Lori Pinkus (Unsolved Murder)

Lori Pinkus was a troubled young woman struggling with addiction issues and working as a sex worker in Ottawa, Canada. In August 1990, Lori suffered chest wounds in an alleged stabbing incident at her apartment. Two men were charged with attempted murder, but Lori failed to appear in court and fled to Toronto to start a new life. Months later, in September 1991, Lori was murdered the day before her 22nd birthday, leaving her family bereft and heartbroken.  For decades, it seemed her case had been forgotten, but in 2018 a forensic breakthrough gave hope the case will one day be solved. 

Sources for the episode can be found here

Transcript

Lori Pinkus

1991 saw the murder rate spike in Toronto, Canada. Altogether 89 people were victims of foul play, and only once in the three and a half decades since, in 2018, has there been more homicides in a single calendar year.  The 61st murder victim of 1991, and the one that exceeded the previous high of 60 murders in 1989, was 21 year old Lori Pinkus.

At 9.55am on Sunday September 8th 1991 the caretaker of Brockton High School, situated at 90 Croatia Street near Dufferin Street and Bloor Street West, discovered a young woman in dire need of medical attention and close to death. The woman had been badly beaten and was lying on her back in a gravel car park with her arms by her side. Her eyes were wide open and the Toronto Sun reported in 2021 that it was almost like she was on display. Paramedics were called to the scene and battled to save the woman's life, but sadly they were unsuccessful in doing so.

A local Sikh group met at the high school for their weekly worship and many saw the woman before the police arrived. According to the Toronto Star one witness who lived locally and only spoke Portuguese, (there was a large Portuguese community in the area) told her daughter the woman was wearing only a halter top. 

Toronto Police Service officers (TPS) from the 14th Division recognised the victim as Lori Pinkus who was a local sex worker. She was a familiar figure in the area and was known to ply her trade on the corner of Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue. This was just a ten minute walk west from where Lori was found. Lori died the day before her 22nd birthday.

Homicide Detective Sergeant Tony Watt said it was too early to speculate about the cause of death and they were awaiting forensics to determine if the victim had been sexually assaulted. Early unconfirmed reports indicated she had been strangled, and indeed an autopsy would later confirm this. Many reports say that Lori was assaulted before she was killed but I think this is referring to a physical beating. It is unclear if a sexual assault was ever officially confirmed by law enforcement. From later evidentiary developments, which I will go into shortly, it is a strong possibility she was.

Lori Marilyn Pinkus was born on September 9th 1969 in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, to parents Harry and Doris Pinkus. She was the youngest of nine children, which included two sets of twins. Lori's mother Doris ran a scrap metal company. 

Lori dropped out of school in grade 10, aged 15 or 16. During her mid teens Lori became involved in sex work to fund a growing and crippling addiction to alcohol and cocaine. At age 17 she moved out of her family home in North Gower on the southern fringes of Ottawa. From what Doris later publicly says, it is not clear whether she knew her daughter was a sex worker. In an article from the Ottawa Citizen from September 10th 1991 Doris says she couldnt recall if Lori had told her she was doing sex work. Doris does add that it would not have made her judge Lori and she always loved her daughter.

For the next few years Lori bounced from place to place.  Many of the other girls and young women who were friends with Lori and also involved in sex work managed to get out of that world by the time they turned twenty. Lori, on the other hand, was trapped. Friends tried to reach out and help her but eventually gave up. Lori seemed to get sucked deeper into that world. 

Lori developed coping mechanisms to deal with the harsh reality of life on the streets. She had a reputation of being a loner and a hothead. Lori stood at just 5 ft 1, but had a formidable temper which she could lose quickly. Perhaps this was her way of dealing with the daily challenges she faced as a sex worker.

Lori was in a constant battle with addiction. She tried to get sober many times, but the drugs always seemed to creep back into her life. Her struggles were well known in the community, culminating in a violent incident.

