MANDEL: Slaying of Pickering’s Eleanor Doney left broken lives in its wake

Widower says 'pain continues' after retired teacher was slain in front of their home by teen killer last year

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Published Jun 18, 2026  •  3 minute read

Bouquets of flowers from well-wishers are left at a home in Pickering as a memorial for Eleanor Doney on Monday June 2, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun

His devoted wife of 63 years used to bring him a coffee every morning and read to him each night. She was his eyes, his ears, his strongest advocate.

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Now almost 90, reliant on a wheelchair, blind in one eye and with failing sight in the other, Bruce Doney sits alone in his room in a long-term care home, waiting for the day he can be reunited with his beloved “Ellie” who was brutally murdered last year by a 14-year-old boy with an “urge to kill.”

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“My wife was my supporter, my main caregiver,” he said in his victim impact statement dictated to his daughter. “When Ellie was murdered, it was a crisis for me as the event was unbelievable in its extent. That pain continues.”

Bruce had to sell their home filled with three decades of memories and face his final lonely days without her. His family said his struggle with dementia has only worsened since her violent death and his move to a nursing home. “The trauma and sudden change in his environment accelerated his cognitive decline. He struggles to understand what happened, and he talks about wanting to be with her again in heaven. It is clear that he feels lost without her,” his son Jeff Doney told the court.

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Eleanor Doney is pictured with her husband, Bruce, in this undated Facebook photo.

‘Robbed of her dignity’

In countless statements, her friends and family described Eleanor Doner — whose killer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder recently in an Oshawa court — as a mentor, kind, generous and God fearing, who was stolen in such a senseless, vicious way.

“I am crushed and recoil in horror that mom was left alone to die and found in front of her home by a neighbour. She was robbed of her dignity as a greatly loved human being. Robbed of her right to say goodbye to her husband of 63 years. Robbed of the opportunity to utter final words to her beloved family and friends. All of these sacred times were cruelly snatched away from her and me,” wrote her daughter Judy Kirwin.

Her grandson Kevin Price said it is a struggle to live by his “Gram’s” Christian example.

“Her death will always be associated with a painful layer of shock, rage and sorrow because she was murdered,” he wrote. “It was such a scary and tragic way for her to go, so hard for us to grieve and to find closure because of its horror, such a terrible end to the life of someone who was full of love, joy and light.

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“Yet even now, I know that she would choose grace. Even now I know that she would love those that caused her harm. But still, even now, it is so hard to be like her, to have grace, hope and love because I grieve her loss so much.”

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Her husband has forgiven her young killer, though he fears his release. “I wish the best for him,” he wrote,” but that he would receive the proper treatment he needs and prevented from committing such crimes in the future.”

While Bruce wishes him a better future; for himself, he yearns for the end of his nightmare.

“I used to enjoy working in the garden with my wife with the flowers stretched over a couple of ponds and the songs of birds which returned to the birdhouse,” the widower wrote. “Now it’s like a little bird has flown into a closed window and was killed. I can only put it now in a place where it rests, is buried and marked. I’ll never forget that little bird that I spent 63 years with.”

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