OPINION | Delays in Fort Erie double murder case a detriment to justice

Bad things happen in threes, and while organizing a birthday party for her friend, Heidi Bahler made three very, very bad decisions.

Standing outside a rented waterfront mansion in the chilly January night air, a frosty breeze coming off the Niagara River towards her, Bahler waited for a delivery guy.

After a long night of drinking and partying, she treated herself to a little late night snack. But before her burger and fries could arrive, Bahler heard gunshots and screams ring out from the house.

Her decision: continue to wait outside for her food. That was bad decision number one.

Having finally collected her food from the delivery guy around 3 a.m., Bahler went back inside where she found the lifeless bodies of two young women, bleeding out from gunshot wounds. Her decision: pack up her things and leave. That was bad decision number two.

She then spent the next hour on the phone with her friend, discussing what to do about the double murder that just took place at their birthday party.

Her decision: concoct a fake story to feed to the police. That was the third and final bad decision that led to her arrest and eventual conviction this week for obstruction of justice.

My heart breaks for the families of 20-year-old Juliana Pannunzio and 18-year-old Christina Crooks, the two young women left to die alone in an empty Airbnb rental.

How anyone could come across those two bleeding out, and decide the best thing to do was abandon them, actively try to cover up the murders, lie to the cops, then drag out the investigation for eight months by refusing to cooperate, is beyond my comprehension.

Heidi Bahler and her friend did not pull the trigger that ended two lives that night, but what they did seems, to me, almost as bad.

I don’t know if calling an ambulance right away–instead of waiting for a burger and then spending an hour on the phone with your buddy falsifying a story–would have saved those two girl’s lives. Police have not released any details of what led to the murders or what exactly went down during the incident.

But we now know, via court reporting from CTV News, what happened after, and it’s sickening to hear that partygoers conspired to make it difficult for police to solve the crime, ultimately drawing things out for eight months; an agonizing amount of time for grieving families to wait for answers.

The actual murders, and subsequent attempt to cover them up, represents only the first tragedy in this case. The second tragedy is the completely unacceptable amount of time it’s taking for justice to be served. Those two young women were killed in January 2021, and only this week were the people involved in the periphery of the case finally dragged into court, three-and-a-half years later.

As for the accused killer, he isn’t scheduled to go to court until October 2025, and even that date is likely to slip down the calendar, making it a full five years after the slayings that anyone directly involved will stand trial.

There’s an old saying that “justice delayed is justice denied,” and it’s difficult to look at this case and the astronomical delays and see it as anything other than a gross miscarriage of justice.

A lot can happen in five years. Just like a lot can happen while you spend an hour eating a burger and chatting on the phone after a double murder.

And if we want there to be any justice for those dead girls, and any peace for their families, we need to fix our busted court system so that cases like this don’t get dragged into the legal quagmire.

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