‘Tragic event for everyone’

Scarborough mom charged in deaths of two young sons

Toronto police have charged a Scarborough mother with first-degree murder in the deaths of her two young sons, the latest development in what a homicide detective has called a “tragic event for everyone involved.”

In a news release Friday, police announced they’d charged Vanessa Collias, 25, with two counts of firstdegree murder in the deaths of her boys, aged four and five, who were found without vital signs inside the family’s apartment unit Sunday night. The discovery was made moments after Collias plunged from the unit’s sixth-floor balcony and only days after the sudden death of Collias’s husband, the boys’ father.

Collias, who remains in serious condition, appeared in court via telephone and was held in custody, police said.

The boys — who were not named by police but have been identified in an online fundraiser as Yiannis and Mimi — were found without vital signs Sunday evening with no apparent signs of trauma. Autopsies were conducted on the children this week, but the cause of death will not yet be released as it “forms a great big part of our investigation,” said Toronto police acting Insp. Terry Browne, with the force’s homicide squad.

Stressing he was not condoning any alleged offences, Browne said the case was an utter tragedy.

“This is just a tragic, tragic, tragic event for everyone involved,” he said.

Police were called to an apartment building at 5 Glamorgan Ave., near Kennedy Road and Ellesmere Road, at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. When they arrived, officers found Collias on the ground outside, suffering serious injuries after plunging from a balcony. Police do not believe her fall was accidental or that anyone was with her when she fell. She was sent to hospital and is expected to survive.

Officers then quickly went up to her apartment, broke through the locked door, and found the two young boys unconscious but with no visible signs of injury. The children were rushed to hospital where they were pronounced dead.

The boys’ deaths came less than two weeks after their father died from complications from cancer, neighbours have told the Star.

According to an online fundraiser posted by Vanessa Collias in early December, her husband, Costa Collias, 72, died from an “aggressive” leukemia and sepsis after a “short stay” in hospital.

Describing her children as “rambunctious little boys,” Vanessa wrote on the fundraiser page that she now found herself “in the challenging role of being a single parent.”

“The goal is to raise funds to provide the boys with the resources they need as they grow up and support them during this very difficult time,” she wrote.

At the rental building on Glamorgan Ave. this week, distraught neighbours described the family as fun-loving and always together, remembering the boys as happy and friendly — “every time they see me they wave,” live-in assistant superintendent Jay Bonsol told reporters.

The boys are among the youngest homicide victims in Toronto in 2023. Their deaths came only a week after the alleged murder of three-year-old Yverson Belotte Jr. Shardanae Cousins-Emily — the boy’s 22-year-old regular caregiver, according to his father — has been charged with second-degree murder.

Browne, who is heading the Toronto police homicide unit, said he was cognizant investigators have probed three child deaths within a week, saying he was ensuring mental health resources were available.

“This is not something that we see on a daily basis, and it impacts everyone,” he said. “It impacts the general public, but it also impacts us. We’re police officers, but we’re also human beings.”