Tragic Deaths in Brockville Shock Community

Brockville, Ont., residents say they’re shocked and saddened after a mother and her two daughters were killed this week in what police are calling an act of intimate partner violence.

Police said they were called to a townhouse complex shortly before noon on Thursday and found the bodies of a 49-year-old woman and her daughters, aged 17 and 15.

A 17-year-old whom police say knew the victims has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of assaulting a police officer.

His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. is also not revealing the identity of the victims.

Brockville Police say the investigation is large and complex.

“We have not had anything of this scale in my career or nothing I can recall previous to that,” Brockville Police Insp. Darryl Boyd said.

The force’s last murder investigation was several years ago, around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

‘It’s hard to process’

People who live near the crime scene were distressed by the news on Friday.

“It’s sad. I can’t believe this happens in Brockville,” said Charles Halladay, adding that his wife is particularly shaken.

“We never lock our door that hard. Just one lock. But now she wants every lock on that door locked every day.”

The community is tight-knit, Halladay said, and always looking out for each other. But the deaths have left some with a heightened sense of insecurity.

“It scares you. You’re always looking over your shoulder,” Halladay said.

Residents also expressed their condolences to the victim’s family, describing the mother and her daughters as kind, loving and polite.

“Initially, I was shocked. [I’m] numb right now, and it’s hard to process,” said Betcy Biju, adding she hoped more would be done to prevent this type of violence.

Brockville Police have said the killings fit the description of femicide. The accused was also in a relationship with one of the daughters, Boyd said, “indicating that this is an incident involving intimate partner violence.”

Killings mark 11th femicide of the year

“We have to be honest with what we’re looking at here,” said Brockville Mayor Matt Wren in an interview with Ontario Morning.

“Three women killed in the place that they should have been safest.”

There were 43 femicides in Ontario between November 2024 and November 2025, according to the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH), an advocacy group working to end gender-based violence.

The group defines femicide as the gender-based killing of a woman, child, trans woman, two-spirit person or gender non-conforming individual where a man has been charged.

According to OAITH, the latest deaths in Brockville bring this year’s femicide total in Ontario to 11.

“We’re starting to see younger perpetrators as well, which certainly has has an impact for prevention,” said Lauren Hancock, a policy and research co-ordinator with the group.

Violence targeted at intimate partners can also end up victimizing people outside that relationship, Hancock said, adding that many such cases are preventable.

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