Florida police are hunting for two women who may be involved in the murder of a Toronto couple found dead in their winter home.
The announcement of the recovery of a pair of DNA profiles from the crime scene came almost a year after the bodies of Rochelle Wise, 66, and David Pichosky, 71, were discovered bound and asphyxiated in Hallandale, Fla.
“That’s what the evidence tells us, what science tells us – that there are two females that are involved in this homicide, at least two,” Hallandale Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy said during a press conference Wednesday morning.
Flournoy said police don’t believe the perpetrators knew the couple.
The police are one step closer to finding the Toronto couple’s killers since they received lab reports from two rounds of DNA evidence, Flournoy said.
They are awaiting the results for the last round of DNA testing.
The DNA doesn’t match anyone from the couple’s family or working staff, he said.
Nor does the DNA appear in a databank of profiles collected by law enforcement agencies or Canada’s national DNA databank, he said.
“They did not have enemies, they did not carry large sums of money, they were not flashy,” Flournoy said. “We don’t know why someone would target them or [if it] was a crime of opportunity.”
A partial shoe print that was found at the scene has been identified as an Adidas shoe out of production since 2000. The largest model of shoe that sole was used on was the Supernova, Flournoy said. Investigators were not able to determine its size, nor whether it was a man’s or woman’s, he said.
“[Perpetrators] either bring something to a crime scene or take something away. They have done both,” Flournoy said.
Last February, police released surveillance video footage of a woman walking to the back of the couple’s home the day before the couple was discovered.
Hallandale police are still looking for the woman and have released a forensic sketch of the woman in the hope of identifying her.
“We believe that the identification of this female is critical and important to this case,” Flournoy said.
Detectives from both Canada and the U.S. have contributed to case, looking for suspects in the DNA databases of both countries and interviewing more than 50 people.
Flournoy also said that Wise’s wedding ring, which was valued at $16,000, is still missing.
The ring is white, has five diamonds, carries a half-shaped moon design and carries a clasp that was designed to address Wise’s arthritis problem.
Police had earlier speculated that robbery may have been the motive for the murder.
Police have increased the reward for information about the case to $57,000 from the original $51,000, with the help of donations.
Flournoy said that the police, as well as the victims’ families, encourage any one with information to come forward.
Members of Pichosky and Wise’s families were on hand for the news conference and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
“Over the past 12 months we have learned to live in a new reality. The sun comes up, the birds may be singing, but for our family every day is a nightmare,” said Pichosky’s daughter, Sari Rosenblum.
“We have no peace, we have no closure, we have no understanding of why this has happened. I still have nightmares. I can’t put aside what happened to them and have no chance of moving on. Nothing in our lives is normal anymore.”
The couple’s marriage — the second, for each of them — was their second chance at love, Rosenblum said. They loved each other and in turn were well-liked in their Toronto and Florida communities, the family said, adding that 1,500 people attended their funeral.
Pichosky made weekly visits to the elderly and the sick in Toronto and would telephone them weekly from Florida, his daughter said. In Florida, Wise volunteered once a week at a Hebrew academy teaching children who needed remedial help, her friend Pearl Gladman said.
With files from the Canadian Press
