Eighty-three-year-old Eleanor Doney was raking leaves in front of her home on Lynn Heights Drive in Pickering, just east of Toronto, on May 29, 2025. For anyone leaving that dense suburban subdivision, her red brick house with a wide porch and double garage is the last home before a lush forest that leads to one of the continent's largest electricity transmission stations.
At about 2:55 p.m., as she gardened under the shade of a large tree, an odd figure approached on foot from the east — a teenaged boy dressed in a black shiny trench coat that drooped to his shins, a black COVID-style mask, black gloves, overly large dress shoes, and carrying a briefcase.
The Attack Captured on Video
What happened during the terrifying interaction between the boy in black and the retired school teacher was recorded by a neighbour's doorbell camera. The video, police investigation, and the boy's confessions precisely capture the brutality and banality of Doney's murder, and reveal the unheeded warnings, disturbing obsessions and online interests of the 14-year-old killer.
On the day of the attack, the boy walked past Doney, stopped, put down his briefcase, and turned to speak to her. They talked for about two minutes before he returned to his soft-shell case, took out a knife and walked back to her while holding the weapon in his right hand. He then promptly stabbed her in the left side of her neck.
Doney staggered backward, turned, and started toward the refuge of her house, but the boy caught up to her in just a few steps and swung his knife again. Doney cried out as she fell but the boy swung again and again and again before retrieving his briefcase and running west along the treeline, past a sign saying illegal dumping is a crime.
Police Response and Investigation
A passerby saw Doney on the ground in front of her house and called police at 3:02 p.m. A Durham police officer arrived nine minutes later. He could tell she had stopped breathing and attempted CPR. Paramedics whisked her to Sunnybrook hospital where doctors tried to resuscitate her but pronounced her dead by 4 p.m.
Community fear quickly followed. Police issued an emergency warning for residents to remain indoors while investigators traced the killer's movements through interviews and security footage, a task made easier by his distinctive outfit. He was seen in one video walking into a wooded area and bending down. Police went to the spot and found a knife there. Tests later proved it was used in the attack on Doney.
Chief's Statement on Online Influence
Durham Regional Police Chief Peter Moreira said Doney's "senseless murder" was an important story to hear despite it being a disturbing case that devastated a family, rattled investigators, and shook the community.
"The brutality and gratuitous nature of this crime — captured on video — is shocking, and it underscores the dangerous influence that online platforms can have on young people," Moreira said in a social media post after the boy's guilty plea in April. "It also raises serious questions about the responsibility of those who knew what was going to happen and failed to act."
The boy, who cannot be named under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April 2026. His sentencing is pending, with the Crown seeking an adult sentence. The case has sparked debate about youth violence, online radicalization, and the adequacy of warning systems.
