Mother of two, 48, slain in Oshawa
Husband charged; stabbing occurred inside the house

Friend who may have been helping her leave also attacked

Aug. 1, 2004. 01:00 AM

KEVIN MCGRAN
STAFF REPORTER

An Oshawa man is in custody today, charged with the stabbing murder of his wife and the assault of another woman.

Police yesterday cordoned off the white picket-fenced house with a bright flower garden and removed a dog Spot, and two cats Oreo and Prince, to continue their investigation in the quiet neighbourhood near the Lake Ontario shore.

"We got a call (Friday) night of a disturbance on this street (Wecker Dr.) and we arrived and found a woman bleeding and she was taken to hospital. And we found a woman who was very seriously injured. She was taken to hospital and she has passed away," said David Selby, spokesperson for Durham Region police.

"We're trying to talk to relatives. We're talking to neighbours to try to get to the bottom of it."

Neighbours remembered Janice Cudjoe, 48, as a hockey mom, a loving mother of her two children, now in the care of the children's aid society, and a devoted worker as an assistant to a doctor at Oshawa Lakeridge Health, where she was declared dead.

"She did everything for the kids," said friend Gail Barton, who started crying. "(Her son) was in hockey. She drove to hockey all weekend long.

"She's a mom. What can I say? She'd do anything for you."

Indeed, Janice Cudjoe even helped petition Oshawa City Council to help get more and better ice surfaces for young hockey players. "Why do Oshawa city councillors continue to nickel and dime everything?" she wrote in an online petition last year. "Hockey is such a great sport for young boys and girls to learn sportsmanship and these kids are tomorrow's future."

A 38-year-old woman from Mississauga was visiting Janice Cudjoe on Friday when the violence erupted.

Neighbours said the visiting woman may have been trying to help Cudjoe leave her husband, a landscaper.

The Mississauga woman came running out on to Wecker Dr., screaming, said next-door neighbour Ryan Watson, 19. "She dialled 911 on her cordless and ran over to our house for protection." Watson said his next-door neighbours fought and yelled quite a bit. "The way they yell, it scares me a little."

When police arrived, they found Janice Cudjoe inside the residence with a stab wound to her chest. They arrested her husband outside the home without incident.

A Durham police officer assisted ambulance attendants with CPR at the scene and drove the ambulance to hospital as paramedics rode in the back trying to resuscitate the victim. She died of her injuries at Lakeridge Health Oshawa.

The Mississauga woman was taken to Lakeridge Health Oshawa and treated for a minor stab wound. She remained in hospital.

Randy Cudjoe, 47, is charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault.

The death is Durham Region's fifth murder of the year, all in Oshawa. Last year, there were three murders in the region.

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