Toronto Filipina fatally stabbed on Halloween, weeks after her ex-boyfriend was charged with assault

Gregoria Alilio helped pay for her mother’s medication and daily expenses in the Philippines. On Halloween, the 47-year-old was fatally stabbed in Toronto, weeks after a court ordered her ex-boyfriend to have no contact with her.

Toronto police responded to a report of a stabbing near Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue West in the city’s North York district shortly after 4 p.m. on Oct. 31. Officers found Alilio and a man with stab wounds. The man died at the scene, and Alilio died in hospital.

Police believe the man was responsible for Alilio’s death and are investigating the killing as a homicide linked to intimate partner violence. Local media identified the man as Alilio’s ex-boyfriend, Reydel Del Rosario, 57. Police have not publicly named him.

According to court records cited in local reporting, Del Rosario was charged on Sept. 1 with two counts of assault, one count of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and theft. He was accused of assaulting Alilio with a kitchen knife and threatening to kill her. He was released on bail with a no-contact order.

Alilio’s family said she feared her ex-boyfriend and had moved to the neighbourhood just weeks before her death. Her niece, Edelyn Cabrera, said Alilio had lived in Canada for more than a decade and that relatives in the Philippines relied on her support.