In February 1989 Lori’s 23 year old brother killed a man following a fight over his association with his sister. Lori was out drinking with a 32 year man named Dale Groff in a cabin on the Gatineau River near Wakefield on the east shore. At this time Lori was supposed to be in a rehabilitation program. The brother got wind of what was happening and turned up at the cabin. The two men started arguing because the brother could see that Groff was encouraging Lori to drink. Things got heated and Groff pulled a gun but it was Groff who ended up being shot dead. Lori was a witness to the body being dropped from a bridge into the river. The brother pleaded guilty in a Quebec court to manslaughter and was sentenced to eight years in prison. As we will see, this was by no means the only tragedy to strike the Pinkus family. 

Life was tough on Lori as she continued to struggle with drink and drugs. Things started to look more hopeful in the fall of 1990, after Lori returned to school to get her high school diploma. This was part of the “Futures Program” which was funded by the provincial government.  Lori was paid $5.40 an hour to complete her diploma part-time alongside working a steady job. Lori’s counsellor was very pleased with her progress and Lori looked determined to succeed and turn her life around. She was achieving good grades and had aspirations of becoming a hairdresser or  secretary when she graduated. 

Everything changed in March 1991 when Lori abruptly quit her academic course and moved away from Ottawa for good. The reason behind the sudden decision lay in the fact Lori’s life had almost been taken in a previous violent incident.

On August 22nd 1990 Lori suffered several chest wounds following an alleged stabbing at her Morisset Avenue apartment in Ottawa. It was this incident that caused Lori to reassess her life and sign up to the Futures program. 

In connection with the alleged stabbing a 23 year old man from Gloucester and 22 year old man from Vanier were arrested and charged with attempted murder. (I should say, both these places were independent cities but are now part of east Ottawa). The case was scheduled for trial, however, Lori did not show up to court on the designated day. As the alleged victim she was the main witness for the prosecution, and so the trial was abandoned. It was rescheduled for March 1991, but yet again, Lori did not attend. 

As a result the charges were dropped against the 23 year old man from Gloucester because of Lori's failure to show up on two occasions. He had been charged with aiding the other man in the alleged attack. The attempted murder charge remained in place for the 22 year old man from Vanier. Soon after a bench warrant was issued for Lori’s arrest. This type of warrant is given by a judge for contempt of court or failure to attend. 

In response Lori dropped out of her school program and fled to Toronto Metro for a new start. The Ottawa Citizen September 10th 1991 edition says that a warrant was also issued for Lori due to a breach of her probation conditions, namely the failure to attend rehab. 

After Lori moved to Toronto her mother didn't hear from her daughter for quite a while. Eventually Lori did make contact over the phone and told her mother “I love you”, and asked “do you still love me?” From then Lori would occasionally touch base with her mother over the phone. 

Fearing that Lori was backsliding on her sobriety, Doris wanted Lori to go to rehab. Doris reserved a place for her daughter at a facility in Toronto, it was booked for April 1991. Lori didn't show up and told her mother she had a job working at the Westin Hotel in downtown Toronto. Lori soon fell back into old habits and hung around with the wrong crowd. She began abusing drugs and, perhaps inevitably, turned to sex work to make the money she needed.

A few months after Lori had left for Toronto another tragedy hit the family when older brother Ronald died suddenly aged only 28. This was a loss that affected Lori.

So how did Lori end up murdered and her body left in the grounds of Brockton high school? Police theorised that she had gone to the area looking to buy drugs. The spot was a known hangout for drug users and  for drug dealers to pedal their wares. This was just a ten minute walk east of the corner of Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue where Lori stood looking for customers. The questions investigators had to consider were: Did Lori know her Killer? Did she meet someone on the way to buy drugs? Or was she simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; had the murder had been a random attack? Indeed, these are questions law enforcement continue to ponder today.

Police began to put together a picture of Lori's life in the weeks prior to her murder. Medical records showed that Lori had recently spent a stint in hospital with pneumonia. Lori was officially listed as having no fixed abode but two weeks before her death she had moved into a basement apartment on Dufferin Street with her new 29 year old boyfriend. This was just a few blocks from Brockton High School where she was found. Both Lori and her boyfriend were listed as unemployed. 

The boyfriend told the police the last time he saw Lori was at 6am on Saturday September 7th, when she left the apartment to buy some cigarettes. He didn't know Lori was dead until Monday morning when police burst into his apartment and asked him to raise his hands slowly to his head. When told about Lori’s death, he couldn't believe the news. The boyfriend said he and Lori had made plans to celebrate her birthday that evening by going out to play pool and have some drinks. With this in mind police were keen to find any sightings of Lori from Saturday September 7th.

