Twisted mind of “friend in the basement” who killed mother and two children

The Sedona Spa in Ajax, Ontario promised visitors rest and relaxation, and veteran esthetician Krassimira “Krissy” Pejcinovski was well loved by her clients and well loved by her colleagues as well.

As a 39-year-old single mom, Krissy worked hard to support her three children – daughters Victoria, 16, and Venellia, 13, who went by the name Vana, and son Roy, 15.

Krissy was so proud of how well they were doing. In 2018, Vana was in eighth grade just months out of high school, and Roy was a talented hockey player.

But by 2016, Krissy had met Cory Fenn at a local gym and her world began to change. Fenn was 10 years her junior. He was an imposing character with his tall, muscular build, used steroids and, according to some reports, could be aggressive.

While their relationship was on and off, Krissy allowed Fenn to live in the basement of her home.

Friends could see changes in the hard-working mother under Fenn’s controlling manner. He was jealous of her work at the spa – he refused to let her male clients. And while he was allegedly unfaithful, he accused Krissy of dating other men.

Colleagues also noted that Krissy stopped wearing makeup and began dressing in baggy clothes that hid her figure.

Fenn had a criminal record for assaulting a police officer and he was addicted to cocaine. He and Krissy would do cocaine together, which was so different from their usual behavior.

He seemed to get along well with Krissy’s children. But on March 13, 2018, Krissy’s daughter, Victoria, found drugs in the house and told her mother that Fenn had to go. Krissy agreed to end it for good. Around 9:30 p.m., Victoria left to stay with her father.

Vana had a friend over for a sleepover and they watched movies in her bedroom. Roy played video games in his mother’s bedroom. Krissy went down to the basement to talk to Fenn.

The next morning, Krissy was supposed to pick Victoria up to take her to a driving lesson, but she didn’t come, so Victoria called her sister.

The call woke Vana and she agreed to go downstairs to check on her mother. Vana left her friend in her room and went down to the basement.

Meanwhile, Krissy’s co-workers were worried that she hadn’t turned up for work. They had heard that Krissy was having troubles with Fenn, so Krissy’s boss, Sherry Robinson, went to her house.

She arrived about 10 minutes after Vana went looking for her mother. Fenn opened the door and said that Krissy was not well.

Sherry wanted to see her, but he refused to let her in. Seeing blood on Fenn’s arm and foot, she quickly walked away and called the police. When officers arrived, Fenn was gone, but they found the house covered in blood.

Terrible discovery

Police found Krissy’s body in the garage under tires and garbage bags. She had multiple fractures to her head, 17 broken ribs, and there were also stab wounds to her chest from a serrated knife. There was even a patterned injury to her neck and upper chest from a trainer. A knife lay nearby.

Upstairs, Roy was found dead next to Krissy’s bed. He had been strangled and suffered blunt force trauma to the head. They had both been dead since the early hours of the morning.

Vana was in the basement under a bed, clinging to life. She had been beaten and stabbed in the chest and neck with a butter knife.

Her friend was unharmed. She said Vana left to find her mother but did not return. Fenn had walked up the stairs, breathless, as if he had run, asked her where Victoria was, and then disappeared.

Vana was hospitalized but died from her injuries in the evening. The pathologist said she might have been saved if she had received medical attention sooner.

The police chased Fenn. He fled in his car, which he parked at a gas station, before taking a taxi to the neighboring town of Oshawa, where he was found hiding in a shed.

In custody, Fenn said he was in a “cocaine psychosis” after a five-day drug rush. He said he attacked Krissy in the garage. “The knife was behind,” he said.

“I just strangled her in the garage… because she kept breathing and breathing… I went and got a knife. I just wanted her to die.”

Fenn admitted to kicking Vana but said he looked away while doing it. Although he would not say why he killed Roy, he had placed a blanket over him and said he believed the teenager was still breathing when he left.

When it came to motive, he said Krissy would get paranoid if she used cocaine and search the house for other women. “She started f***ing with my head so much with her psychosis,” he said.

Investigators who spoke to Vana’s friend learned that Fenn was quiet when they spoke. The cab driver who drove Fenn said the same thing. None of this fitted the story that he had been in a state of psychosis.

Fenn was charged with triple second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty and before his trial that year he fired his attorney and announced he would represent himself. In court, he was unpredictable and constantly interrupting people.

Prosecutors said Fenn killed Krissy because she wanted to break up with him.

While Fenn said he had memory loss, the court heard cocaine is not known to cause blackouts.

Fenn said he was like “The Walking Dead” at the time of the murders. “The mental element wasn’t there,” he said. “It’s like The Wizard of Oz If I went down the path ‘if only I had a brain’ – I wouldn’t have one, folks.”

In February of that year, Fenn was found guilty of triple second-degree murder. The judge branded the attacks “vicious and brutal”. As he began speaking out in court about a possible conviction, Fenn, now 33, remarked, “Ten years would be perfect, right?”

Then, at a sentencing hearing in March, he got involved again when a family friend read a statement from Vana and Roy’s paternal aunt, Natasha.

She described choosing a pink and white dress for Vana to wear in her coffin. “I had to look for a scarf to match her outfit because the funeral home told me her throat could not be uncovered due to horrific injuries,” Natasha wrote.

Fenn interrupted him with the words, “Don’t blame me, lady.”

A broken family

During the sentencing hearing in April, an emotional statement from Krissy’s daughter Victoria was read in court, saying her mother was beautiful inside and out. “She was so strong and worked hard to make sure we had a better life than she did growing up,” she said.

Victoria described her brother as kind and respectful and said that Vana, who died in her arms, was her best friend.

“She knew how to brighten someone’s day with a smile and a few jokes,” she wrote.

The judge said Fenn destroyed Krissy’s family and caused significant damage to the community. He sentenced Fenn to life imprisonment with a chance of parole after 25 years.

Krissy had unwittingly brought danger into her home, which tragically turned out to be deadly.