Timmins police upgrade suspicious death to homicide, identify victim

Police in Timmins have identified the woman who was found dead in a home earlier this week and now say she is the victim of a homicide.

Following an autopsy Thursday, Timmins police say the suspicious death of a 57-year-old woman has been deemed a homicide.

Police were called to a home in the Algonquin Boulevard and Preston Street area around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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The victim has been identified as Paula Mallette, 57, by police in an update Friday.

Investigators are looking for anyone with dashcam footage from March 18 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. from Algonquin Boulevard West between Preston Street and Rea Street North.

“Even if the footage appears unrelated, it may hold value to investigators,” police said.

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Video can be submitted online.

Additionally, anyone with information related to the victim or the incident is asked to call police at 705-264-1201 or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

The investigation is continuing, but officers have released the scene.

She took care of everybody

A close friend of Mallette’s spoke to CTV News in an online video interview but asked to remain anonymous due to the circumstances of the woman’s death.

“What happened to her was senseless,” the friend said.

“I don’t know why this person did it, but if they needed something, she would have given it to them, but they took her life. For what, I don’t know.”

Mallette was “dealt some pretty hard cards in her life,” her friend said.

“She was out on her own at 13 years old,” the friend said, adding that Mallette also survived two very serious head-on collisions with drunk drivers and had a prosthetic leg.

Despite the constant pain she lived with as a result of the crashes, she took care of anyone who needed something regardless of their life circumstances.

“If somebody showed up at her door and needed a can of soup, she gave it to them,” the friend said.

“There’s a lot of people that used her or the things that she had, the things that she could give them … she knew it and she accepted that.”

Mallette was also described as a woman who loved her children, grandchildren and dogs and had recently dyed her hair purple.