Patricia Real was a forty-six-year-old divorced mother of two, who lived on Hallmark Avenue in Etobicoke, Toronto, Canada.
At approximately eleven p.m. on the night of July 17th, 2000, Patricia and her new boyfriend returned home and went into the backyard of the residence. What they didn’t seem to realize was that they had been followed by a man on a bicycle.
This individual suddenly emerged from the shadows, walked swiftly up to Patricia, called her a “bitch,” then shot her twice in the head at close range. Patrica’s boyfriend scuffled with the perpetrator, attempting to disarm him, but the man ultimately escaped, taking off on a black Mongoose Rockadile mountain bike with chrome rims, knobby tires, and a missing hand grip on the left side. The shooter himself was described as tall and thin, and clad in a baseball cap and a black puffy jacket.
Emergency services arrived quickly, but Patricia’s injuries were too severe, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Because Patricia had recently broken up with a man named Ronald Harper, authorities questioned him in connection with the crime. Although Harper himself had a solid alibi, detectives kept open the possibility that he had hired someone to carry out the murder. Ronald Harper later committed suicide in a hotel room; he left a note that mentioned Patricia, but law enforcement didn’t release any more details about the content of the letter.
Although Patricia herself had no criminal record, she reportedly had associates in the criminal underworld at some point in the past, such as casket salesman and reputed mobster Gaetano Panepinto, who was himself murdered on October 3rd of the same year. This association could have made Patricia a candidate for what was most likely a targeted hit.
The cold-blooded murder of Patricia Real is still an open investigation.
Crime Immemorial 