Reminder: There's a killer still at large four years later in #HallandaleBeach. What's new in the 2013 Double Murder of Toronto couple, Rochelle Wise and David Pichosky?

Above, one of the alternating empty Hallandale Beach Police Dept. vehicles that play the role of Scarecrow on Three Islands Drive in northeast Hallandale Beach. Police vehicles that rarely if ever move, which even the dumbest of area criminals know as well as local residents do. The empty police cars are right near the Three Islands Safe Neighborhood District security guard stand that isn't manned, right near the security cameras that didn't/don't work.  
They're just props! Some protection!

February 10, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Reminder: There's a killer still at large four years later in Hallandale Beach. So what's new?
Precious little judging by what the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. says and shares with the public they are supposed to work for, a longstanding problem for this dept. as I've detailed here in the past many times.
http://hallandalebeachfl.gov/Search/Results?searchPhrase=Rochelle+Wise

So the reality is that the Double Murder of a Toronto couple in Hallandale Beach four years ago this week, with the usual Hallandale Beach flourishes of incompetency and counter-intuitive foul-ups, is STILL unsolved.

Four years ago today, most of us in South Forida woke up to the shocking news that a hard-working, civic-minded and apparently quite beloved Toronto couple were viciously murdered in their winter-time Hallandale Beach home, in one of the quietest areas of the city, Venetian Park.

Then as now, the evidence is clear that the initial failure of the Hallandale Beach Police, the Broward Sheriff's Office and Broward Crime Stopper's to share relevant information with the local community in a timely enough manner, has had very real consequences.

Unfortunately for the public and the family of the victims, they are bad consequences.

This baffling and counter-intuitive approach by all involved likely prevented possible leads from emerging then that may well have made a tangible difference in actually connecting some fragmentary clues, and helping to solve the entirely senseless murder of Donny Pichosky and Rochelle Wise.

A few of you may even recall receiving an email from me four years ago today with the news about a double-murder taking place in a city that, while full of corruption and incompetency, had been, mercifully, low on senseless murder. 
I sent that email of mine on my first full day of a two-week trip to Stockholm, after I'd read the details about it online that morning in my hotel room, almost not believing what I was reading. 
But there was no mistake, was there?

In that email, I asked what-if-anything you'd heard that thus far had not yet been mentioned in published media accounts, as well as whether you were personally aware of any attempt by HBPD or other LEOs of at a rapid public information outreach campaign taking place in the general area.

My fear, quickly confirmed by so many of you, was that it was the usual HBPD routine of chasing-its-tail after-the-fact.
Just as had been the case in 2010 with the Lynda Meier disappearance following her visit to the Bank of America on Hallandale Beach Blvd. one morning, after which, she was never seen alive again. 
Just her car driving west on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and US-1, via FDOT camera footage

My fear that morning while in Sweden was the same as it would have been if I'd been bak here: that HBPD would put on a good Dog-and-Pony show for the local news media but NOT communicate effectively with the very people who might've seen something at the time, without knowing it at the time.

And despite the fact that HBPD had to get to those people right away and had no time to waste.

But waste time is exactly what they did.

That same mentality by HBPD is what had caused me to get so angry in 2010 with the Meier case because HBPD and HB Crime Watch -the latter then led by Alexander Lewy before he was elected a HB City Commissioner months later- did NOT do the bare minimum you'd expect from such a group, esp. in such a time-sensitive case.

The sort of thing that we have all routinely seen done in a TV newscasts, a fictional drama or in motion pictures. Why?

Because it's common sense.

Because we know that people have a short memory and attention span for what seems like inconsequential things/facts that don't fit their daily lives.

So you have to get that information from those people before it completely evaporates.

But those efforts, the sort of thing we all have a reasonable right to expect in case of such an emergency, sadly and rather predictably, didn't take place.

Specifically, some of you will recall that I was calling out HBPD's handling of this double-murder case almost from the very beginning, most egregiously, their choosing NOT to pass out fliers
themselves in the immediate area of the crime in Venetian Park, or to use trained volunteers from the Crime Watch group.

They compounded this by also refusing to post fliers in nearby popular stores or restaurants until long past the point that any possible witness had long since forgotten what they might've seen or heard many weeks and months before for a fleeting second.

There was not a single police flier about this double murder posted on the bulletin board at Panera Bread until July! Five months later!

I know this because I have a photo of the flier there shortly after it went up -too late.
Many of you received a copy of it from me in an email that July bemoaning HBPD's inability to get out of their own way.

And in case you might've forgotten, Michele Lazarow, the HB City Commissioner who lives closest to where this crime too place, someone who actually lives not so far away, and who'd just been elected weeks before, was NOT allowed to attend HBPD's meeting with the neighborhood.
A meeting that Mayor Joy Cooper was allowed to attend.
What does that tell you?
What sort of image does that convey?

