Rohinie Bisesar, the woman diagnosed with schizophrenia who committed a notorious killing of an innocent stranger in a downtown Toronto Shoppers Drug Mart more than a decade ago, has been granted an absolute discharge. This decision frees her entirely from the restrictions of the justice system.
Ontario Review Board Decision
The Ontario Review Board stated, 'While the tragedy cannot be undone and will always be on our minds, Ms. Bisesar no longer is a significant threat to the safety of the public, and the law requires that an absolute discharge must be imposed. Ms. Bisesar's commitment to her present health has substantially contributed to this result.'
The Crime
In 2015, Bisesar, then 40 and now 51, stabbed Rosemarie Junor in the cosmetics section of the Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto's financial district PATH. She acted following malicious command hallucinations from a voice she called the 'entity.' Junor, 28, also known as 'Kim,' was newly married and worked at a downtown private medical clinic. She died five days later from a single stab wound to the heart inflicted by a small kitchen knife.
Background of the Offender
Bisesar was a tiny woman, 4 foot 11 and 85 pounds, whose life had abruptly unraveled. She held an MBA from a top Ontario school and had worked at a major financial firm. However, a year before the killing, she was hospitalized after threatening her parents with arson and expressing bizarre paranoia. Unemployed, she frequented the financial district, often seen neatly dressed and working on a laptop at coffee shops.
Sequence of Events
According to trial facts from 2018, on a Friday mid-afternoon in December, the voice in her head said, 'What is the worse thing you can do?' and instructed her to get a knife. She traveled a dozen subway stops uptown to a discount store to buy a small kitchen knife, then returned downtown. In the PATH, she sat beside a woman and considered stabbing her, but then 'the entity picked me up from the bench and had me start walking really fast.' She saw Junor on the phone in the nail polish section of Shoppers, and within 24 seconds, stabbed her in the upper chest and fled. Security footage identified her, and she was arrested four days later at a residence in the east end.
Curious Email
Just 10 minutes before the reported arrest time, the National Post received an email from Bisesar's personal address, appearing to be from her. It read, 'Do you know any top professionals in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, satellites? Something has been happening to me and this is not my normal self and I would like to know who and why this is happening.'
The case transfixed the city due to its incomprehensible violence from an unlikely offender. Now, with the absolute discharge, Bisesar is free from legal restrictions, though the tragedy remains unforgettable.
