Grief stricken father blaming himself -- Wishes he gave daughter more protection

Grief stricken dad blaming himself

Wishes he gave 23 year old daughter more protection

A day after her uncle was charged with her slaying, the grieving father of a Wolseley woman killed last week is blaming himself for not protecting her.

Ed Gastador said if he had protected her, his 23-year-old adopted daughter, Catherine, might be alive today.

"I should have given her more protection," Gastador said Saturday.

"We're just glad that (police) got him."

Winnipeg police said Mario Ronquillo Valdez, 36, has been charged with second-degree murder and failing to comply with conditions of a recognizance.

Catherine Gastador was discovered dead in her Preston Avenue condominium on Tuesday when her father went to see why she hadn't gone to work.

A knife was found beside her body.

Valdez, who is the brother of Catherine Gastador's adoptive mother, was arrested on Friday and has been detained in custody.

Ed Gastador said his wife, Charito, has no feelings towards her brother.

"She's crying for her daughter -- she doesn't care about him," he said.

"She has no sympathy for him."

Gastador said the slaying comes 28 years after he and his wife sponsored Valdez to move to Canada from the Philippines with the rest of his family.

"He came here when he was six years old. We wanted him to make a future here.

"This is a nightmare for me."

Uncle charged in Wolsely woman's death

The uncle of a Winnipeg woman slain last week has been charged with her death.

Winnipeg police said today that Mario Ronquillo Valdez, 36, has been charged with second degree murder and failure to comply with conditions of a recognizance.

Valdez, who was arrested on Friday, has been detained in custody.

Catherine Gastador, 23, was found dead on Tuesday by her father in a Preston Avenue condominium. Her father, Ed, had gone to the suite after the woman's employer phoned him to say she hadn't gone to work.

A knife was found beside the woman's body.

Valdez is brother of Gastador's adoptive mother.

Revoking protection orders 'not unusual' in abuse: expert
Catherine Gastador was granted a protection order against the man now accused of killing her her but just five months later sought to have it revoked.
Women may seek to revoke an order for a variety of reasons, including fear, family pressures, or a genuine belief they are no longer in need of protection, said Joy Dupont, training co-ordinator for Manitoba Justice’s victim services department.
“It’s not unusual ... that the person causing the fear will take steps to improve themselves or express remorse because they don’t want the relationship to end,” she said. “It’s not unusual that the person who got the protection order may think it’s safer now.”
In other cases a woman may be manipulated into revoking a protection order, believing it necessary to “keep the peace” with their friends or family, Dupont said.
The body of Catherine Gastador, 23, was found Tuesday in her condo and her adoptive uncle, 36-year-old Mario Ronquillo Valdez, is charged with second-degree murder.
Gastador was granted a three-year protection order against Valdez in February 2007 after telling the court he assaulted her on two separate occasions. According to court documents, one of the assaults occurred at the Merchants Hotel, where Valdez worked as a bartender and Gastador was a waitress. Gastador alleged Valdez choked her after the two got into an argument over a slow service complaint.
In June 2007, Gastador asked the court to set aside the protection order, calling it “a mistake.” Gastador said her drinking was partly to blame for the assaults and called Valdez her “favourite uncle.”
Describing the bar incident, Gastador wrote in an affidavit: “I might have made him feel like I was the boss of him ... He didn’t have to push me down and choke me, but I kind of asked for it because I was being disrespectful.”
It’s not clear when Valdez moved into the Preston Avenue condo building Gastador also called home.
Dupont — not speaking specifically of the Gastador case — said women in abusive relationships will often minimize or deny the abuse, or blame themselves.
“It’s part of the cycle of violence ... they are made to believe they are culpable as well,” she said.

