{"id":289792,"date":"2025-11-17T22:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/289792\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T22:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:39:08","slug":"yorkville-fire-that-killed-an-elderly-woman-was-a-homicide-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/289792\/","title":{"rendered":"Yorkville fire that killed an elderly woman was a homicide: police"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police say they believe a two-alarm fire in Toronto\u2019s Yorkville neighbourhood that claimed the life of an elderly woman<\/a> over the weekend was a homicide.<\/p>\n

The blaze broke out at a two-storey home on Boswell Avenue, near Davenport and Avenue roads, at around 11 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"fire Toronto police investigating after a woman was critically injured following a house fire late Saturday night (CP24 photo). <\/p>\n

Giovanna Balestrieri, 84, of Toronto, was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries but was pronounced dead a short time later. <\/p>\n

No other injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

\u2018Arson investigation with a criminal component\u2019<\/p>\n

Calling what occurred an \u201carson investigation with a criminal component\u201d to it, Det. Sgt. Trevor Grieve, of Toronto Police Service\u2019s Homicide and Missing Persons Unit, said on Monday that investigators have obtained footage from the area that shows a lone suspect approaching and going down the side of the house prior to the fire. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is then an explosion and a fire which occurs, and that suspect then flees the scene shortly thereafter,\u201d he said during a news conference.<\/p>\n

Grieve said emergency responders attended the area just after 11 p.m. and found Balestrieri on the second floor of the residence.<\/p>\n

She was the home\u2019s lone occupant and lived alone there, he said, noting that that she died as a result of injuries sustained during the fire. Balestrieri is the city\u2019s 36th homicide victim of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bouquet fatal fire Yorkville Nov. 15 A bouquet of flowers is seen outside a home on Boswell Avenue, in Toronto Yorkville area, on Nov. 17. <\/p>\n

This video is not being made publicly available at this time, Grieve said, as it is \u201cjust not quality enough at this point in time to release something that will aid our investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that the suspect is only described as wearing dark clothing.<\/p>\n

An autopsy was conducted on Monday and Balestrieri\u2019s family is currently en route to the city from outside of the Greater Toronto Area, Grieve said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Det. Sgt. Trevor Grieve, of Toronto Police Service\u2019s Homicide and Missing Persons Unit Det. Sgt. Trevor Grieve, of Toronto Police Service\u2019s Homicide and Missing Persons Unit, speaks during a Nov. 17 news conference. \u2018Cowardly and deplorable\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m going to be candid, this was a tragic and senseless act. In fact, cowardly and deplorable come to mind,\u201d he said, calling what occurred a \u201ctargeted incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to do everything we can to find the individual who is responsible for that and we are currently in that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office of the Fire Marshal remains on scene along with Toronto Police Service forensics and Toronto fire investigators. <\/p>\n

Police are thanking people in the area for their assistance with this investigation and are asking anyone with further information to contact them at 416-808-5300 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police say they believe a two-alarm fire in Toronto\u2019s Yorkville neighbourhood that claimed the life of an elderly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-289792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}