Man who rented rooms to accused, deceased in Sarnia surprised to learn of stabbing

The property manager of the Queen Street house at the center of a Sarnia police homicide investigation involving a stabbing between two tenants seemed surprised Monday by what police say happened there on the weekend.

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Rob Hall, who lives next door to 194 Queen St. and regularly cleans it for the owner, rented a room to Crossley Hunter, the 36-year-old Sarnia man charged Sunday with second-degree murder, and the deceased, whose identity has not ‘t been released as of Monday.

“The kid, they were pretty good. They were quiet and everything like that. So was Crossley. Yeah, Crossley had his issues and everything like that, but it wasn’t violent,” Hall said Monday while watching the Sarnia police forensics team comb the two-story yellow house for evidence.

Hunter moved into the home, owned by a man who lives in London, about six or seven months ago, while the person who died only arrived a couple of months ago, Hall said.

“Crossley, he’s the one that has the burgundy window,” he said pointing to the north side of the house. “And the white window with the white curtain, that right there is where the East Indian dude lived.”

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Hall said he couldn’t remember his name, but he was a young guy in his early 20s who he believed was an international student at Lambton College.

A college spokesperson didn’t immediately respond Monday to a request for confirmation or comment. The name of the person who died is redacted in a short document obtained Monday containing the charge against Hunter.

Hunter is due back in court Tuesday after making a brief appearance in a virtual Southwestern Ontario courtroom late Sunday afternoon from Sarnia police headquarters. Wearing an orange jumpsuit with short brown hair that’s balding at the forehead, he said little other than confirming his name and date of birth and saying he knew, to an extent, what he was charged with.

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Lowell Hunking, a Crown attorney, read a brief summary of the allegations surrounding the incident.

“The allegations are that he and the (deceased) resided in a rooming house with other individuals and that these were multiple major stab slash wounds to the head, neck, face and abdomen and legs, and unfortunately the (deceased) succumbed to those injuries ,” he said.

In a statement issued Sunday, Sarnia police said a male resident of a rooming house died after being stabbed with a knife multiple times during an altercation in the kitchen around 5 am

Justice of the peace Eli Fox ordered Hunter into custody and adjourned his case to Tuesday.

“Yes, sir,” Hunter replied before a Sarnia police officer led him away.

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Although police said Hunter is a Sarnia resident, court records say he lives in Muskoka. Hunter and his family’s boat-building business were featured twice in the Bracebridge Examiner, once in 2016 and again in 2018 after it had to be rebuilt following a fire. It’s unclear what brought Hunter to Sarnia, but the 2018 story says he headed west for work after the fire.

Hall, who lives in a two-story apartment at 186 Queen St. that overlooks the yellow house, said he got back from dropping his girlfriend off around 3 am Sunday, but didn’t see or hear anything going on there.

“No lights in the house, nothing,” he said.

Several other neighbors in the area Monday said they didn’t see or hear anything, either, until police arrived.

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A mother, who lives upstairs with her three children in 194 Queen St., was briefly detained early in the investigation, Hall said.

“They woke up to their doors being thrown open and guns being fired on them and they have lasers on them,” he said.

The woman sat outside in the cold, handcuffed for a while before being released, he said. Two siblings also live in the house in a third bedroom on the main floor, he added.

Hall said investigators were focused on the backyard for much of Sunday.

“I think they’re looking for a weapon,” he said.

The Sarnia police forensics team, led by Sgt. Aaron Johnston, arrived Monday around 10 am and started taking photographs and video of the house and backyard.

This is the second homicide investigation in Sarnia this year and also the second on Queen Street. Police charged Adam Bishop, 40, in February with first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a body.

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Those charges came after the body of Christopher Michael Bond, 66 was found inside Unit 4 of 219 Queen St., across the street and a few doors down from where the police mobile command center was parked Sunday.

“Welcome to Queen Street,” Rebeccah Beatty, who lives next door to 219 Queen St. and is a witness in the Bishop case, said Monday.

A neighbor named Justin who walked past the latest crime scene Monday said he had no idea what happened or who lived there, but his fiancée, who regularly walks the neighborhood, is starting to get scared.

“It’s getting a little dangerous,” he said.

Neighbor Renee Corry, a nearly 10-year resident of Queen Street, who grew up in the city’s south end, said two homicide investigations in the same year on the street stood out.

“You do hear about things that happen in the south end, but not two stabbings in one year,” she said, noting a nearby homeless encampment in Rainbow Park isn’t helping with crime, theft and drugs in the area.

“We can’t sell our house,” Corry said.

This is the 20^th homicide investigation in Sarnia and Lambton County since 2020, leaving 21 people dead and landing 34 accused in custody.

Including this case, seven of them are still before the courts and one hasn’t been solved.

-with files from Tyler Kula

[email protected]

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