Uncle accused in niece's slaying
A Winnipeg father is struggling to understand not only why his daughter was stabbed to death, but how the man accused of killing her could be a relative he helped enter Canada from the Philippines to live a better life.
After Mario Ronquillo Valdez was charged in Tuesday’s slaying of Catherine Gastador, 23, at her Wolseley condominium, the victim’s father, Eduardo Gastador, suggested that the questions are nearly as much of a burden as the tragedy itself.
He said the 36-year-old Valdez — a brother of his wife Charito Gastador, and Catherine’s uncle through adoption — might not have come to Canada in the early 1980s if it hadn’t been for his sponsorship in the immigration process.
“That’s on my mind too. “Why did he do that to us, to my daughter? Because we — me and my wife — are the ones who sponsored them to come to Canada,” Eduardo Gastador said of the help they had given to Valdez and a couple of his family members.
“And then they stayed at our house, in this house,” he said on his doorstep in Tyndall Park. “Mario was only six years old.”
The early assistance to the newcomers, he said, also included help with moving and finding furniture.
A three-year protection order was granted to Catherine Gastador in February 2007 to keep Valdez away from her. Though police announced Friday that they had arrested a suspect in her slaying, they didn’t release his name till Saturday.
Valdez is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Catherine Gastador, whom police confirm died of multiple stab wounds and other upper-body injuries.
He remains in custody and is also charged with failing to comply with conditions of a recognizance in an unrelated matter.
Other questions swirling around the Gastador family include why Catherine had applied to have the protection order withdrawn about five months after it was issued — and why Valdez has apparently been living at the same Preston Avenue condo complex as her while allegedly telling some people that they were a couple.

Arrest made in Wolsely woman's killing

Arrest made in Wolsely woman's slaying

The family of a slain Winnipeg woman said Friday they're relieved investigators have made an arrest in the woman's death.

Police said Friday morning they had a man in custody -- but weren't releasing his name -- after Catherine Gastador, 23, was found dead Tuesday in a Preston Avenue condominium block known as the Rothesay.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said the man was arrested Friday morning. The suspect faces a second-degree murder charge, but no formal charge has yet been laid.

Gastador was a legal assistant at Fillmore Riley who had wanted to pursue a law career. Her father, Ed Gastador, said he discovered her body in the bedroom of her condo Tuesday afternoon after she didn't show up for work and her fellow employees became worried.

A knife was found beside Catherine's body.

Ed Castador said investigators came to his home Friday morning to tell him about the arrest, but did not divulge the man's identity.

"I feel glad and relieved," he said.

Slain woman's relative told others they were dating: dad
An arrest in Winnipeg’s latest homicide has brought relief to the victim’s parents — even as a new discovery about their daughter’s relationship with a relative has left them bewildered.
Following the slaying of 23-year-old legal assistant Catherine Gastador days ago at her condominium at the Rothesay complex in Wolseley, city police said Friday they’ve arrested a man who faces a charge of second-degree murder.
Police have said almost nothing else about the case, or the discovery of the victim’s body in her suite on Tuesday.
Eduardo Gastador, the father of the city’s sixth homicide victim of the year, said police contacted him about the arrest Friday morning.
“They didn’t give us the name. But I’m feeling relief,” Gastador said of the suspect, whose age was not made public.
Gastador said he and his wife Charito — who adopted Catherine in the Philippines before moving to Winnipeg — have been comforted and “inspired” by supporters.
“I’m very happy about that. But it’s not enough,” he said of the arrest. “My daughter is gone. It’s too late now.”
Adding to the family’s stress are separate discoveries about a male relative against whom Catherine had been granted a three-year protection order in February 2007. She applied months later to have the order rescinded.
Eduardo Gastador said he learned this week that the relative has been living at the same condo building as Catherine.
“I didn’t know that,” he said. “He was even saying to everyone that Catherine and him were (dating).”

Slain woman had filed protection order against a relative

Protection order `a mistake`: victim -- slain woman had said her drinking, not `violent` relative to blame

A young Winnipeg woman found dead in her Wolseley apartment previously filed a protection order against a relative she said assaulted her on two separate occasions.

Catherine Gastador, 23, was found stabbed to death Tuesday in her Preston Avenue condominium.

According to court records, Gastador was granted a three-year protection order in February 2007. The protection order prohibited the male relative from being within 100 metres of Gastador, following her, or communicating with her in any way.

Gastador told court the man assaulted her in his car on Feb. 10, 2007, following a birthday party for her mother. Gastador said the man grabbed her by the hair and “threw her around” the car.

“I have no idea why he is being so violent toward me,” she told court. “I just want him to stay away just in case I do something wrong to him.”

In January 2006, the man was a bartender at a hotel bar where Gastador worked as a waitress. Gastador said the man choked her after the two got into an argument over a slow service complaint.

‘A bit violent’

Just five months after the protection order was granted, Gastador sought an order to set it aside, telling the court “it was a mistake.”

In a June 15, 2007, affidavit, Gastador wrote she had been drinking both times the man allegedly assaulted her.

“I’ve recently learned that I too become a bit violent when I’ve had a few to drink,” she wrote.

