Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

2 Mystery Women’s DNA Tied to Jewish Snowbirds Double-Murder

Police have recovered genetic evidence from two unidentified women at the scene of the double murder of Jewish retirees Rochelle Wise and David (Donny) Pichosky in their south Florida condo.

The DNA doesn’t match relatives or anyone else who would have been permitted into the home, police said Wednesday at a press conference marking the first anniversary of the slayings.

Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy vowed to solve the puzzling case, calling the DNA find a major breakthrough.

“It’s only a matter of time before we get our match, and we will get our match,” Flournoy said. “We’re gonna solve this case.”

The DNA was also run through law enforcement databases in the U.S. and Canada but no matches were found. Detectives are waiting on DNA testing results from the Broward Sheriff’s Office crime lab.

A shoe print was also found at the scene. The print came from an Adidas Supernova sneaker that was made in 2000 and is out of production, Flournoy said.

Wise, 66, and Pichosky, 71, both from Toronto, were found dead on January 10, 2013 at their winter home. An autopsy revealed they died of asphyxiation.

Wise was a well-known member of the Toronto Jewish community. She was a former director of Crestwood Valley Day Camp and vice-principal of the preschool division at Bialik Hebrew Day School. The couple wed in 2009.

Police have been tight-lipped throughout about a possible motive for the crime, and were at pains to limit worries in the community that the couple were victims of a random home invasion.

Still, robbery seems the most likely explanation for the murders. Police revealed that Wise’s $16,000 wedding ring was taken.

A video of a woman seen leaving the couple’s condo was released in April, but police have not revealed if it led to any clues.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.