not live in the Niagara region but had had a past interaction with police there, and CHCH News reported that she was said to have had a prior interaction with Toronto police as well.
Police did not know how she had travelled between the three cities. Fordy said it was not uncommon for her to use public transit, including buses and taxis. "Our investigators are in the throes of trying to better understand the timeline," he said, according to Global News.
In the arrest release, Niagara police asked for help identifying a woman seen on security video at a store in Burlington on October 1, buying clothing that Kauldhar had with her when she was arrested. Fordy said police wanted to identify her to make sure she was safe and to find out what role, if any, she had played.
The woman was found the next day. CHCH News reported that police said she was cooperating, was not connected to the offences and was not facing charges, and Niagara police removed her photograph from circulation and asked the public to do the same. Investigators continued to ask anyone who had seen Kauldhar between October 1 and her arrest on October 3 to come forward, through a dedicated tip line.
In Niagara Falls, the timing of the death raised a question for parents. A couple who were friends of the Cunninghams told Global News they were concerned that there had been no lockdown or notification, because school was letting out shortly afterward and parents had been left to decide for themselves what to do. Asked at the news conference why the public had not been warned, Fordy said that police had not known at the time that the attack was random. Global News noted that a suspect was in custody within about 24 hours of the death in Niagara Falls.
Few details about Kauldhar's life have been made public, and police released little about her beyond her name, age and city. A former neighbor told Village Media that she grew up in the south end of Barrie, north of Toronto, and described her as kind and caring; the neighbor called the news a "complete shock." A former friend who knew her about a decade earlier, when she was a university student, described her as nice and driven. She reportedly attended the University of Waterloo for a year.
Kauldhar appeared in court in St. Catharines on Friday, October 4, 2024, for a bail hearing, CHCH News reported. Village Media reported that the appearance was adjourned to the following Thursday for a mental health assessment.
Because three police services had laid charges, the case moved through courts in three places: Toronto for the death of Trinh Thi Vu, St. Catharines for the death of Lance Cunningham, and Hamilton for the death of Mario Bilich.
On Thursday, October 17, 2024, Kauldhar appeared in a Toronto court on the second-degree murder charge connected with the death in Toronto. The question that day was whether she should be assessed for fitness to stand trial.
The Canadian Press reported that her defence lawyers had first applied for the assessment, saying they had "some fitness concerns," but withdrew the application, saying Kauldhar had instructed them to oppose it. The prosecution then made its own application. Ontario Court Justice Edward Kelly granted it, ruling that the prosecution had shown "there are reasonable grounds to doubt the fitness of the accused at this point in time." The case was set to return the next day, October 18, in St. Catharines and Hamilton on the other two charges.
In March 2025, a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto ruled that Kauldhar was unfit to stand trial at that time. She was ordered to undergo 60 days of psychiatric treatment, after which she would be reassessed. Where the treatment would take place was not made public.
After the treatment and the reassessment, the question returned to court. Kauldhar's lawyers argued that the Crown had not proved, on a balance of probabilities, that she had the "psychological wherewithal to meet the test for fitness."
On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Justice Russell Silverstein of the Ontario Court of Justice rejected that argument and ruled that she was fit to stand trial. He said he had considered the opinions of medical experts at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto who had observed her. His reasoning, as reported by The Canadian Press, was that if most of the symptoms of her mental illness had resolved through treatment, it stood to reason that her unfitness, an earlier symptom, had resolved too. She was due back in court the following month.
The case returned to court on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. CHCH News reported that the Crown and the defence agreed that day that doctors needed to continue their mental health assessments before a trial could begin. The proceedings were adjourned, and Kauldhar was set to be back in court on January 27, 2027.
No trial date or plea had been made public by that appearance. None of the three charges had been tested in court.
Police have not described a motive, and at the October 2024 news conference they said they were not aware of one. They have not released the cause of death for Trinh Thi Vu or Lance Cunningham. They have not said how the accused is alleged to have travelled between Toronto, Niagara Falls, Hamilton and Burlington over the three days, and they have not said publicly how she and Vu came to know each other.
The fitness rulings concern her ability to take part in a trial, not what happened in October 2024. She is presumed innocent of all three charges.
October 1, 2024, about 2:08 p.m.: Toronto police are called and find Trinh Thi Vu, 66, dead.
October 2, 2024, 2:49 p.m.: Emergency services are called in Niagara Falls, where Lance Cunningham, 47, is pronounced dead. Just before midnight Niagara police say there is no known immediate threat to the public.
October 3, 2024, about 12:26 p.m.: Hamilton police receive a 911 call; Mario Bilich, 77, is taken to hospital, where he dies.
October 3, 2024, about 5:45 p.m.: Niagara police officers arrest Sabrina Kauldhar, 30, at a hotel in Burlington.
October 4, 2024: Charges announced; Niagara and Hamilton police hold a news conference; Kauldhar appears in court in St. Catharines for a bail hearing.
October 5, 2024: The woman seen on store video in Burlington is identified; police say she is not connected and not charged.
October 11, 2024: Toronto police identify the woman who died on October 1 as Trinh Thi Vu.
October 17, 2024: Justice Edward Kelly, Ontario Court of Justice, orders a fitness assessment in Toronto over the objection Kauldhar instructed her lawyers to make.
October 18, 2024: The case is scheduled in St. Catharines and Hamilton on the other two charges.
March 2025: Found unfit to stand trial at that time; ordered into 60 days of psychiatric treatment.
June 11, 2025: Justice Russell Silverstein rules her fit to stand trial.
October 28, 2026: Crown and defence agree that mental health assessments should continue before trial; the case is adjourned.
January 27, 2027: Next scheduled court date.