Police await Canadian couple's cause of death

David Pichosky, Rochelle Wise found murdered inside Hallandale Beach apartment

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. ā€“ Police are still waiting for the medical examiner to determine how a couple visiting South Florida from Canada was murdered last week.

Neighbors found the bodies of David Pichosky, 72, and Rochelle Wise, 66, inside the couple's condominium at the Venetian Park townhouse complex on NE 25th Avenue last Friday .

The victims were snowbirds from Toronto and the crime is being covered extensively by media in Canada. That's raising questions about safety in South Florida for those viewers.

South Florida's Canadian tourist season is in full swing. Parking lots are full of Quebec license plates and French-speaking snowbirds fill businesses. But last week's double murder of the two tourists has not gone unnoticed.

"Is the rumor mill in overdrive?" asked a television news anchor with CTV to a reporter whom the Canadian news network sent to Hallandale Beach to cover the killings. The story has also played in newspapers in Montreal and Toronto.

"I'm afraid, I'm afraid," said a woman in one of the television reports.

People living in the quiet community where the killings occurred are afraid, but outside of the development, Canadians Local 10 talked to aren't overly afraid for their safety because of this incident.

"No, no, no, no.. I'm not afraid," said one man at Dairy Belle on U.S. 1 in Dania Beach.

"It's very sad but we don't know everything that happens there," said Germain Trembley, of Montreal.

Nearly a million Canadians are expected to visit South Florida this year. Canada is Broward's top international tourism market, but so far, the double homicide hasn't put a damper on this annual winter gathering.

At Frenchie's in Pembroke Park, Canadian tourists are more concerned about what's on the menu than whether they're being targeted by crooks.

They said they feel just as safe in their winter home has they do back home.

"It happens in Montreal, it happens in LA, it happens in New York, it happens everywhere," said Hellen Fullum, who is from Quebec and is spending her twelfth winter in South Florida.