TORONTO - A memorial service for one of two men shot dead as they sat in a Range Rover in downtown Toronto last month will be held Sunday in Prince Edward Island, where his late grandfather was a provincial politician.

Oliver Martin's ashes are to be interred in the grave of Allison George (Addie) MacDonald, a Liberal member of the legislature for eight years in the 1970s. "It was just important to have something in P.E.I.," Martin's step-father Alan Dudeck said Wednesday as he prepared to fly East.

"There's a very large extended family (there)."

Dudeck, who has branded the men's killer a coward, appealed again for the public to help investigators. He also said he was trying to remain confident the killer won't escape justice.

"I haven't even put my head there because I'm being optimistic and I know (police) have a pretty good track record," Dudeck said.

Martin and his boyhood friend Dylan Ellis, both 25, were shot dead while sitting in their dark blue vehicle in the early hours of June 13 as they were about to drop off keys at a friend's house in a trendy Queen Street W. neighbourhood.

Police remain baffled as to what motivated the killer, who reportedly went up to the SUV and fired a shot from close range through the open driver's window.

He then moved around to the front of the vehicle and fired through the windshield, hitting Martin in the passenger's seat. A third shot missed.

Martin's girlfriend, who was in the back seat, was traumatized but uninjured.

Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux said in an interview Wednesday that police were actively checking out tips from the public but no arrests had been made.

"The difficulty lies in the fact that no motive is apparent," Giroux said.

The lack of a connection between the killer and the victims will likely make the case particularly tough to crack without help from the public, he said.

What is certain, Giroux said, is that there is no link between the murders and a triple homicide early last Sunday when three friends in an SUV were killed in a drive-by shooting on a highway off-ramp in Toronto's west-end.

"The investigations are completely separate and apart," the officer said, adding it's not a case of an individual targeting people in SUVs.

About 20 of Martin's friends from Toronto are expected to join family for the weekend service at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Mermaid, P.E.I.

Two weeks ago, Martin's mother Susan Martin made a tearful plea for anyone with information to come forward.

"Oliver was strapped in his seat and shot," said Martin. "He never had a chance; nor did Dylan."

She is the daughter of the late Island politician, who died in 2000 at age 81, and his widow Olave MacDonald, of Charlottetown, and has a cottage at nearby Keppoch, where Martin and his siblings spent many of their summers

Funeral services for both men were held in Toronto in June.

LIKE IT?  LET OTHERS KNOW

Thanks for participating!

Be the first to recommend - Sign in now


See what other people are recommending - Popular Stories