Murder victim, accused killer IDed
Siobhan Morris, 610 CKTB News
7/8/2012
Niagara Regional Police have IDed the victim of a weekend murder & her accused killer.
19-year-old Madeline or Maddie Hood was found dead at home in St. Catharines Saturday night, after her basement apartment on East Hampton Rd was torched. Police say Maddie was murdered, but aren't revealing the cause of her death.
19-year-old Cassell Farnsworth is charged with 1st degree murder & arson-disregard for human life. He’ll be at the St. Catharines courthouse for a bail hearing Monday morning.
Niagara Regional Police spokesman constable Rich Gadreau says the victim &accused knew each other, but investigators aren't saying what kind of relationship they had or how they linked Farnsworth to Maddie's death.
Both were students at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in the Garden City. Maddie graduated last month.
Flags at Sir Winston & other DSBN schools will fly at half mast Monday to acknowledge what board spokesman Brett Sweeney calls a “terrible tragedy”. Students are off for summer break, but youth counsellors will be at Sir Winston from about 8:30am, to help them deal with the loss.
Maddie had been working part-time at the United Way in St. Catharines for about a year before her death.
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