The alarming details behind a 14-year-old’s random murder of a retired teacher in Ontario

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Four minutes before he stopped in front of Doney’s house he was scrolling through various web sites and social media. Soon after he killed Doney, he continued watching YouTube, including clips from the TV series Breaking Bad and Family Guy, and the Marvel movie Iron Man. Once he returned home, he kept scrolling online and watching YouTube until about 30 minutes before police arrived and arrested him.

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Court heard that on the day before the stabbing school officials had caught the boy with a knife and suspended him for five days.

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During two medical assessments being prepared for the boy’s court appearances he told psychologists he had a fluctuating “urge to kill” in the weeks leading up to his attack.

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A woman places flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the home of Eleanor Doney, who was killed by a 14-year-old boy the previous day in Pickering, Ont., May 30, 2025. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia/File

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He admitted that he carried a knife in his briefcase and knew it was there on May 29 while out walking. When he saw Doney in front of her house he saw a chance to carry out his plan to kill, and he stopped and engaged her in conversation before stabbing her.

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This past April, less than a year after Doney’s murder, the boy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Family and friends of the much-loved grandmother learned the horrifying details of her killer’s plotting and the viciousness of his attack.

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Media organizations, including National Post and Toronto Star, applied to the court for access to key documents used in the prosecution. At a hearing Thursday, Justice Lisa Wannamaker ruled that reporters should be granted access to a version of the agreed statement of facts and victim impact statements after the court redacted identifying information about the killer.

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Doney’s husband, Bruce Doney, had earlier told court he and his wife had been together for 63 years and his life has been a nightmare since that afternoon. He said he has forgiven his wife’s killer and hopes the boy gets the treatment he needs to prevent other crimes.

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Erin Dann, the boy’s lawyer, declined to comment on the case outside of court. At the hearing on the media’s access request she defended the need to protect some information, saying the Youth Criminal Justice Act is “designed not only to protect young persons’ privacy but to enhance their rehabilitative potential and, in doing so, protect society at large.”

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Dann and Crown prosecutor Tammi D’Eri earlier had jointly told court that the maximum allowable youth sentence for first-degree murder — which is 10 years — is appropriate in this case, recommending six years in custody under a rehabilitative program and the remainder in the community.

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A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July.

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Concerns over the online activity of young people prior to committing explosive violence is a growing feature of our time.

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After February’s deadly mass shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., the digital footprint of 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar revealed the shooter posted videos of guns on YouTube and TikTok, created a mall shooting simulation game on Roblox, and had an account on WatchPeopleDie, a website sharing gore videos with the tagline “People die and this is the place to see it.”

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Months before eight people, including six children, were killed, Van Rootselaar was banned from ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, after researching public shooting scenarios. Despite the ban, Van Rootselaar managed to create a second account, the company said.

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In both deadly cases, nobody who knew the killers’ plans or violent ideation, or at least might have been concerned about the path they were on, alerted authorities in time to make any difference.

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