There's so many aspects of this particular case that stink to high heaven and still cause me to grieve for this family and their inability to get the closure they need and deserve.
to say nothing of the enormous amount of time it took for HBPD to finally release a photo of a person of interest, and then, made that photo hard to near-impossible to find on the city's own website!

But rather than repeat them all here, in case you want to have your memory jarred in a profound way, here are my last two blog post about this double-homicide, though there have been MANY more emails detailing the numerous policy and procedural failings of all the relevant parties and the failure of the South Florida news media to publicly question and criticize what in any other part of the country would be coming under justified criticism.

(If you want to know more, contact me and we can always meet at Panera Bread and detail and dissect the HBPD blunders all over again.)

:

FEBRUARY 11, 2013 

Still no new news or facts in Hallandale Beach re January's double-murder of Toronto couple in Venetian Park neighborhood; Important Three Islands neighborhood public meeting tonight at 7 p.m.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/still-no-new-news-or-facts-in.html

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 

Crime and (No) Punishment in Hallandale Beach: Observations on Rachel Mendleson's spot-on Toronto Star article on January's double-homicide of a Toronto-area couple in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach, which remains unsolved 8 months later. I still believe the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. has done a very poor job of engaging in outreach and making it as easy as possible for the community to access relevant info about the case that could prove helpful, just as HBPD and HB Crime Watch completely botched public outreach in 2010 following the disappearance of HB resident Lynda Robin Meier, who has never been found. Just like others at HB City Hall, HBPD continues to never learn from experience

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/crime-and-no-punishment-in-hallandale.html

Dave

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth

https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

Crime and (No) Punishment in Hallandale Beach: Observations on Rachel Mendleson's spot-on Toronto Star article on January's double-homicide of a Toronto-area couple in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach, which remains unsolved 8 months later. I still believe the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. has done a very poor job of engaging in outreach and making it as easy as possible for the community to access relevant info about the case that could prove helpful, just as HBPD and HB Crime Watch completely botched public outreach in 2010 following the disappearance of HB resident Lynda Robin Meier, who has never been found. Just like others at HB City Hall, HBPD continues to never learn from experience

Unsolved Hallandale Beach Florida murders leave family ‘broken’: http://t.co/ECZMt3CoRE
— TorontoStar (@TorontoStar) September 5, 2013

8 mos later, Hallandale Beach murders of Toronto snowbirds still unsolved. Inside a tragic whodunit http://t.co/3HPUaiWKPp
— Rachel Mendleson (@rachelmendleson) September 5, 2013

Double murder of Toronto snowbirds Donny Pichosky and Rochelle Wise may be linked to robbery, Florida police say: http://t.co/OjEx9n5vde
— Karissa Donkin (@kdonk) April 4, 2013

This is the reward poster in the murder of Rochelle Wise and Donny Pichosky. #Toronto #Hallandale pic.twitter.com/PiJVHr8b8g
— Katie Simpson (@KatieSimpson24) March 6, 2013

A month later, murder of Donny Pichosky and Rochelle Wise remains a mystery http://t.co/gl6tvBMg
— Toronto Star GTA (@StarGTANews) February 10, 2013

Below, excerpts from my email of Thursday afternoon to certain concerned residents of Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and people in South Florida and Tallahassee with an interest in public affairs in Southeast Broward County, plus selected news reporters who know a story when it is staring at them from a silver platter I've handed them.

-----

Canada's largest daily newspaper, the Toronto Star, has an update today, below, on January's double-homicide of Toronto-area snowbirds in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach.

Video at: http://bcove.me/jycqa7pv

Toronto Star

Unsolved Hallandale Beach Florida murders leave family ‘broken’: Exclusive

Toronto snowbirds Rochelle Wise and Donny Pichosky died eight months ago; their son is issuing a plea for help in solving the case.

By Rachel Mendleson, News reporter

Published on Thu Sep 05 2013

At first glance, it was almost as though nothing had changed.

It was late March, more than three months after his mother and her husband were killed in their Hallandale Beach condo, and Jamie Wise was in Florida for Passover.

The investigators had finished collecting evidence. They told him he could visit the scene.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/05/unsolved_hallandale_beach_florida_murders_leave_family_broken_exclusive.html

Some of you recall receiving emails from me in Stockholm a few days after it happened when I first read about it online on my trip, asking what-if-anything was known and whether there was actually a rapid public information outreach campaign taking place in the general area, or, was it the usual HBPD routine of chasing-its-tail, as was the case with the Lynda Meier 

disappearance in 2010, which got me so angry because HBPD and HB Crime Watch -then led by Alexander Lewy before he was elected a City Commissioner months later-

didn't even do the bare minimum you'd expect in such a case, or routinely seen done in a TV drama or film.

Things we have a reasonable right to expect.

