Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic descriptions heard in court that may not be suitable for some readers.
A murdered woman’s boyfriend, her concerned neighbour and a new acquaintance who was likely one of the last people to see Katherine Janeiro alive, testified in court on Thursday in the ongoing trial into a three-decade-old Barrie homicide.
The jury, now in its fifth day of the trial, is learning more details about Janeiro's social life and who was in the apartment of the young mother during the days leading up to her death. Janeiro, 20, was found stabbed to death in her Dunlop Street West apartment on Oct. 10, 1994.
Robert MacQueen, who is now 61 and who also is known as Bruce Ellis, is on trial for second-degree murder in her death. None of the allegations against him have been proven in court.
Douglas Callow, 57, was Janeiro’s boyfriend at the time of her murder. He lived in Barrie and knew her for less than a year; he dated Janeiro for “just a couple of months.”
Callow, who lived on nearby Berczy Street, testified he had spent many nights at her apartment with her. He said he knew of Janeiro’s involvement in selling drugs, but stressed he did not use drugs nor did he sell any at the time.
He had left town to visit family on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 8 which was the last time he saw her alive.
When he returned to Barrie on Monday morning, he knocked on Janeiro’s door at around 9:30 a.m., but there was no answer. Calls to Janeiro also went unanswered. He would eventually learn about her murder later that evening.
Questioning by the Crown attorney revealed an incident weeks before the homicide in which Callow and Janeiro returned to her apartment to discover a girlfriend of MacQueen’s asleep in her bedroom. Callow noted that MacQueen would sometimes be allowed to spend the night at Janeiro’s apartment after he “split up with his wife.”
MacQueen, then known as Bruce Ellis, was not present when they made the discovery.
“All Hell broke loose,” Callow testified, saying Janeiro was yelling at the girl, named Faith. She was told to leave the apartment.
Immediately after the incident, Janeiro and Callow refused to sleep in the bed as she was “convinced Faith had AIDS,” he told the court.
Callow said a replacement bed was purchased within a short time while they both slept on her pullout couch in the meantime.
Callow also testified Janeiro was friends with a man nicknamed “Woody,” who she sold drugs for, and was a regular visitor to her apartment.
He said she would sell drugs such as cocaine from her apartment, but she would not do it directly in front of him; usually it was done outside the apartment or in her bedroom.
“Selling blow wasn’t the way it is now. Back then everyone was doing it … it was not as dirty-sounding as it is today,” Callow said.
He said Janeiro told him she was going to hide cocaine in a new spot — in her baby’s crib — and wanted him to know as she was concerned she would get robbed of the drug.
Callow said he did not know if she kept cash in the apartment.
He testified that Woody was a member of the Para Dice Riders motorcycle club, was in his 40s, and drove a Corvette.
Woody would visit her apartment and had his own key to get inside. He would drop off drugs and pick up cash from Janeiro, he said.
“I was no angel, but I didn’t get involved in that,” he stated.
MacQueen (Ellis) was part of a circle of friends which included himself and Janeiro, and the group would frequent the Tom Doolys bar downtown.
The next witness, Mike Brown, 55, was part of that social group and lived directly above Janeiro in the same apartment building.
Brown said his partner, Tammy, who has since passed away, was a “close friend” of Janeiro’s, and the couple would see her “probably every day,” he testified.
He said they spent the evening with her, prior to her being found dead the next day, at bars on Dunlop Street. They also returned home together at the same time at 2:30 a.m. on Monday.
Janeiro had twisted her ankle while dancing at a bar, he said, and he helped her into her apartment, then locked the door on his way out. Brown testified that to his knowledge, no one else was in the apartment at that time.
The couple did not learn of Janeiro’s death until around 7 or 8 p.m. on Monday after there were police cars in the area.
Brown said he was aware she sold drugs for a biker nicknamed Woody.
He, too, was told by Janeiro where she was hiding drugs and cash in her apartment in the baby’s bed, along with inside a cookie jar underneath cookies. Brown added she sometimes had $1,000 to $2,000 in her apartment from drug sales.
The final witness to take the stand Thursday was 49-year-old Cindy Youden. She was a cousin of one of Janeiro’s friends named Kim, an exotic dancer nicknamed Star.
Youden said she drove her cousin to Janeiro’s apartment, arriving at 2:30 a.m. on Monday morning.
She said she didn’t know Janeiro, and she met her there for the first time as the two made a short visit.
Youden said Janeiro was “a bit wary” of her until she was introduced as Kim’s cousin.
Youden said she sat at the kitchen table while Kim and Janeiro spoke to someone on the phone for a short time, passing the receiver between them. She didn’t know who they were talking to.
After the call, the two left her in the kitchen and went into her bedroom, she testified.
While this was going on, she said a man she didn’t know was sitting on the couch in the living room. He was wearing a leather jacket and was not very friendly, only saying a few words to her.
Youden said his name was John, and noted “he was being strange” and seemed intoxicated.
Soon after, the two women emerged from the bedroom and she and her cousin left the apartment with Janeiro telling them “she was going to go to bed” before closing the door behind them.
Family members, including Janeiro’s daughter, sat in the gallery and listened to the day-long cross-examinations.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday and is expected to last seven weeks.
Janeiro was found dead on Oct. 10, 1994. At the time, police said she had suffered multiple stab wounds. Her two-year-old daughter had been visiting family members at the time of the homicide.
Court heard the last time Janeiro had contact with anyone was around 4 a.m. on Oct. 10, 1994. Her body was discovered by a friend around 7 p.m. that night.
Court previously heard from the Crown that MacQueen had been in a relationship with Janeiro while he was married and living nearby on Dunlop Street.
MacQueen was initially charged with first-degree murder in January 2021, more than 26 years after Janeiro’s body was discovered in her apartment. The charge was reduced to second-degree murder following a preliminary hearing in December 2022. He was granted bail in July 2023.
According to news reports published by the former Barrie Examiner, Janeiro’s body was found lying on the floor, covered in blood with scratches on her face. She’d been at a pair of downtown bars most of Sunday night and early Monday morning prior to her body being discovered.
Janeiro left home at age 16 and moved to Barrie. A year later, she gave birth to a girl. About 10 months prior to her death, Janeiro had moved into the Dunlop Street apartment with her toddler.
