Woman Charged In Stabbing Death Of Common-Law Husband

Police have charged a 24-year-old woman with second-degree murder after she allegedly stabbed her common-law husband in the neck while they were travelling in a car in the west end.

At about 2:30pm on Saturday, 25-year-old Ludlow Gillespie was driving north on Windermere Ave., just west of High Park, when he got into an argument with his common-law wife, Melissa Lewis.

Lewis, who was sitting in the back, reportedly stabbed Gillespie in the neck. He was taken to St. Joseph’s Health Centre, where he later died.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

Lewis’ father, 54-year-old David Winn, and the couple’s six-year-old daughter were also in the car at the time. Winn fled with the distraught girl immediately after the incident, but several hours later, she was found safe.

“I’m just getting a narrative from a six-year-old that mom and dad were having an argument. During that argument the information is mommy produced a knife and stabbed daddy in the neck. And the vehicle came to a stop and [the child] was screaming,” Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said Monday, while urging Winn to come forward.

“He has the right as a citizen not to cooperate with the investigation. But this is different than ones in the traditional sense. He is involved and he will be involved. He can be subpoenaed to a preliminary hearing and will be expected to answer the questions truthfully.”

Gillespie was no stranger to drama. He was an aspiring rapper who was shot twice last year. And a court reportedly ordered him to stay away from Lewis, the woman now accused of killing him.

His grieving family hopes the Children’s Aid Society will allow them to care for his daughter.

“That’s what he was living for. He was living for the baby,” his sister, Anjelica Gillespie, said Monday.

“He does everything for her, so it’s going to affect her a lot. He does her hair. He takes her out. He buys her clothes. He feeds her – everything.”

Anyone with information should call police at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

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