Just 2 of the 4 blog posts on that case 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/100-days-missing-lynda-meier-of.html

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/lynda-meiers-disappearance-one-year.html

Yes, that jaw-dropping 2010 fiasco where the HB Police Dept. NEVER put up ANY flyers

at ANY of the dozens of parks, restaurants, retail stores, parks that residents visit daily, in the days immediately after Meier's disappearance, where a possible witness may've been found.

Not one.

They NEVER even so much as put one up at next door City Hall, but sure as hell, there was a 

taped missing poster for someone's pet at the time, right next to the front door of the Police Dept.. 

But not for Lynda Meier.

Yes, I still have THAT incriminating photo of the missing pet flyer at City Hall, just like I still have the photos of all the dozens and dozens of storefront windows that had nothing in them about this missing HB resident, even though store/restaurant owners and managers that I personally spoke to in-person all over the city unanimously said they'd have put one up IF the HB Police Dept. or HB Crime Watch had merely asked them to.

But they NEVER asked!

And where exactly was the HB Crime Watch crew under Alexander Lewy, who never said anything the least bit critical about what Thomas Magill was doing or saying -or not doing- all those years when he was police chief, and alive?

Sitting on their ass!

They sure the hell weren't passing out flyers at the busy intersections or stores or restaurants we know from the released video of her car driving west on U.S.-1, like would be done in other cities across the country in the first 72 hours, when time is of the essence in looking for her and any prospective witnesses.

As some of you know from my past emails -and by my standards- a very short blog  post in February,

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/still-no-new-news-or-facts-in.html

for months I've publicly criticized the HB Police Dept.'s communication efforts to the public of info/photo of this "person of interest" at Venetian Park that was NOT immediately visible (and available) on the city's website, as would be common in most cities.

Why?

The HBPD, the HB Police Chief and the HB City Manager won't say why it was made so intentionally difficult for the public to even find that photo -and still is, eight months later- on the very, very remote chance they even saw something or knew something, given that the video shows such a small area that was perhaps barely visible to anyone walking thru the parking lot in front.

So, knowing how very tenuous and short people's memories are for even important

things, much less, fleeting things that they did NOT connect to the murders, why did

it take 4 months before flyers with relevant info were ever seen on bulletin boards around

town at popular places, like at Panera Bread, one of few places in town with a bulletin board?

And why were there no visible displayed flyers in the neighborhood in the weeks and months

afterwards even while you could, with some looking, still find flyers for lost pets?

Not even near the so-called security gate to Golden Islands on Atlantic Shores Blvd.

I NEVER saw a single one -and I was actively looking for them, as many of you know  

from past conversations.

Is it any wonder that as is being reported here, HBPD has NOT had a new lead or tip in a month when their initial public outreach efforts were so feeble?

This is the same crew that would NOT allow a HB City Commissioner to attend a meeting of

the complex's residents.

A City Commissioner who only lives a few blocks away and far closer to the scene of the horrible crime than anyone else on the City Commission.

Why did so many WEEKS pass between that initial meeting, mentioned by every local TV

station and newspaper, and when that photo was actually made public thru a press conference and actually placed on the city's second-rate website, albeit, NOT right where you could see it, but rather requiring you to jump thru 3-5 more hoops and links to see it. 

IF you knew what you were doing!

Precisely the wrong way to do something that would actually

help HBPD resolve the case by pointing them in the right direction.

-----

Selected excerpt below is from my email to the woman outside of HB who

was in charge of reviewing HBPD's documents re accreditation, which many

of you have seen before in prior emails.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 7:00 PM

Follow-up re Hallandale beach Police Dept. accreditation

...On May 13th,  I went over to Panera Bread, a place that I usually go about twice a week, but which I hadn't been to for over a week due to my busy schedule.

The public bulletin board in that restaurant used to be full all-the-time, but for whatever reasons, starting just before the election thru the last week, has attracted few flyers or public notices.

Since that place is very popular, and that bulletin even more so, it was very noticeable to my friends and I, but who can say why it was suddenly so bereft of info?

Anyway, after got my coffee and bagel and the coffee was too hot to drink, as usual, I placed them down at a table near a friend and walked back to see if there was anything on the bulletin board, and what do you suppose I found?

Yes, almost FOUR MONTHS after it would've mattered and might've actually done some positive, two HBPD flyers re the twin murders from January suddenly appeared out-of-the-blue.

Since I'm a familiar face there, I asked some employees there how long the flyers had been up and it was just as I described -they were put up sometime within the previous few days, when I hadn't come by.

But the two victims were killed on January 9th, so why did it take almost FOUR MONTHS for HBPD to place the flyers in a place that is one of the single most-popular places in town, and located within a mile of the

murder site at Venetian Park?

