Canadian Retirees David Pichosky and Rochelle Wise Murdered in Florida

     In 2008, a year after his wife died of breast cancer, David "Donny" Pichosky, on a blind date arranged by his children, met Rochelle Wise. Donny, an active member of Toronto, Canada's Shaarei Shomayin Synagogue, a modern Jewish Orthodox congregation, retired after selling his office-carpet business in the North York section of the city. Rochelle, a divorcee, had retired in 2005 as a teacher and vice principal of the Bialik Hebrew Day School just outside of Toronto. She was also the founding director of the Crestwood Valley Day Camp. Shortly after their blind date, the couple were married.

     In 2013, the 71-year-old Pichosky and his 66-year-old wife were wintering in Venetian Park, an affluent island neighborhood in Hallandale Beach, Florida, a town of 38,000 located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Surrounded by canals and waterways, the snowbirds resided in a stucco townhouse amid palm trees and the other pastel-colored dwellings. Donny and Rochelle must have felt safe living in this gated, security guard-patroled retirement enclave. (In 2012, there had been four criminal homicides in Hallandale Beach.)

     On Wednesday, January 9, 2013, Danny and Rochelle failed to show-up for a lunch date with a neighbor. The friend made several calls to the couple that were not returned. The next day, at six-thirty in the evening, a friend with a spare key entered the townhouse to check on the couple. The neighbor found Donny and Rochelle dead. Shortly after the discovery, a spokesperson with the Hallandale Beach Police Department announced that the Canadian retirees had been murdered.

     A week after the double murder, Captain Sonia Quinones of the Hallandale Police Department told reporters that the couples' cause of death was still unknown. The medical examiner was awaiting the results of toxicology tests before making a cause of death declaration. The police have not released any information regarding why the manner of death in this case is homicide. (The absence of a firearm at the scene may be why murder-sucide has been ruled out.) The authorities have not revealed if an intruder had forced his way into the townhouse, or if a robbery had occurred. In the meantime, residents of the area are on edge.

     When murder raises its ugly head in a place thought safe from violence and crime, it shatters the illusion of security. Residents of Venetian Park are already installing intrusion alarms and window bars. The double-murder of a Canadian couple inside their upscale dwelling in one of Florida's retirement paradises might evolve into a major crime story. But at the moment, there isn't enough information about the crime to fuel pubic interest in the case.