Shawn Pegg is accused of murdering his girlfriend Tammy Lewis. (HO)

TORONTO -- Shawn Pegg's family is no stranger to murder.

Shockingly enough, the 30-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend Tammy Lewis, 29, in their Oshawa home in the days after Christmas has a sister who also faced a murder rap.

But while her brother has only just been charged with second-degree murder, Tracy Pegg was actually convicted back in 1996 of the same offence for killing their grandmother two years earlier.

She was 22 at the time and living with her grandma, Alma Smith, in a posh North York highrise. And those who knew Smith and her granddaughter believed they had a great relationship.

"She loved her grandmother to death," Karen Meighan testified during Tracy's subsequent trial.

On Oct. 21, 1994, Tracy and her grandmother went out for dinner at Red Lobster to celebrate Smith's 82nd birthday. Then, in an alcohol and drug-fuelled rage, she smothered the elderly woman in her bedroom in the wee hours of the next morning.

Tracy was arrested soon after and charged with first-degree murder.

She initially admitted suffocating her grandmother in a 911 call, but she later recanted her confession.

Tracy went to trial before a jury in the fall of 1996 pleading not guilty.

But two months into the proceedings, as the defence was wrapping up its case, she suddenly did an about-face, admitted ending her grandma's life and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

Justice Ted Then said at the time that it was ironic Tracy killed the "only person who cared for her, who truly loved her."

Tracy vehemently denied the killing had anything to do with money, even though it was heard during her trial that she stood to inherit more than $60,000 upon her grandmother's death.

Tracy was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

She married in 2000, while behind bars, and became Tracy Curry.

In October 2003, Tracy was allowed out of jail on her first unescorted three-day pass to a halfway house. An incident that occurred upon her return suddenly resulted in a high-profile lawsuit against the federal government and put her back in the media spotlight.

She was accused of smuggling drugs back into the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener after a drug sniffer dog indicated she was carrying concealed drugs.

Tracy underwent a body cavity search, including a pelvic exam and X-ray. Then she was forced to spend the night in a dry cell -- a room with no plumbing -- so that prison staff could search her excrement.

Tracy sued the government for mistreatment and won. She was awarded a total of $13,500.

It's believed she is now free.

Her brother Shawn was charged Tuesday in the murder of his girlfriend Tammy Lewis. Lewis was found dead in the couple's home on Grayburn Ave. on Dec. 28. Shawn was also found in the upstairs apartment with a self-inflicted knife-wound to his throat.

He remains in custody at the Lindsay Correctional Centre.

It was initially thought that Lewis only had two young kids -- boys, 7 and 5, in their father's custody. But friends of the victim, who asked not to be named, said she also had a third child with Shawn about a year ago and drug use led to that baby being seized from their custody.

CHRIS.DOUCETTE@SUNMEDIA.CA