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Even more troubling news for beleaguered Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino in Hallandale Beach and its owner, Frank Stronach

Above, May 25, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino sign facing towards south-bound U.S.-1/Federal Highway, off Hibiscus Street in Hallandale Beach.

I've noted previously on this blog with both dismay and incredulity the self-evident fact that Gulfstream Park/Magna Entertainment Corp. has consistently been so negligent about properly maintaining this valuable property that it has inspired well-deserved ridicule in the community.
For instance, as I've mentioned previously, the spotlights on the ground that are supposed to illuminate the sign above at night haven't worked since 2008, and the light on the left of the picture has not even had an actual bulb since 2009, which is why this sign on a major South Florida road is pitch black at night. Not exactly the smartest marketing decision, no?

Frankly, it's only been because I've been so busy writing about other matters, including the community fight against the Diplomat LAC proposal and the attempted shoe-horning of a Ben Gamla charter high school into a single-family neighborhood that I didn't run numerous posts here utilizing the dozens and dozens of photos I have that clearly illustrate how very poorly this so-called entertainment center has been operated and maintained.

Despite having the better part of an entire year, and knowing how crucial it was that they appear to be on top of things, Gulfstream/MEC couldn't even mange to have their own electronic message boards on both U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd. constructed and operating before the racing season opened in January, which made it look shabby and third-class.
This embarrassing snails pace of theirs, almost a sense of obliviousness, also meant that the message signs were NOT available to effectively promote the retail shops that were open over the holiday season, when they needed all the help they could get. It was weeks into the racing season before the electronic message signs were up and working properly.

To any reasonable observer, it was almost like they were considered an after-thought, and not a tool to be properly utilized, but then look how they waste the sign they already had?
This very unprofessional laissez-faire attitude towards aesthetics, maintenance and marketing raises serious questions in my mind and many others as to whether or not the people currently running Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino are fit for the job ahead.
Above and below, May 30, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the monument signs and U.S.-1 entrance to both Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and The Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex.



I received a link to this very troubling Toronto Star story just before 10 p.m. Thursday night as a result of a my "Hallandale Beach" Google Alert.

This continues the long streak of bad financial news for Gulfstream Park owner Frank Stronach, some of which I've detailed on this blog, and this latest news is perhaps the most unsettling, though getting some firm financial numbers may prove quite elusive until the trial that's described below begins.

When the largest employer in the city is having severe financial problems, and some vocal shareholders want to go to court to force the sale of the main asset and element of the enterprise, the Racetrack, there's more than enough reason to be legitimately concerned.

Still, any legal action that intends to pursue, among other things, "a declaration that the company made “misleading” public statements" is not music to Hallandale Beach taxpayers ears, given the amount of city taxpayer's money that has walked across U.S.-1 from HB City Hall to the enterprises located over there.

It's time for someone at Gulfstream to publicly show some long overdue gumption and common sense and finally leave the PR histrionics behind for a change, and instead, be straight and address the HB community's reasonable concerns about its future as a viable racetrack, rather than continuing to engage in their current unsuccessful "no comment" routine, which satisfies nobody and just irritates people who are paying attention.

Hearing "no comment" too many more times in the near future will inevitably lead to even louder public doubts and media commentary, and a corresponding taxpayer/customer vote of "no confidence" with their feet and wallets & purses for both the racetrack and retail complex, even though they are, of course, legally separate entities.

Frankly, I was a little surprised that a newspaper as large as the Toronto Star is still using an artists rendering in their article so long after Gulfstream Park was re-done, and the initial stage of The Village at Gulfstream Park (VAGP) opened -in November.

Also, if you look carefully, most of the rendering below is not of Gulfstream, per se, that Stronach & Co. own, but rather of the VAGP retail area that Gulfstream is a partner to but NOT the owner of, per state law.

I may just have to send the Star some of my new photos of the complex for their records.

--------

Toronto Star
Shareholders sue MI Developments Group of U.S. investors claim Stronach and directors improperly used MID to prop up money-losing Magna Entertainment.
July 7, 2010

Tony Van Alphen Business Reporter

Big investors in MI Developments Inc. have sued the company, controlling shareholder Frank Stronach and numerous directors for their role in allegedly propping up his money-losing horse racing venture before and after its collapse last year.

In seeking millions of dollars in compensation, five U.S.-based investment firms say in a statement of claim that MI engaged in a “myriad of connected related party loans and other transactions” with racetrack and gambling operator Magna Entertainment Corp. (MEC) to ensure its assets remained under Stronach’s control and not sold to third parties.

The sentence that really jumps out at you is this one towards the middle of the story:
Some of the investment firms have complained about MI’s continuing heavy support of MEC for years and pressed the board to divest the horse racing assets and make the company a pure real estate play.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/833230--shareholders-sue-mi-developments

See also:
http://www.thevillageatgulfstreampark.com/