Falls, Ont., man charged in second slaying
Police probe continues into three other deaths of women in ‘high-risk lifestyles’
By STEPHEN T. WATSON
News Staff Reporter at, The Buffalo News
June 6th 2006
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – A man already charged with murdering an exotic dancer in Southern Ontario now stands accused of killing a second woman here, police reported Monday.
Members of a task force investigating the killings of five women in this region charged Michael Durant on Monday with first-degree murder in the death of Diane C. Dimitri, whose body was discovered in August 2003 in Welland.
Police officials said that a probe into the other deaths continues and the possibility remains that all five were the work of a serial killer.
“It’s taken us months to get to this point, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Detective Sgt. Cliff Sexton of the Niagara Regional Police said at a well-
attended news conference at the agency’s 2nd District Station in this city.
Durant’s arrest on an additional murder charge is the latest development in a string of killings that date back 11 years and have shaken residents of this region.
A special investigative task force has been working since January, shortly after the body of the latest victim was discovered, to determine whether the five deaths were connected.
The women all were engaged in what police discreetly called a “high-risk lifestyle” – prostitution or exotic dancing – and all died in or around Niagara Falls, Ont.
Durant first was arrested Jan. 30, six days after the body of Cassey J. Cichocki was discovered off Welland Road in this city. Cichocki, 22, was an exotic dancer known to use drugs, police have said.
Durant, 33, of Niagara Falls, Ont., initially was charged with second-degree murder in Cichocki’s death, but that charge has since been upgraded to first-degree murder.
Police on Monday said that tips received from the public during the investigation into Cichocki’s death suggested that Durant was involved in Dimitri’s death.
The body of Dimitri, a 32-year-old mother of four, was found in August 2003 in a ditch in Welland, according to police.
Sexton, who leads the task force, and other police officials would not say what evidence linked Durant to Dimitri’s murder, nor would they comment on a motive for the slayings.
The murders of Dawn Stewart, Nadine Gurczenski and Margaret Jeanette Jugaru also may be connected to the the deaths of Cichocki and Dimitri, said Deputy Chief Donna Moody of the Niagara Regional Police.
“The work of the task force, I must reiterate, has not been completed,” Moody said, before adding that there is no specific information at this time tying Durant to the other killings.
The three unsolved murders date back to 1996, according to police.
For Dimitri’s father, Kyri Kyriacou, Monday’s announcement brings the prospect of closure after three years of heartache and unanswered questions.
Kyriacou calmly addressed a battery of reporters at the news conference and urged the media to use discretion in describing the lifestyles of his daughter and the other slain women.
“They’re all daughters, and they’re all sisters, and they’re all humans, and they’re all girls that were led down the wrong path,” he said.
Kyriacou said his daughter was a loving mother and blamed her troubles on the depression that she sank into after her husband’s death.
“That took a toll on her, and from there it was downhill all the way,” he said. He added that he and his wife are raising Dimitri’s four children, who range in age from 5 to 15.
An advocate for sex workers said she’s glad that police appear to be diligently pursuing the investigation and that the arrest of the same person for two of the murders doesn’t surprise her.
“If he’s the one responsible for those two [deaths], and possibly others, I’m very happy that he’s behind bars,” said Valerie Scott, executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada, a Toronto-based organization that promotes the rights of sex workers.
e-mail: swatson@buffnews.com