‘Puppet master’ in Rengel murder transferred to adult facility
Posted January 7, 2012 4:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The woman behind the killing of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel was transferred to an adult facility on Saturday.
Melissa Todorovic, then 15, was convicted of first-degree murder in Rengel’s death. It was Todorovic’s boyfriend, David Bagshaw, who fatally stabbed the teen and left her to die in snowbank on New Year’s Day, 2008.
Both Todorovic and Bagshaw were convicted of first-degree murder in 2009, with Judge Ian Nordheimer calling Todorovic the “puppet master” behind the brutal crime.
Todorovic request to remain in a youth facility was denied in December. By law, Todorovic can’t stay in a youth facility past age 19. She turned 20 on Jan. 7 and was transferred to Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., to serve out her life sentence.
Todorovic will be eligible for parole in 2016 and has appealed her conviction and sentence. That appeal has not yet been heard.
Last month, Todorovic’s lawyer Brian Snell described his client as a model inmate, and a straight A student working towards a degree in biology “that will be jeopardized in an adult facility without Internet or lab facilities.”
But Crown lawyer Robin Flummerfelt argued in court that she has shown no remorse and refuses to take part in treatment.
“She has a character flaw that is frightening especially since it hasn’t been diagnosed or treated, not because of a lack of programs, but because she refuses.”
