Daughter’s Secret Affair With Foster Dad Leads to Deadly Murder

911 was your emergency what's going on who had the night what's going on someone H stabing my mom she stabed your mom yeah 21 this is the voice of 13-year-old Megan sella she was an ordinary girl from an ordinary home with a loving mother and stepfather and two sisters but this 911 call was far from ordinary it was the sound of confusion and despair as this peaceful family's life fell apart as Megan's mom died she'd been stabbed but who was holding the knife and how had things taken such a dark turn for this tight-knit family unit have you had these type of issues in the past where you just don't remember things like I said you know she she talked a big game about a lot of things from the start this seemed a simple if baffling case of a daughter's jealousy and a cuckoo in the family home but there was far more to the story from a troubled childhood to a quiet Suburban Street who was really to blame for a Mother's murder let's dive into the story of Sabrina zunich on November 12th 2012 everything changed for the canel family they were living in the quiet suburb of Willoughby Hills a picturesque town just outside Cleveland Ohio they had a reasonably comfortable life Kevin canel was a truck driver and Lisa canel was a social worker with the kyoga County Department of Children and Family Services their house was quiet and ordinary a Charming three-bedroom just off the peaceful Chagrin River it had a large front yard for the kids to play including a trampoline and a wooden playset with a slide these kids were loved and welll looked after there was no reason to suspect anything would go wrong on the evening of the 12th Kevin was out at work on the road Lisa meanwhile was home with the kids the kids were Haley the three-year-old child of Kevin and Lisa together Megan the 13-year-old from Lisa's first marriage and their foster daughter 18-year-old Sabrina Lisa usually took 3-year-old Haley to bed at about 10: p. m. it was Haley's Habit to return a few hours later to Lisa and Kevin's room to sleep in their bed 13-year-old Megan went to her own room around the same time 18-year-old Sabrina had more freedom having become an adult a few weeks earlier on the night of the 12th she stayed up working on a project for school for her British l literature class in the office area we're both upstairs in our rooms we separate rooms so what happened after uh after she went to bed um is Lisa still still awake or is Lisa sleeping at this time I I don't know Sabrina was listening to music and wasn't keeping track of other people's movements in the house she worked on her project until about midnight when she went upstairs and tried to sleep but she had a headache and couldn't get to sleep after some some point in time you don't know how long how long it's it's been you can't go to bed because you got a headache correct Sabrina left her own room and walk downstairs to Kevin and Lisa's bedroom you go open up the medicine cabinet WIP B says I be profen how many did you take three you take three of those um after you take three of them where do you go from there I don't know Megan and Haley were as sleep in bed Lisa was in her room sleeping too and Sabrina was standing there taking medication from there no one knows exactly what happened only the 13-year-old Megan woke up at about 1:15 a.

m. to the sounds of a struggle she rushed into her mom's room to find her foster sister her mom and a knife 911 what your emergency yeah my mom with a knif she's doing what to your mom with a knife you need to take a deep breath for me so I can understand you oh I did Lisa canel had been stabbed 178 times in her head neck torso and extremities she had defensive wounds she had tried to fight back and some of her injuries were complex wounds where the knife had been Twisted these wounds included one on her jaw deep enough to sever her cored artery the knife was a 15-in convex serrated knife and it had been bent with the force of the attack at this point she was already Beyond saving her veins had collapsed as a result of the blood loss and she had flatlined 3-year-old Haley was hiding in the closet and Sabrina was covered in blood her mom's blood it was Sabrina holding the knife at 1:17 a. m.

