EPELBAUM o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-16 published
Senior's death baffles neighbour
By Anthony
REINHART
Tuesday,
September 16, 2003 - Page A16
The sight of an ambulance is nothing unusual to residents of
the Kempford Apartments on Yonge Street in North York.
This is, after all, a seniors building, with many residents in
declining health.
Still, no one could have anticipated the reason paramedics and
police had to race here last Saturday evening, as the late-summer
sun dipped behind the 14-storey building.
They arrived to find the broken body of 81-year-old Kuna
EPELBAUM,
a long-time resident, lying in the driveway.
And 12 storeys up, beyond the open window from which Mr.
EPELBAUM
had jumped, they found his mentally handicapped daughter, Sophia,
strangled to death with a cord.
Police have no doubt that Mr.
EPELBAUM, a retired dentist who
immigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe in the 1970s, killed
his 43-year-old daughter before taking his own life.
What they don't know -- and indeed, may never know with certainty
is why.
Mr. EPELBAUM left no note before he leapt, nor had police ever
been called to Apt. 1211 because of trouble in the past, said
Detective Randy
CARTER of the Toronto Police homicide squad.
The working theory, after interviews with Mr.
EPELBAUM's three
surviving children in the Toronto area, is that he was upset
because his family was arranging to move his daughter out of
his apartment to live on her own.
"I guess it's all maybe educated speculation, but our investigation
showed us that the two of them had been living together for a
number of years, and that was about to change," Det.
CARTER said
yesterday. "And something in that arrangement caused him to do
what he did."
Family members declined comment yesterday, but the disturbing
events were on the minds of many at the apartment building, one
of several well-kept high-rises clustered on Yonge just south
of Finch Avenue.
One woman, who said she had known Mr.
EPELBAUM since his wife
died 15 years ago, said he frequently expressed worry about Sophia's
future after he, too, passed away.
"He was very concerned about this child, wondering what would
happen to her if he died," she said, declining to be identified.
"And it worried him to death."
Mr. EPELBAUM, known as Nick to some of his neighbours, suffered
from shingles, a painful skin condition. He also had been struggling
with pain from a fall several months ago, in which he broke his
shoulder and arm.
"He would say many times, 'It won't be long before I'll be with
my wife again,' " the woman said. "He was getting on the verge
of feeling life isn't worth it, and we'd urge him on -- 'Come
on, Nick, get out there and talk with the guys.'
While Det.
CARTER said Mr.
EPELBAUM and his daughter had lived
together continuously since Mrs.
EPELBAUM's death, his neighbour
offered a different account.
She said Sophia moved out of her father's apartment for a time
several years ago, "to give him a break," first living in an
institution, then in an apartment on Bathurst Street, with help
from a city social worker. She was unable to hold a paying job,
but volunteered at a hospital, she said.
Then Sophia went missing from her own apartment before resurfacing
at her father's place, the woman said.
Ever since, the widower and his daughter seemed to enjoy a close
and caring relationship.
The woman said that when she last saw Mr.
EPELBAUM a few days
ago, he was worried because Sophia had not yet returned from
the store.
The next thing she heard, her old neighbour was dead, and so
was his daughter.
"I can't imagine him doing it," the woman said, in the building's
lobby yesterday afternoon.
"He wouldn't harm a flea, and all of a sudden this happens. It's
just not right."
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