Victim volunteered with poor

A Rose for
Rose Marie McGroarty


Victim volunteered with poor
Common-law husband charged
Neighbour's tip leads to arrest
Dec. 7, 2005. 02:56 PM
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM
Slain woman Rose Marie McGroarty’s
four-week absence
from her volunteer position at a
west-end drop-in centre
didn’t arouse suspicions because
colleagues believed
she was looking after a sick relative.
“We thought she was in London visiting her mother, who
was in grave condition,” Debbie Chambers, a staff member
at the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre, told thestar.com
today.
Sections of McGroarty’s dismembered body were first
discovered on Nov. 11.
Police released a limited description, but didn’t identify her
until this morning.
Her common-law husband was arrested late yesterday
afternoon, and police found more body parts last night.
“She had gone several times to London to visit her mother
and that’s where we thought she was,” Chambers said.
“I was devastated" to learn of her death.
"It's still hitting us here. Parkdale is a tight community and
when something like this happens, it affects the whole drop-in."
From 100 to 300 people a day go through the drop-in,
Chambers said. McGroarty had a couple of children,
Chambers believes, but didn't know where they'd be or their
ages.
She said McGroarty's husband didn't work and would
sometimes come into the centre.
Police yesterday arrested McGroarty’s common-law
husband, Robert Wiszniowski, 50, and charged him
with the 46-year-old Parkdale woman’s murder.
Chambers said a memorial will be planned at the
drop-in centre in the near future.
“She was a wonderful, caring person, who was poor
herself,” Chambers said.
She worked at the drop-in centre for three or four years
with a team of about six kitchen volunteers, Chambers
said, routinely serving up "a smile and a bowl of cereal."
“She would be the first one there at 8 a.m. to prepare
breakfast. She was poor like the rest of them, but she
wanted people to be fed because she knew that if they
were fed they would be a lot easier to deal with.
She liked to help people and she was a great team member."
McGroarty started visiting her ailing mother in August,
Chambers said.
"The message that I got (last month) was that she'd be
back in a couple of weeks, but that her mom was on her
death bed. We were wondering if she was going to be
back really soon."
It was unlike her to miss shifts, Chambers said, and
McGroarty depended on occasional kitchen clean-up
work at the centre, which paid her about $60 a week.
She was paid about once a month and she had missed
some shifts "which is not like Rose," Chambers said.
McGroarty was scheduled for clean-up duty the day part
of her body was found on Nov. 11.
Police are crediting the arrest to a questioning neighbour.
Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said this morning that residents of
Parkdale "can now breathe a sigh of relief" after weeks of
uncertainty.
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