HUNTER Who killed travel agent Dianna Sandeman And why

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As the mercury rises, homicide has a tendency to tilt strangely.

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Not that there’s ever anything normal about snuffing out someone’s life.

But in summer, who is a victim and who is a killer is dramatically less predictable. And the numbers are always higher.

Toronto cops list 69 unsolved murders with a July date. The oldest case being the July 17, 1965 murder of Marianne Jang, 30, whose lifeless body was discovered along the waterfront.

At 15-years-old, Tahj Loor Walters was the youngest victim. He was shot on July 28, 2013, and died two weeks later of his injuries.

Some of the unsolved slayings are three-quarters of the way to being moved from red to black on the big board.

Others? Not so much.

Like the July 5, 2006 targeted murder of 27-year-old Dianna Sandeman outside an Etobicoke sports bar. It was one of those murders that never made much sense.

Article content Dianna Sandeman. 27. was shot and killed outside of the Europa sports bar on July 5, 2006. Photo by Supplied photo /Toronto Sun

On the night in question, the stunning travel agent and her common-law husband, Mike Dennett, were sharing some drinks and laughs with friends at the Europa Cafe & Sports Bar on Browns Line. They split around 2:10 a.m.

Minutes later, pals and patrons heard gunshots.

Sandeman was shot in the head while sitting in the passenger seat of Dennett’s BMW. He took bullets to the leg and abdomen.

Not far from the crime scene, detectives found the murder weapon: An unregistered handgun purchased from a sporting goods store in Gainesville, Ga.

Initially, Sandeman and Dennett had begged off meeting their friends. She was starting a new job the next day and wanted to be fresh.

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A call from the watering hole around 11:30 p.m. summoning them caused the couple to change their minds. The choice would be fateful.

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Were they followed or were they set up?

“It’s a very complicated and complex investigation,”  Toronto Police Det. Terry Browne, who remains in homicide 15 years later, told the Toronto Sun at the time.

Investigators believe the killer skulked around outside Europa Cafe & Sports Bar for around two hours waiting for Sandeman and Dennett to emerge.

“We have not uncovered anything from her past (that could lead to this),” said Browne. “What horriblewrong could this lady have done to cause this outcome?”

Dennett, on the other hand, was known to cops.

The killer was described as black (perhaps West Indian), 6-foot, about 25 y, and was wearing a “white crochet net, light-coloured shirt and loose low jeans.”

He was last seen running toward a waiting car that later headed west along Burlingame Rd. indicating that there was a kill team involved. The car is believed to be perhaps a 2005 or 2006 Nissan Maxima or Pontiac Sunfire, and was silver or grey in colour.

“There are many plausible scenarios,” Browne said. “We have to keep an open mind to each and every one of them.”

Fifteen years later, the murder of Dianna Sandeman, Toronto Homicide #0352006, remains ice cold.

The July 17, 2000 murder of Patricia Real, 46, was another head-scratcher for detectives.

Real’s boyfriend picked her up from her telemarketing job, and they arrived at her Etobicoke home around 11 p.m. In the backyard, a killer was waiting.

Point blank, the triggerman fired two bullets into Real’s head then snarled: “Bâ€"-.”

Patricia Real, was murdered on July 17, 2000. Photo by Supplied photo /Toronto Sun

Cops said it was a “deeply personal assassination.” Real had been frightened in the months prior to her murder.

“She died in my arms,” her boyfriend, Peter Seeley, said. “She was staring up at me.”

If you have any information regarding this case, please call the homicide unit at 416-808-7400, or at homicide@torontopolice.on.ca.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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