Homicide victim Dorothy Dykens, 89, was 'feisty,' generous woman

The 89-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in her long-time home over the weekend was feisty and generous, according to her neighbour.

Dorothy Dykens was stabbed to death Sunday morning, along with a dog belonging to her friend and neighbour, Nina Kaczmarek.

"She lived her whole life all by herself. She bought and paid for that house in cash," said Kaczmarek. "She was always very kind to me. When I was short of cash or this or that, she'd say, 'Oh I think it's about time I bought some dog food.'"

Melissa Joyce Gabriel, 35, has been charged with manslaughter, killing or injuring an animal and two counts of probation violation after Dykens was killed and Dotty the dog was stabbed.

Kaczmarek was renting a room to Gabriel and was away in Arizona when the attacks happened.

"I had had a premonition before I left on the trip that Dorothy was going to die," said Kaczmarek. "She's 89 years old. This last month has been really hard. She's losing her memory."

Kacmarek said Dykens was raised in Nova Scotia and later was a food chemist. She moved to Winnipeg and had lived in the same house since the 1940s. She never married, and she had no kids.

"Dorothy was very feisty. She could be very caustic at times and very opinionated," said Kaczmarek. "Sometimes she'd come out with comments – I was just so embarrassed. She'd be loud in the restaurant. We went for supper a great deal."

She said her 16-year-old dog Dotty would jump two fences to get to Dykens' house and tap on the glass for attention.

Now, Kaczmarek is working to pay off massive vet bills for her dog and is facing blame from neighbours over allowing Gabriel to move into her home.

Kaczmarek said Gabriel was very quiet and friendly with the dogs.

"She showed no indication of violence whatsoever, and I did not know about her criminal history at all," she said.
Gabriel has a lengthy criminal record including 43 previous convictions ranging from theft to assaulting an officer to uttering threats.

Kaczmarek said the 35-year-old woman did say she suffered from auditory and visual hallucinations. She told Kaczmarek it was related to PTSD from an attack she suffered at the hands of her cousin.

"There's been some people who have been blaming me for all of this – my neighbours," she said. "I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character, and how can you tell when someone is going to lose it? How can you tell?"

Kaczmarek said a memorial for Dykens is in the works, and her dog Dotty is on the mend, despite having a punctured lung and a broken rib.

Kaczmarek needs $2,500 to cover her vet bills, which are still climbing.

A GoFundMe campaign has been started for her dog and the response has been "heart-warming."

"You have this horrible thing happen. [It] makes you question humanity and on the other hand you have all these good people. It just sort of balances things out," she said. "My heart goes out to [Gabriel's] family, too. They must be going through hell."