Toronto hotel stabbings a double murder-suicide, police rule
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 | 10:00 PM ET
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The gruesome deaths of three people early Monday in a downtown Toronto hotel were a double murder-suicide, police say.
An autopsy on Tuesday has revealed that the Swiss woman found in a hotel room and the German man discovered dead in the hallway of the 19th floor of the Delta Chelsea Hotel were stabbed to death.
Hotel security discovered Thomas Kaufmann, 35, died in the hallway from stab wounds to the chest.
Police say Kaufmann was living in Bern, Switzerland, but carried a German passport.
Nadja Wyrsch, 24, of Luzern, Switzerland, was killed by stab wounds to the chest and an incision on her neck, they said.
Police discovered her body in a hotel room without any vital signs around 4:30 a.m. ET after they were called to the scene.
The second man, who was found dead in the hotel room with the woman, died after stabbing himself in the chest, police said. He was identified as Andre Ashwanden, 35, of Luzern.
"It is my opinion they were all stabbed in the room and the one man fled. We are still continuing with the crime scene," said Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan, the lead homicide investigator.
Detectives believe the Swiss couple was sharing their room with Ashwanden.
The three arrived from Switzerland on Sunday as part of a tour group set to travel in Canada. All three had hearing impairments but none was deaf or used sign language.
Police are still trying to figure out the relationship between the three and the motive for the killings.
"Keep in mind this thing happened behind closed doors. Three people were behind four walls with a locked door," said Ryan. "So we've got to put all the pieces together before we can come out and say definitively what happened."
Police have said that all three were found fully clothed.
The Delta Chelsea Hotel is on Gerrard Street near Yonge Street.
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