'SHE WANTED TO HELP PEOPLE'

Fighting back tears, the older brother of the woman murdered Sunday in Oshawa said her killing has left him "broken."

Tyler Dasti, who at 35 is nine years older than his only sibling, Katie Kainz, 26, said the shock of her stabbing death has left him stunned at the outpouring of support and information he's learned about what his "sweetheart" of a sister has been doing with her life.

Just after 1 p.m. on Wed., March 15, police released a Canada

wide-warrant for a 37-year-old man wanted in the stabbing death of Kainz.

As of the News Advertisers' deadline, Adam Odette, 37, of Oshawa, was still wanted for second-degree murder and attempted murder.

A photo of Odette is available

at www.drps.ca

Dosti said "I'm learning I didn't know my sister as well as I thought I did. I thought she was this cute little humble girl. I didn't know she volunteered at homeless shelters and kitchens, and in the place where she was murdered, she was helping a young woman taking care of her baby because she had postpartum. She was leaving work and she was going there at night and my mom kept telling her it's not a good area. She (Katie) said, 'I know, but this person needs help.'

"She went to school to be a drug and addictions counsellor because she wanted to help people," said Dasti.

Dasti has started a GoFundMe account to help defray funeral expenses and to raise funds to purchase a bench to be placed

"She was so unselfish and she always wanted to help everybody else." – Tyler Dasti

in Palmer Park in Port Perry to honour Kainz's memory.

There will also be an

Easter fundraiser for Katie on April 1 at Harley G's at

433 Simcoe St. S., in Oshawa. Anyone who would like to is asked to donate to the fundraiser with all funds raised donated to Kainz's family.

Kainz graduated from Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough with a degree as a mental health and drug addictions worker, and Dasti said that's the work she was dedicated to.

"She was always putting other people first. She was so unselfish and she always wanted to help everybody else. People are saying that when she lived in Peterborough, that people who had no place to stay, she would bring them home, strangers, give them food, let them sleep on the couch."

He broke down as he spoke over the phone and then said: "I wish I knew more about her when she was alive."

Dasti is extremely worried about his parents, especially his mother, who he said has survived two bouts of cancer. His parents live in Seagrave, just outside Port Perry. That's where Kainz was also living at the time of her death.

"We're from Seagrave; we've lived there our whole lives. Katie was living at home with my parents, trying to pay school and credit-card debt, to save up for a place. She had lived in Peterborough for a long time, but the rents are so high, so my parents said come home.

"She was supposed to come home (Saturday night), but she never did," he said.

Stephanie Jackson and Cassandra Ramsbottom, who are friends of Dasti and have known Kainz since she was a very young child, are in shock over her death.

"She was very energetic. When she walked in a room, you knew she was there. She wasn't shy and she loved art," said Jackson.

"She worked very closely with the homeless community and her cat was her be-all and end-all," added Jackson, who also said Kainz "loved animals and volunteered with animal shelters.

"If you take what we call as a hippie, that was like her aura, she was a gentle soul," she said.

Ramsbottom remembers Kainz as "the little kid who used to try to tag along with us big kids. She would chase us along on her bicycle to try to keep up with us. I remember their mom was a bus driver. When she was little, her mom used to put her in the car seat in the front of the bus and she

"She was very energetic. When she walked in a room, you knew she was there. She wasn't shy and she loved art." – Stephanie Jackson

would laugh and giggle cause she just thought it was the coolest thing to be on the bus with the big kids," said Ramsbottom.

"She was honestly just this beautiful, bright-spirited soul, an old soul, and a bright light to everybody that knew her," she said.

Kainz and another woman were found suffering from stab wounds on Simcoe Street in downtown Oshawa on Sunday, March 12, at about 4 a.m.

Both women were taken to Toronto-area trauma centres, where Kainz died from her wounds. The other woman is in stable condition, police said.

Kainz is Durham's sixth homicide victim of 2023.

"I don't know what's going on with this city, man, it was never like this when I was young and I feel sorry for the people that live here. I hope people come out and share their happy stories and I want my parents to see all the happy stories. Why would anyone do this to two girls who did nothing at all?" said Dasti.