Episode 096: Elvie & Angelica Sig-Od

A mother and daughter are brutally attacked in broad daylight, leaving behind more questions than answers. What happened to Elvie and Angelica?

Episode Media

Elvie & Angelica Sig-Od *(Dignity Memorial)*

Angelica & Elvie at Angelica’s 18th birthday party *(Dignity Memorial)*

First responders at the scene on Bathurst Street *(CBC)*

[Warning: Graphic Video] Footage: Elvie and Angelica Sig-od Homicide Scene

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a case out of Canada, a story of a mother and daughter who left their home country to seek a better life but who met a tragic end at the hands of someone they trusted. This episode includes graphic descriptions, so listener discretion is advised.

On the afternoon of August 26, 2022, a call came into a Toronto dispatch center around 3:30pm. The man making the call told the dispatcher that they needed an ambulance, the fire department, and the police. “Someone just stabbed two women on Bathurst.”

Just a few minutes earlier, witnesses had watched as a silver Lexus traveling southbound on Bathurst Street had seemingly lost control, coming to a stop on the sidewalk, just short of hitting the guardrail. Three figures had exited the vehicle, but only one remained standing.

Video footage taken by a civilian at the scene showed a short, muscular man pacing back and forth along the sidewalk. Just feet away lay the unconscious bodies of two women, one on the sidewalk by the man’s feet and one in the road behind the trunk of the vehicle. The woman on the road lay on her back, arms outstretched. The woman on the sidewalk lay on her side, her shirt pulled up around her neck, exposing several bleeding stab wounds between her shoulder blades.

Bathurst Street is a major four-lane highway that travels all the way through the city of Toronto, top to bottom, and on a Friday afternoon, it was a bustling thoroughfare. Multiple people pulled their vehicles over to help with what they assumed at first to be an accident, but it quickly became clear that this scene was very intentional.

As one man called 911, other bystanders attempted to render aid but soon realized that the man pacing the sidewalk was holding a knife, so they kept their distance. In the video, the man says something to the growing crowd, at one point throwing up his hands in frustration, but the audio doesn’t pick up his words. However, a woman on the scene clearly says, “He told me she was cheating! He said she was cheating so he stabbed her.”

As they waited for emergency personnel to arrive, several bystanders focused on redirecting traffic and keeping others from approaching the armed man, who seemed eerily calm. At one point, he casually sat on the guardrail next to the car, his feet barely touching the ground. He then got up and walked around the woman on the sidewalk, sitting again on the guardrail just a few feet away. Then the man got up once more, walked to the car and reached inside, presumably to retrieve something. At that moment, the video stopped.

When first responders arrived at the scene, they blocked off all four lanes of traffic and approached the man with the knife. He was quickly placed into police custody and transported to the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

Sadly, the two women he had attacked were not so fortunate. Paramedics attempted life-saving measures, but it was too late to save them. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Inspector Roger Desrochers with the Toronto Police Service spoke with reporters at the scene, stating that this had been an isolated incident and that there was no threat to public safety. He wouldn’t say much more due to the ongoing investigation, but he did comment on the oddness of a knife attack taking place in a vehicle. “More often than not we’ll find ourselves in a residence for an incident like this… It’s very unusual.”

The silver Lexus was seized by police and taken in for processing as investigators worked to notify next of kin. Two days later, the victims were officially identified as 44-year-old Elvie Sig-Od and her 20-year-old daughter Angelica. They had been murdered by Angelica’s father, 46-year-old Godfrey Sig-Od.

Elvie and Angelica’s friends were stunned by the news of their deaths. They were both kind, friendly women who were known for helping others in need. It was inconceivable that they had been the victims of such horrible violence.

Born in 1977, Elvie grew up in the Philippines and eventually married Godfrey Sig-Od. Their daughter Angelica was born in 2001. A few years later, Elvie immigrated to Canada on a work visa so she could send money back home, and she later became a Canadian citizen. Around 2011, she sent for her daughter Angelica, who was about 10 when she joined her mother in Toronto. Godfrey stayed behind in the Philippines, but according to friends, Angelica dreamed of having her family all together in Canada one day. In 2019, Godfrey moved to Toronto to join his wife and daughter.