Gastador described the man as “caring and generous” and said he deserved to be welcomed back to the family.

“I believe he deserves to be part of our family functions,” she wrote. “I feel awful and greedy to be fully blaming him for what was my fault too ... I do not feel a threat coming from (him) anymore because now I understand that it is me that needs to control my alcohol consumption.”

The man is before the courts on an unrelated charge of assault causing bodily harm dating to October 2009. He made his first court appearance Thursday. He has one prior conviction for assault in April 2007.

As of press time Thursday, police had yet to announce an arrest in the killing.

Man faces charge of second degree murder, in death of Wolsely woman

Man arrested in death of Wolsely woman

WINNIPEG -- A man faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of a 23-year-old Winnipeg woman Tuesday.

Catherine Gastador was found dead in her Wolseley area condo Tuesday evening.

Police said more information will be released once formal charges have been laid against the suspect.

Victim granted a restraining order

Victim granted restraining order -- uncle lived in same building

The man named in a recently expired restraining order Catherine Gastador had obtained because of fears for her personal safety was living in the same apartment block in which her bloodied body was found Tuesday afternoon.

The Free Press has also learned police arrested the man on an unrelated matter the day after her slaying and, even though the Crown fought to keep him behind bars, he was released Thursday.

Gastador, 23, was found stabbed to death Tuesday afternoon inside her suite at 828 Preston Ave. Police haven't announced any arrests.

Court documents obtained Thursday by the Free Press show Gastador went to court in February 2007 and was granted a three-year order against the 33-year-old brother of her adopted mother. The order stated the man could not follow or communicate with her and had to stay more than 100 metres from where she lived.

She cited a series of violent incidents that left her fearing for her safety in a case that was eventually red-flagged by justice officials and referred to a provincial victim's services agency for follow-up investigation.

"I am concerned that he is able to use anything around him as a weapon. Especially if he had been drinking," Gastador wrote in her affidavit to a provincial magistrate. "I truly fear him. He is very violent, he has no respect for any of the family members... and he does not fear anyone. He has emotionally and physically hurt me and I want it to stop."

The granting of a protective order is not proof all allegations made in the affidavit are true, although it does mean the court found she had reasonable grounds to be concerned he was a risk to her safety.

The Free Press has learned the subject of the restraining order -- which expired in February 2010 -- was arrested Wednesday inside the same Wolseley complex where he'd been living with his 13-year-old son.

The now 36-year-old man had been wanted since last October on an outstanding warrant for assault causing bodily harm against a co-worker at a construction job site. Sources say it was only discovered and executed by police as part of the ongoing homicide investigation. The Crown fought to keep the man behind bars Thursday, citing other convictions for weapons and violence, but provincial court Judge Brian Corrin agreed to released him on several bail conditions. There was no mention by either Crown or defence lawyers about Gastador's slaying.

A resident of the building told the Free Press the man had been going around claiming he was in a relationship with Gastador, who is not a blood relative but would usually refer to him as her uncle. The pair were often spotted together. This came as news to Ed and Charito Gastador, who told the Free Press they had no idea the man was living so close to their daughter. They were equally shocked to learn Catherine had actually filed an affidavit in June 2007 in which she seemed to recant all of the earlier statements they helped her put down on paper about being afraid of the man.

"I'm thinking she got brainwashed," Ed Gastador said of his daughter, whom they adopted as a baby in the Philippines and brought to Canada at the age of eight. He said the family has lost touch with the man and haven't spoken to him in ages.

The Free Press obtained copies of both affidavits Catherine Gastador filed. In the original affidavit to obtain the order, Gastador said her uncle began beating her and pulling her hair following an argument that began inside a car after leaving her mother's birthday party. She said he had launched a similar attack weeks earlier while both were working inside the Merchant's Hotel on Selkirk; he as a bartender, she as a waitress. She said her uncle was drunk on the job and shoved her to the ground, choking her, when she asked him to fill a drink order.

Gastador then did a complete reversal with her follow-up affidavit.

"It was a mistake. I was also a bit intoxicated and I've recently learned that I too become a bit violent when I've had a few to drink. I believe that he was just holding me down from making violent moves towards him," she wrote.

She also cited concern the restraining order would prevent her uncle from attending an upcoming family wedding.

