Rosanne MacKenzie is on a mission to make sure the 30-year-old murder case of Fabiana Mitchell — a young mother she never met — is not forgotten.
While she never knew Fabiana, Rosanne does have a connection to her. Fabiana is her ex-husband’s half-sister. “I’m pretty dedicated to doing the most I can for Fabiana,” Rosanne told Dateline.
Fabiana was found dead in the bathtub of her Montreal apartment on May 6, 1994. “After verification, the date of discovery of the body and death are the same day, May 6, 1994,” Mélanie Bergeron of the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) told Dateline in an email. According to Bergeron, Fabiana was last seen alive at 1:00 a.m. on the 6th. Her body was discovered at 9:15 that morning. Bergeron wrote she was unable to share any additional information about the case. Reports quoting police at the time say the pathologist reported the cause of death as strangulation.
Dateline spoke with Rosanne’s ex-husband — Fabiana’s half-brother, Aslan Charles — who was about 10 years old when 20-year-old Fabiana was murdered. He recalls being out of the country with his father’s family at the time, when they got the news from his mother’s family.
“I was actually back in my home country in Antigua, in the Caribbean. I was outside playing by my next door neighbor, which was my cousin,” Aslan said. “And my dad, he was sitting outside, and he was crying, you know, but I had no reason why.”
Aslan says his cousin later told him Fabiana was dead. He does not have a clear recollection of the events that followed since he was so young and out of the country when Fabiana was killed. “I only heard stories of what happened,” he said.
Aslan and Rosanne say it is their understanding from family that Fabiana and Aslan’s mother lived in the apartment next door to her daughter and grandson. On the morning of May 6, she heard the baby screaming and went to Fabiana’s apartment to see what was going on. That’s when she made the terrible discovery. Fabiana was dead in her bathtub. The baby was unharmed and was later raised by Fabiana’s mother, according to Aslan. He is 32 years old today.
Aslan returned to Canada in 1995, but nothing was the same for him with Fabiana gone. “Fabiana was his favorite sibling,” ex-wife Rosanne said. “He adored her.”
“She was always energetic,” Aslan said. And they both loved music. “She would like to show me things with music, you know, and, like, guide me in my interest in music,” he recalled. “Back then it was all about, like, you know, recording music from, like, the radio station, like, how good you can do that, you know? And then piece every other song afterwards.”
Though they are no longer a couple, Aslan and Rosanne share the same hope that greater attention on Fabiana’s case will lead to answers after 31 years. And lead to something else, as well. “I would like to have justice,” Aslan said. “Know who did this, you know? That’s — it’s, like, something that’s been on my mind.”
And they won’t give up. “I don’t know why it touches me so deeply,” Rosanne said. Perhaps it’s because she was only 19 when the sister-in-law she never met was killed and she has experienced all the moments in life that were taken from Fabiana. “She’d be my age if she was still living, and it really, really bothers me.”
According to the SPVM, “The case is still active. Anyone with information is invited to contact 911. It is also possible to contact Info-Crime Montréal anonymously and confidentially at 514 393-1133 or via the reporting form available on infocrimemontreal.ca.”
If you have a story to share with Dateline, please submit it here.
