Christine Chayko was 16 years old when she discovered the naked body of her next-door neighbour, Katherine Janeiro, lying on the bedroom floor of her Barrie apartment with a towel covering her head in 1994.
Robert MacQueen, who is now 61 years old and also is known as "Bruce Ellis," is on trial for second-degree murder in the young mother's stabbing death. Both of his names were used in the Barrie courtroom Thursday.
Chayko, who had gone to Janeiro's Dunlop Street West apartment to use her phone, testified the bedroom appeared to have been ransacked.
Chayko also testified that two other men had been in Janeiro’s apartment at the time she made the grisly discovery. She had passed one man in the kitchen, who was going through the cupboards, while another passed her in the hallway coming from the bathroom.
Chayko said she went to the bedroom looking for one of Janeiro's phones.
Chayko testified that it was dark inside the bedroom, so she flicked on the light and saw Janeiro's body. She immediately turned the light off and quickly left the apartment without speaking to the men.
Neither of the two men inside the apartment were MacQueen, court heard.
The Crown says the attack started in Janeiro's bathtub and she was then dragged to her bedroom.
MacQueen's trial began Thursday morning at the Barrie courthouse, with Chayko as the first witness called by the Crown attorney.
None of the allegations against MacQueen have been proven in court.
Janeiro, 20, was found dead on Oct. 10, 1994. At the time, police said she had suffered multiple stab wounds. Janeiro's two-year-old daughter had been visiting family members at the time of the homicide.
Court heard the last time Janeiro had contact with anyone was around 4 a.m. on Oct. 10, 1994. Her body was discovered around 7 p.m. later that night.
During Thursday's court proceedings, MacQueen, dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans, listened intently and without emotion.
Earlier in the day, the Crown outlined its case against MacQueen. The Crown says MacQueen was in a relationship with Janeiro while he was married and living nearby on Dunlop Street.
During opening statements, the Crown said Janeiro had also had a "therapeutic abortion" on Sept. 16, 1994, less than a month before she was killed.
The Crown also described Janeiro as someone who “sold drugs for a friend.”
The Crown also claims MacQueen’s blood was found at in two locations inside Janeiro’s apartment at the time of her death — on a door jamb into the bedroom as well as above the couch in the living room.
As previously reported, Janeiro's telephone had also been stolen from the crime scene.
A woman contacted police in 2019 to report she had seen a man running across Dunlop Street with a phone. She later identified MacQueen from a photograph.
MacQueen was initially charged with first-degree murder in January 2021, more than 26 years after the young woman's body was discovered in her Dunlop Street West home, near Anne Street. The charge was reduced to second-degree murder following a preliminary hearing in December 2022 and MacQueen was granted bail in July 2023.
According to news reports published by the former Barrie Examiner, Janeiro's body was found lying on the floor, covered in blood with scratches on her face. She'd been at a pair of downtown bars most of Sunday night and early Monday morning prior to her body being discovered.
Her death may have been the result of a robbery, police said at the time.
In March 1995, only a week after police announced they were looking for the missing phone, it was found in a creek not far from the homicide scene. Its memory was intact, but police said it brought investigators no closer to finding her killer.
Janeiro left home at age 16 and moved to Barrie. A year later, she gave birth to a baby girl. About 10 months prior to her death, Janeiro had moved into the Dunlop Street apartment with her toddler.
The trial, which will reconvene Monday, is expected to last seven weeks.