"He is my favourite uncle. He is a very giving and generous family member. He has helped each of us individually and because of my mistake, the people he has helped cannot even thank him in person on their wedding day," she wrote. She said her uncle is more "like one of my friends" who has played an important role in her life.

"He still acts young and cool but he also has taught me how to be responsible with a lot of things in my life. And more importantly he has taken time to help me grow up," she said.

A magistrate refused to rescind the original restraining order and instead referred the entire case to the provincial victim's services. It's not clear what, if anything, happened with the case from there. However, it never did return to court and the restraining order remained in place until it expired three months ago. Gastador was studying to advance her career in law and began working at Fillmore Riley this spring as a legal assistant.

A father`s worst nightmare: Finds his daughter`s body

A father`s nightmare: finds daughter`s body

WINNIPEG - Climbing the steps to his daughter's Wolseley condo, Ed Gastador wondered why the petite 23-year-old had missed work and wasn't answering the telephone.

Using a duplicate key to let himself into her suite Tuesday afternoon, he found Catherine's lifeless, bloodied body on her bed, with wounds on her back and a knife lying beside her.

Winnipeg police are investigating Catherine Gastador's death as the city's sixth homicide of 2010.

"We're in shock," said Ed Gastador, joined by his wife, Charito, on Wednesday inside their Tyndall Avenue home. "My daughter's gone.

"She was so young, she wanted to pursue more. My daughter was a very ambitious lady."

Homicide investigators were interviewing witnesses Wednesday and no arrests had been made by press time, a police spokesman said.

Neighbours at the condo block at 828 Preston Ave. said they'd seen Catherine walking her fluffy white dog there recently. She'd lived at the brick heritage building known as the Rothesay for about three years, and one resident said they regularly saw her with another man who who lived in the block.

Ed Gastador said his daughter was studying to advance her career and she was "ambitious" in her pursuits, especially about a career in law.

"She was so happy, especially when she was with her friends," he said.

However, her life wasn't without turmoil. Court records show Catherine had filed a protection order in February 2007 against a Winnipeg man believed to be in his 30s. The order was to have expired in February 2010, however, Catherine applied in the summer of 2007 to have the protection order varied or set aside.

The order stated the man could not follow, contact or communicate with her, and had to stay more than 100 metres from where she lived.

Ed Gastador said the protection order was filed because his daughter told him she was "scared" of a man who is related to her through her mother.

Police said Wednesday the cause of death had not been confirmed and autopsy results are pending.

After losing a job at another law firm last fall, Catherine began working at Fillmore Riley this spring as a legal assistant.

Ed Gastador said he expressed concerns about her being alone in her condo and the demands of school and work.

"I was complaining about (her being) too busy," he said. "And she answered me, 'Dad, I am still young.'"

Charlotte Jorek, a resident of the Rothesay, said Catherine was ecstatic because of her new job.

"She was so happy," she said. "It's really, really sad. I just thought she was a very nice girl."

A staff member at Fillmore Riley had called the Gastadors to say their daughter hadn't arrived for work. Ed said after calling his daughter repeatedly, he became worried she might have fallen ill and went to check on her.

"I didn't expect anything wrong," he said.

After opening the door and calling out for his daughter, he found her lying face down. Panicking, he tried to revive her, rolling her over. There was blood beside her mouth.

"I didn't know she was already dead," said Ed Gastador, adding the couple is devastated they will never see their child again.

Wolsely woman stabbed, says father

WINNIPEG - The father of a slain Winnipeg woman said his daughter wanted to live alone and further her academic studies while she worked.

Police found the body of 23-year-old Catherine Gastador in a suite at 828 Preston Avenue just after 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Her father, Ed Gastador, said Wednesday she died from a stab wound to the back. 

Gastador said he last saw his daughter at a family party in March. He described her as a "very ambitious lady."

Catherine Gastador reportedly lived on the fourth floor of the condominium building, which is known as the Rothesay.  Her father said she lived alone.  

Neighbours said Gastador had lived in the building for about three years and was often seen walking a small, white dog.  She was also frequently seen with a male friend in the building, a neighbour said.

Gastador's profile on the social-networking site Facebook indicates a local law firm was her employer, although a post from a friend in mid-March congratulated her on her new job.  A company spokesperson for Fillmore Riley, a local law firm, said Gastador worked there.

A lone police cruiser was parked outside the property Wednesday morning. Police said they are interviewing a number of witnesses in connection with the case.

No arrests have been announced by police. The homicide unit is investigating.