A Murder in the Neighbourhood

There are occasions when violence intrudes even into the most familiar settings and the most typical lives. Such an intrusion occurred on Hillcrest Avenue in the Toronto suburb of Pickering. There a naked woman ran from her home, carrying her child, screaming for help. She was attempting to escape from her estranged husband who was threatening her with a gun. Though she was able to hand the child to alarmed neighbors, she was dragged back into the house where she was shot and killed by her husband, who then killed himself. A Murder in the Neighbourhood, produced by Karen Levine for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Sunday Edition, relates these events but is not about them. Rather, the program focuses on the experiences of the neighbors who struggled at that time and later with their own responses, actions, and reactions, with the aftermath of events that shattered their everyday expectations. For allowing these individuals to explore the deeply personal meanings of unexpected tragedy, and for allowing listeners to consider what their own responses might have been, A Murder in the Neighbourhood receives a Peabody Award.