Since arriving in Toronto, Elvie and Angelica had immersed themselves in Canadian life. Elvie was a businesswoman who worked hard to support Angelica and send money to family in the Philippines. When she wasn’t working, Elvie was an active part of her church community at Lord of Glory International Ministries. Several friends spoke about Elvie’s deep faith and her devotion to the church. She was even in training to become a pastor. Elvie was described as gentle and kind, and she loved her daughter more than anything.

Angelica was a bright, happy young woman with big dreams. At 20, she was enrolled in the flight services program at Seneca College and had aspirations of becoming a flight attendant. On her LinkedIn profile, she wrote, “It’s a dream of mine to travel to different countries to discover, learn and experience different cultures.”

Like her mother, Angelica also had a heart for helping others. She too was active in their church, playing the keyboard and attending every service. For the past few years, she had spent the summer working in the kitchens at Camp Shalom on Lake Muskoka, about two hours north of Toronto. According to her friend Daniel, who also worked at the camp, Angelica was known as the “Salad Queen” of camp, and everyone adored her. Dan told the Toronto Star, “She was very funny, witty, outgoing, loving and caring. She was shy at first but when you actually get to know her, she is very bubbly, very curious, rambunctious. And she has a heart of gold.”

Dan and Angelica shared a lot while working in the kitchen together, but when it came to discussing her home life, Angelica was a bit more reserved. Dan recalled that she had talked quite a bit about her mother and how much she looked up to her. She had mentioned her father being a “bad drunk” but otherwise, she hadn’t offered up much information about the man who would eventually take her life.

Godfrey Sig-Od is definitely a mystery, and there are conflicting reports about his and Elvie’s relationship. Several news outlets have reported that they were divorced, but there is no concrete timeline – no indication of when they may have separated.

There is also little to no information about Godfrey online. His Facebook profiles – of which he has several – are private, and there are only two pictures of him. On one profile, Godfrey shared a heavily-filtered picture of himself wearing sunglasses and a few childhood pictures of Angelica; on the other profile, there is only a single photo of Godfrey, flexing his muscles and posing for the camera. One thing is clear, however – both that photo, posted in May of 2022, and the crime scene video recorded three months later, show a man that has the physical strength to easily overpower two women and stab them to death.

In the aftermath of the attacks, Elvie and Angelica’s friends and family members were determined to honor their memories. Friends set up a small memorial on Bathurst Street lined with flowers and stuffed animals and a wooden sign with their names hand-painted on. Their pastor, Marvin Dolores, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses so the family could bring Elvie’s and Angelica’s remains back to the Philippines. Within days, they had raised over $20,000 and soon surpassed their goal.

On September 10, 2022, funeral services were held for Elvie and Angelica. Friends in Canada were joined by family members in the Philippines as the services were streamed online. Afterwards, the Philippine Consulate in Toronto arranged for their remains to be repatriated.

Godfrey Sig-Od was charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Elvie and Angelica. He is currently awaiting trial in the custody of the Toronto Police Service. Aside from the comments made by bystanders at the scene, no motive for the killing has been put forward.

Elvie and Angelica were the fifth and sixth women to be killed by an intimate partner or family member in Toronto in 2022. According to Harmy Mendoza, the executive director of the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto, three women are murdered every month in Ontario, and the numbers are even higher across the country. Research by the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability shows that 184 women were killed in Canada in 2022, and as of August of 2023, 114 women have been killed in Canada so far this year. The majority of those women were killed by intimate partners or family members, most of whom were men.

Domestic violence is a global epidemic. According to research from the United Nations, an estimated 736 million women worldwide have been victims of domestic abuse at some point in their lives. In 2021 alone, over 45,000 women and girls were killed by an intimate partner or family member.

Victims of domestic violence are often made to feel like they are alone, that no one cares about them. But that is far from the truth. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone, and help is available. In the US, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. In Canada, visit sheltersafe.ca for a list of toll free numbers in your province. Please reach out for help. You deserve to be safe.