a local police patrolman received a call on dispatch about an assault in progress in the peaceful local area he rushed to the house in Willoughby Hills pulling into the driveway to find 13-year-old Megan still holding the phone she'd used to call 911 pleading with him to stop the attack that was happening in the house behind her he went down the hallway towards Lisa and Kevin's room he called out for Sabrina to come out with her hands up she did she was covered in blood and sobbing still with the murder weapon in her grip she had several small lacerations on her hands the back of her neck and on her legs above the knees when the police spoke to Sabrina she was incoherent and uncooperative but it was clear what had happened Megan had witnessed Sabrina attacking their mom and the physical evidence splattered all over her was undeniable but why why would this ordinary member of this loving family turn to such awful measures why why would she attack her loving foster mom with a knife stabbing her nearly 200 times in a fit of rage let's talk about Sabrina zunich she was born in October 1994 and had a troubled childhood right from the very beginning her parents were 35-year-old Mark zunich and 40-year-old Susan Edwards both from Ohio both had extensive arrest records in 1984 Susan spent 6 months in prison after pleading guilty to Grand Theft 6 years later she was found to have supplied drugs to a group of 14 and 15-year-olds in Cleveland though her sentencing for this crime was delayed because at the time she was giving birth to Sabrina's older half sibling she was later charged with obstruction of justice as well Sabrina's Father Mark also had a string of criminal indictments and these weren't limited to the nonviolent before Sabrina was born he had already been arrested multiple times for disorderly conduct and driving Under the Influence but when Sabrina was 16 months old he was arrested for domestic violence this was the first of many instances of aggression in Sabrina's early life but she still lived with her father and her grandmother in a small house in Wickliffe separate from her mom though Susan and Mark were still together according to a neighbor the police were called to the house frequently and Mark was always drunk when Sabrina was being bottle-fed as a baby mark would put vodka into her bottle to get her to go to sleep more easily in 2006 when Sabrina was 11 things escalated Mark gave Susan money to buy alcohol and then accused her of stealing the money for herself he grabbed her by the hair when the police arrived they found him granting that she should leave his house and never come back the police report described Mark as a paranoid schizophrenic who hadn't been taking his medication his life was littered with further arrests including drunk driving and property damage until he died of an apparent drug overdose in 2012 by this time however Sabrina was already out of the house with Mark devolving into an irresponsible drunk Sabrina's grandmother couldn't handle looking after Sabrina on her own and so Sabrina was sent at the age of 14 to a county run group home Emma KY receiving home as a teenager the home was designed for structured behavior modification she had well documented anger issues she would get into fights at school and someone who knew her there said she wasn't someone to mess with nor anyone in her life that she loves because she'll make me or anyone pay at the age of four Sabrina had been diagnosed with ADHD this and other diagnoses worked alongside a lot of her problems her anger issues lying substance abuse hearing voices and stealing but when she transferred high schools and moved from the group home to a foster family her behavior changed dramatically at her new school she kept her head down and did her work she had perfect attendance she was 16 and things were finally looking up her new Foster family was the canel family Lisa canel was used to dealing with troubled children in her work as a social worker she worked specifically in child protection and knew the value of compassion and she tried to treat Sabrina with this same compassion Lisa had started this work in 1999 around the same time as mon was born at the time she was married to someone else this marriage broke down in 2003 it was in 2006 that she met and married Kevin canel Kevin had also been married in the past from 1992 to 1997 his first child born in 1993 did not live with him it isn't clear how Lisa and Kevin met and got together but they moved into the pretty house on shagrin Drve in 2008 and in 2009 they had a daughter of their own Haley the the five of them Kevin Lisa Megan Haley and foster daughter Sabrina made a tight-knit family unit at least from the outside but despite Sabrina's measurable Improvement in Behavior things were not as they seemed in the canel household the relationship between Lisa and Sabrina broke down as quickly as it had begun Sabrina told a friend that Lisa made her life hell and they had vicious arguments Sabrina believed that Lisa showed favoritism towards her two biological daughters and didn't think it was fair so a division was created in the household between Lisa Megan and Haley on one side and Sabrina and Kevin on the other it was Kevin Sabrina turned to when she fell out with Lisa and Kevin made sure to offer her a listening ear a shoulder to cry on they became unusually close Sabrina's friends noticed their strange Dynamic and commented on it unnerved by their touchy relationship and sexual inside jokes but no one raised any alarm Bells because the truth seemed beyond belief the truth that Kevin had actually groomed Sabrina into a relationship Sabrina believed they were in love but it was imperative that they keep their relationship a secret from the rest of the family how do you get along with keevin G me are cool m i mean he's more the one that helps me out because this say Megan to deal with Megan mental instabilities herself okay and so we made agreements a long time ago that if I need anything that i' go to Kevin whenever Lisa Megan and Haley were out Kevin and Sabrina spent time together she named him Kevin Love in the contacts of her iPod what was his relationship to you it was when a foster father would needed to be and when a lover when not being a foster father as Kevin and Sabrina got closer in 2012 Sabrina and Lisa's Dynamic deteriorated even further she wanted me out Sabrina felt maternal towards three-year-old Haley and resented the way Lisa kept them apart on one occasion Lisa restrained Sabrina physically and Sabrina spoke to the the police about it but nothing came of it despite the increasingly troubled environment in the canel home Sabrina's petition to remain with the canfil after her 18th birthday in October 2012 was successful her social worker saw no problems in the household Sabrina was doing well in school attending her counseling sessions and came up clean on drug tests there was no evidence of The Nightmare to come in the leadup to November 12th 2012 Kevin's relationship with his wife also deteriorated on September 15th the police were called to their home on a domestic call Kevin and Lisa had had a fight about Megan and Lisa had accused him of choking Megan he claimed he had only taken her by the back of the neck to steer her into her room the dispute was already over and Lisa had left the house but Kevin spoke to the police in case the incident was used in future divorce proceedings he had told Sabrina he wanted a divorce from Lisa so he could be with her he also asked Sabrina's social worker what would happen if he and Lisa divorced if he would be able to keep custody of Sabrina on a family camping trip with an old friend David Strunk Kevin confessed that Lisa suspected he was having an affair with their foster daughter he showed David photos of Sabrina including modeling shots he'd helped her put together and underwear she'd bought him he said he was seeing a divorce attorney this was in October 2012 just a month before his wife's murder Kevin was out working on the night of November 12th when the police notified him of what had happened he immediately demanded to know about his girls and picked them up from the police department at 5:00 a. m.