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 Sonia Varaschin was last seen Sunday night. (OPP handout) |
ORANGEVILLE, Ont. — Two bloody crime scenes and a missing nurse.
That's what cops in Orangeville, Ont., were faced with Tuesday, two days after 42-year-old Sonia Varaschin last had contact with family and friends.
It was about 10 a.m. Monday that someone reported a suspicious vehicle in an alleyway off the main Broadway strip, about an hour north of Toronto.
Officers found Varaschin's white Toyota Corolla with blood on it before going to her empty Spring St. home, just a short drive away.
There, too, they found blood, but no Varaschin.
When she didn't show up for work Monday, her family reported her missing to police.
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Dark red stains were visible on the front steps to her home Tuesday, where investigators swept the scene for clues while a police helicopter circled above.
Still, OPP Const. Jonathan Beckett refused to say whether the nurse who worked at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto between 2003 to 2008 may have been met with foul play.
Asked if police are dealing with a murder investigation, he said, "No, it's a missing persons investigation and our primary focus right now is to find Sonia."
Neighbours on Varaschin's quiet townhouse-lined street said she has no kids, lives alone and sometimes a boyfriend drops by.
Asked if investigators have spoken with her boyfriend, Beckett said he wasn't aware she had one. He wouldn't comment on her personal life.
"We'll be leaving no stone unturned in an effort to find Sonia," Beckett said, pointing to the joint investigation with Orangeville police. "Hopefully we find her safe and sound and we can reunite her with her family."
Neighbour Diane Bowering said Varaschin works as a nurse and leads a relatively quiet life.
"I didn't see her very often but the kids did. All the kids used to play down at the bottom of the hill and she used to give them candy and stuff like that," Bowering said.
Asked if she ever heard problems at Varaschin's home, Bowering said, "nothing at all. She mostly worked nights so we never ever saw her."
Some neighbours heard "noises" coming from the house just before 3 a.m. Monday, Bowering said, echoing mumblings other neighbours repeated, unable to name the source of the information. Some neighbours flatly refused comment.
"Some of them heard screams and tires squealing," Bowering said.
"I live right next door and I didn't hear anything," said Kim Fievet.
"It's really scary, like we don't know anything. Especially for the kids. This whole neighbourhood is filled with kids. The kids don't want to go outside," Bowering said. "We leave our doors open down here and the kids go out to play and now we can't do it."
Varaschin is described as 5-foot-1, 125 pounds, with brown hair and light streaks.
Another neighbour said Varaschin usually parked her car inside the garage, which was open and empty Tuesday. She is an avid cyclist who has a bike rack on her car, the neighbour said.
An old friend of Varaschin described her as a "very smart" woman.
"She was a tiny little thing, but she was full of passion and a zest for life. She was a little different, not flighty like a lot of high school girls. There was always something going on behind those lovely eyes of hers," Jim Barber said in an e-mail to QMI Agency.
"My heart just shattered when I heard about this, because Sonia didn't have a mean or unpleasant bone in her body," he said, adding she is "a wonderful, charming, caring person."
Anyone with information was asked to call police at 519-941-2522 ext. 2211 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.