Claudio Cara

Claudio Cara was a kind, docile, and trusting man with a great sense of humour who loved to play the lottery. His daughter, Annalisa, remembered him as a doting father who played Cupid every Valentine's Day, buying her a bouquet of flowers and chocolates. A 56-year-old Italian-Canadian retiree from General Motors, Claudio had taken an early retirement in 2007 due to a heart condition that required a pacemaker. He lived in a home on Waverly Street North in Oshawa, Ontario, which he shared with his son, Frank.

The day after Valentine's Day in 2012, Frank left the house in the morning to visit his sick grandmother. He tried calling his father around 10 a.m. to let him know he would be staying for lunch, but there was no answer. When Frank returned home that afternoon, he noticed the mail was still in the box. He went inside the quiet house, calling for his father. He walked into the kitchen and found Claudio lying on the floor. At first, he thought his father had suffered a heart attack. When he turned him over, he saw his father's face was discolored, there was a pool of blood, and a steel object was protruding from his stomach. It was a knife from their own kitchen, its handle broken off. Claudio Cara had been stabbed multiple times.

The Durham Regional Police Service began its investigation. In the hours before his death on February 15, 2012, Claudio had met friends at a Swiss Chalet restaurant but left quickly. About two and a half hours later, he was seen buying a lottery ticket at a convenience store. Police were unable to account for his time in between these locations or in the hours before he was killed. Eight months later, in November 2012, investigators arrested his son. Francesco "Frank" Cara, then 28, was charged with second-degree murder.

Frank maintained his innocence, and his family corroborated his alibi that he was visiting his grandmother at the time of the murder. He was denied bail and spent the next 10 months in custody as the legal process unfolded. His lawyers eventually presented a crucial and unusual piece of evidence: data extracted from Claudio Cara's pacemaker. The device had recorded the precise time his heart stopped, which established a definitive time of death. This new evidence proved that Frank was with his grandmother and other relatives when his father was killed.

A few days before Christmas in December 2013, the Crown withdrew the second-degree murder charge against Frank Cara, and he was freed. He later launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Durham Regional Police, alleging the investigation had unfairly and exclusively targeted him from the beginning. The statement of claim alleged that police had tapped his phone, placed a tracking device on his car, and harassed his family.

In the years since the charge was withdrawn, no other suspects have been publicly identified, and no further arrests have been made. The murder of Claudio Cara created a deep and lasting rift within his family, leaving them shattered by the loss and the wrongful accusation that followed. His daughter Annalisa’s emotional plea for information in October 2012, just before her brother’s arrest, still hangs in the air. "My father was a great, very kind, docile, trusting man with a great sense of humour, he always had witty one liners," she told reporters.

As of early 2024, more than a decade after the killing, the case remains an active but unsolved homicide on the cold case files of the Durham Regional Police. Investigators still believe someone has information about where Claudio went on the day he died or who he may have met.

Anyone with information regarding the murder of Claudio Cara is asked to contact the Durham Regional Police Homicide Unit at 1-888-579-1520 ext. 5400. Anonymous tips can be made to Durham Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).