Warning: This story contains details some readers might find disturbing.
A judge has sentenced Adam Strong to a concurrent sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years and 18 years in prison for the murder of Rori Hache and the manslaughter of Kandis Fitzpatrick, teens who went missing on the streets of Oshawa nine years apart.
After a day-and-a-half-long sentencing hearing, Justice Joseph Di Luca delivered his reasons for sentence orally at the Oshawa courthouse. He called the 48-year-old offender “a dangerous predator” who not only destroyed two vulnerable lives, but destroyed those closest to them.
“You may never be capable of feeling the damage you have caused. You will never be seen in public again. In time you will be forgotten perhaps not by the families of the victims … you will neither be famous or infamous,” Di Luca told Strong as he sat in the prisoner’s box breathing heavily behind a mask.
Di Luca also ordered that Strong’s DNA be submitted to the sex offender registry and ordered that he have no contact with the families of the victims.
Strong will not be eligible for parole until Dec. 29, 2042, 25 years after he was arrested at his downtown Oshawa apartment.
Hache, an 18-year-old Durham Region resident, was murdered in Strong’s apartment in September 2017 during a sex offence. She died after being struck on the head before she was dismembered. Hache’s body parts were mutilated, her torso was disposed of in Lake Ontario and her body parts were stored in a freezer before her flesh and internal organs were flushed down the drain.
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“The discovery in Mr. Strong’s apartment was precipitated by nothing more than a clogged drain,” Di Luca said.
Almost 10 years prior to Hache’s death, 19-year-old Kandis Fitzpatrick also ended up in Strong’s apartment and she was killed in some unlawful manner. Fitzpatrick too was dismembered and disposed of.
“Her body has never been and likely never will be located,” Di Luca stressed, adding who said her discovery was little more than a thread of flesh and a few drops of blood.
Fitzpatrick’s DNA was recovered during an exhaustive forensic search of Strong’s apartment.
The judge said Strong has shown no remorse and is unlikely to be rehabilitated.
“The sentence I impose today can never undo the harm, can never erase the horrors the families have endured, can never bring them back,” Di Luca said.
“It can however do one thing: It can ensure that Mr. Strong will never walk completely free in our community. In fact, the sentence I imposed will likely ensure that he will never again get out of prison.”
After the sentence was handed down, there were cheers and clapping in both the courtroom and the overflow room where about a dozen friends and media sat.
Fitzpatrick’s father, Bill Fitzpatrick, said he is happy with the outcome.
“After 13 years, we can move on, start a new chapter now, start honouring my daughter,” he said.
Hache’s mother was unable to attend the in-person hearing because she tested positive for COVID-19. However, Hache’s godmother, Krysia Meeldyk, said she is feeling amazing.
“Today we let them rest, today this monster if off our street, and he is no longer part of our day,” she said.
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