Police did find some reports of what Lori did on Saturday.

Police contacted Lori's mother and informed her of the awful news about her daughter. They learnt from the 61 year old Doris that on Saturday afternoon Lori had telephoned home. During the conversation Lori had said “If I die would you take it? Will you bury me? " At the time Doris didn't attach any significance to these words, but in hindsight it seemed more than a little odd and an incredible coincidence. Did Lori know her life was in imminent danger?

What was doubly distressing for Doris was that earlier in the week Lori had phoned her mother and said she wanted to come back to Ottawa for a visit that weekend. Unfortunately Lori couldn't afford the bus fare. Doris had almost volunteered to pay but hadn't. She now wished she had. 

Police got confirmation that Lori had been to a local bar on Saturday night. She was last seen leaving the bar with friends early in the hours of Sunday September 8th. Unfortunately, I have no more details about this. Those are Lori’s last known movements until she was found clinging to life in the car park of Brockton High School.

Doris Pinkus spoke publicly to several newspapers saying, “No matter what a woman is she has the right to live. Nobody deserves to die like that, especially Lori. She was very kind, perhaps too kind”.

She remarked on her daughter's quick temper but said although Lori wasn't tough, she was convinced her daughter would have fought back against her killer.

In the immediate aftermath of the murder the police remained quite tight lipped about the investigation. Doris Pinkus told the press that the police had asked her if Lori was acquainted with members of the motorcycle gang, “The Outlaws”. Doris herself knew members of the gang and individuals who were part of the “Hells Angels". She told the “Ottawa Citizen” that they  were good people. Two of Lori’s brothers went to Toronto themselves to see if they could find out anything about the murder.  In response to some public comments Doris made, the brothers said they did not go to take the law into their own hands but to find out from the police what was going on. Ultimately they returned without too much new information. 

In wake of Lori's death it was announced that the attempted murder charge 14.40 against the 22 year old Vanier man had been dropped. (To be clear this is regarding the alleged stabbing of Lori at her apartment in August 1990). Assistant Crown Attorney Donna Eastwood told a Judge that Lori's testimony was essential to the case against the man. It's important to note that the charges were dropped against the man days before Lori was murdered. Prosecutors expected Lori would ignore any subpoena requiring her to testify so the case was dropped. 

There is very little information about the investigation into Lori's death, though it seems many persons of interest were looked at and subsequently eliminated. For many years it appeared that the case had been completely forgotten about. That, however, was not so. 

In 1991 there had been a thorough scientific and forensic inspection of the crime scene and body. Back then technology was not at a place to help investigators, but three decades later things had changed.

In May 2018, 27 years after Lori was murdered, Detective Sergeant Stacy Gallant of the Toronto Metro Homicide Squad announced that they now had a strong male DNA profile linked to Lori's murder. I do not know what the source of the DNA was, i.e. blood, semen or something else, but it was found at the crime scene at Brockton High School and believed to belong to her killer. The profile was run through Canada's national DNA data bank. This has been in operation since 2000 and now contains over 400,000 profiles taken from blood, saliva and hair following an offender's conviction. There was no match in 2018 and repeated attempts have produced no result. 

Detective Sergeant Gallant confirmed that no one had ever been arrested for the crime but he was convinced that there was someone out there who knew who was responsible. He called on the public to provide a name to test the DNA profile against. In 2018 he estimated the suspect would be older than 50. 

This development saw one of Lori's older brothers, Larry Pinkus, speak publicly for the first time about his sister's murder. Larry was interviewed by a journalist from Canadian news site Global News. The pain he still feels was very evident and that the hurt from that horrible event was still there. 

With the DNA breakthrough there was clear expectation that an arrest would follow, but this did not happen. It has been very quiet in the eight years since the DNA reveal and there have been no major developments to report.

Lori’s grave is at Pinecrest Cemetery, Ottawa. She was laid to rest in plot section 7 near her older brother Ronald. Doris was also buried there when she passed away.

If you have any information about the 1991 unsolved murder of Lori Pinkus in Toronto you can contact the Toronto Police on 416-808-7400 or crime stoppers on 416-222-8477.