Searchers in northwest Mississauga over the weekend found the torso of a suspect after an investigation into the recent home invasion of a longtime family friend of the murdered woman, Peel police said Monday.
Todd Hyatt, 29, who is believed to be the intended target in the home invasion, was killed by an unspecified shrapnel from a grenade, Peel police said in a news release. Investigators believe it occurred after midnight on Saturday.
Officers responded at 4:53 a.m. to a call reporting a disturbance in the community of Scarboro. When officers arrived, they found the 49-year-old homeowner and his son, a police spokeswoman said.
The homeowner had suffered severe head trauma and needed emergency surgery. His son had superficial wounds, she said.
In the ensuing investigation, officers seized a home and vehicle. They used a “slow-speed vehicle apprehension technique” to lead them to Hyatt’s residence on Friday, and arrested a second man, James Tse, 23, early Saturday morning.
According to police, Tse and Hyatt are both suspects in the death of Kristine Sergakis, 49, the victim of a targeted murder on May 13. Tse and Hyatt were seen together leading up to the murder and may have attended a memorial service for Sergakis that day, police said.
Both were released on bail on Friday and ordered to not contact Sergakis’s family or friends. The two are due back in court June 16.
Sergakis and Hyatt were longtime friends, and Sergakis’s home was “the only place in the world where she spent most of her time,” her family said in a statement.
Grenades were recovered from the home, and the motive for the killing remains unclear, police said.
“This was a highly targeted murder that was executed for very specific reasons,” Detective Sergeant Dean Baker of the Peel Regional Police Homicide Squad said in a statement. “This is a particularly nasty and troubling crime, and our priority is to determine how this happened and to determine who is responsible.”