 Police are gathering evidence at the London, Ont. home Thursday. (Derek Ruttan, QMI Agency)
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LONDON, Ont. - The woman found dead in a southeast London home wanted to end her relationship with her husband, sources close to the family say.
It's also alleged that Patricia Pacheco-Hernandez and Daniel Jimenez-Acosta had been $arguing in the days leading up to Pacheco-Hernandez's death.
London police found the 41-year-old mother of three dead in the two-storey Adswood Rd. townhouse she shared with her husband after a neighbour's frantic 911 call Wednesday.
Pacheco-Hernandez's sister, Piedad, had been waiting for a phone call from her sibling.
When she didn't hear from her for two days, she sent her a text message from Colombia, her brother, Milton Pacheco Yance told The Free Press Thursday night through translator Josue Araujo.
That's when police called the family to tell them their sister had died and they were investigating, but little else.
Frustrated, her brother said they're now trying to repatriate her body to Colombia for burial, but are hampered by a lack of information and funds.
Jimenez had just returned from Colombia, Pacheco Yancen said.
He said his sister, a loving mother dedicated to her kids, was trying to bring her father to Canada to visit his grandchildren.
The couple had been married for 14 years and came to Canada nine years ago as political refugees, after they were threatened. Pacheco-Hernandez had been a lawyer in Colombia.
Word of London's second homicide spread quickly through the family's tiny Westminster Park neighbourhood.
Two police cars and a forensic identification van remained at the home Thursday as neighbours went about their business.
But the tension remained.
"It's seems like it's in another world," said Marilyn Reid, who lives on Adswood Rd. "You never expect it to happen on your own street."
Jimenez-Acosta, 43, is charged with second-degree murder in Pacheco-Hernandez's death.
He appeared before a justice of the peace Thursday.
Wearing a police-issued orange jumpsuit, Jimenez-Acosta stood in the prisoner's box in court, listening to a Spanish interpreter translate the proceedings in the brief court appearance.
Looking clean-cut and shaved, he politely gave his name and birthdate.
Jimenez-Acosta appeared sad and serious as he listened to the charge read out by Justice of the Peace Robert Seneshen.
He had what appeared to be a fresh cut on his neck.
The lawyer representing him, Frank Troller, asked the case be adjourned for a video appearance May 26.
Troller wanted time to talk to another lawyer who has agreed to take the case.
A publication ban was placed on evidence.
Police set up a large, blue tent on the front lawn of the house the Colombian couple owned, and investigators in hazardous material suits went in and out of the house.
At nearby Sir Wilfrid Laurier secondary school, blocks from where the body was found, students said they were asked not to leave the school Wednesday afternoon.
Counsellors were deployed to the elementary and high schools where the couple's children are students, said a Thames Valley District school board spokesperson.
"The traumatic events response team will work with school administration to provide every available support to students and staff who require assistance in dealing with this unfortunate event," the spokesperson said.
- with files by Free Press reporter Jane Sims and Josue Araujo
