A woman killed in her Burnaby apartment last week is being remembered as an indiscriminately caring and compassionate woman who opened her home and heart to anyone in need.
Bayush Hagos, 57, was found dead in her apartment around 6: 30 a.m. on Sept. 1. Police had been called to the residence, located at 4134 Maywood St., east of Central Park, for a domestic dispute.
Inside, officers found Hagos dead and another woman injured. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is now handling the investigation.
The injured woman remained in hospital being "medically assessed ... with non-lifethreatening injuries" as of Wednesday afternoon, said IHIT spokeswoman Jennifer Pound. Police say the woman is a suspect, but has not been charged.
While police are investigating an alleged dispute between the two women, it is not believed to be a domestic one, Pound said. Ken Campbell met Hagos about 20 years ago through his wife, who worked with Hagos at the Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services. Hagos began working there as a counsellor shortly after arriving from Ethiopia in the late 1980s, he said. Campbell was most taken by her openness and willingness to help everyone - particularly those in the Ethiopian community.
"Either she sponsored them directly or through her church, or she helped them find a place to live, she got them some funding, she got them housing, she got them schooling, she got them a doctor," Campbell said.
"You need something, you go to Bayush. She's everybody's mother."
Campbell recalled thinking as much when he, his wife and another friend travelled to Ethiopia with Hagos in 2005.
"I remember we were in a hair salon, and in walked this man - and I work in mental health, so I could recognize his disorder - who was completely, floridly psychotic at the time," Campbell said. "And the girls were just totally laid back about his being there. They just saw it as their job to look after him.
"That seemed to be the situation throughout Ethiopia: There's zero infrastructure, zero government supports. People just looked after each other." Hagos was involved in a 2003 report about abused immigrant women titled Assisting Immigrant Women Abused by Their Sponsors, which was put out by the B.C. Institute Against Family Violence. awoo@vancouversun.com nhall@vancouversun.com
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A Fort St. John woman out on bail on charges of attempting to kill her husband has been charged with murdering a Burnaby community worker who gave her shelter.Bayush Hagos, 57, was found dead in her apartment around 6: 30 a.m. on Sept. 1. Police had been called to the residence, located at 4134 Maywood St., east of Central Park, for a domestic dispute.
Inside, officers found Hagos dead and another woman injured. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is now handling the investigation.
The injured woman remained in hospital being "medically assessed ... with non-lifethreatening injuries" as of Wednesday afternoon, said IHIT spokeswoman Jennifer Pound. Police say the woman is a suspect, but has not been charged.
While police are investigating an alleged dispute between the two women, it is not believed to be a domestic one, Pound said. Ken Campbell met Hagos about 20 years ago through his wife, who worked with Hagos at the Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services. Hagos began working there as a counsellor shortly after arriving from Ethiopia in the late 1980s, he said. Campbell was most taken by her openness and willingness to help everyone - particularly those in the Ethiopian community.
"Either she sponsored them directly or through her church, or she helped them find a place to live, she got them some funding, she got them housing, she got them schooling, she got them a doctor," Campbell said.
"You need something, you go to Bayush. She's everybody's mother."
Campbell recalled thinking as much when he, his wife and another friend travelled to Ethiopia with Hagos in 2005.
"I remember we were in a hair salon, and in walked this man - and I work in mental health, so I could recognize his disorder - who was completely, floridly psychotic at the time," Campbell said. "And the girls were just totally laid back about his being there. They just saw it as their job to look after him.
"That seemed to be the situation throughout Ethiopia: There's zero infrastructure, zero government supports. People just looked after each other." Hagos was involved in a 2003 report about abused immigrant women titled Assisting Immigrant Women Abused by Their Sponsors, which was put out by the B.C. Institute Against Family Violence. awoo@vancouversun.com nhall@vancouversun.com
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Hundreds of friends, family, and people touched by the life of Bayush Hagos crowded into a room at the Renfrew Community Centre in Vancouver on Saturday to remember a vibrant woman who sacrificed everything while trying to help.
The gathering was called "a celebration of the life and friendship of Bayush Hagos," but many struggled to deal with the sudden and brutal absence of the vibrant 57-year-old woman.
Hagos, a popular community worker, was found dead in her home in Burnaby, B.C., on Sept. 1.
"When people die, they are not remembered by the position they held when they were alive, or their amount of wealth," Tsehai said.
"They are remembered by the good things they did while they were alive. And this indicates what type of person Bayush was."
Another mourner, Nancy Miller, said supporters are setting up a bursary in honour of Bayush at Langara College.
"They said we really want to set up something which will have her name on it and that we can remember her by, and that we can all contribute and tell her how much we've loved her," Miller said.
Hagos had been helping a woman accused of attempting to murder her husband. As the woman's case was delayed, the woman found herself without housing, and Hagos took her in.
Police have since charged that woman with second-degree muder in Hagos's death.
Hundreds of friends, family, and people touched by the life of Bayush Hagos crowded into a room at the Renfrew Community Centre in Vancouver on Saturday to remember a vibrant woman who sacrificed everything while trying to help.
The gathering was called "a celebration of the life and friendship of Bayush Hagos," but many struggled to deal with the sudden and brutal absence of the vibrant 57-year-old woman.
Hagos, a popular community worker, was found dead in her home in Burnaby, B.C., on Sept. 1.
Not forgotten
Fikre Tsehai said the large crowd honoring Hagos on Saturday was a sign of all that she had left behind."When people die, they are not remembered by the position they held when they were alive, or their amount of wealth," Tsehai said.
"They are remembered by the good things they did while they were alive. And this indicates what type of person Bayush was."
Another mourner, Nancy Miller, said supporters are setting up a bursary in honour of Bayush at Langara College.
"They said we really want to set up something which will have her name on it and that we can remember her by, and that we can all contribute and tell her how much we've loved her," Miller said.
Charges laid
Mourners described as a woman who devoted her life to helping others: immigrants, refugees and women suffering the effects of domestic violence. She may also have lost her life while trying to help her community.Hagos had been helping a woman accused of attempting to murder her husband. As the woman's case was delayed, the woman found herself without housing, and Hagos took her in.
Police have since charged that woman with second-degree muder in Hagos's death.
Ayelech Zenebe Ejigu, 41, made a first appearance in Vancouver Provincial Court Thursday on a charge of the second-degree murder of Bayush Hagos, a counsellor with the Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services. Ejigu’s Fort St. John trial for attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon was adjourned in August and a judge there altered her bail conditions on Aug. 22, which allowed her to stay at Hagos’s Burnaby home.
On Sept. 1, police were called to Hagos’s apartment at 4134 Maywood St., near Central Park, and found the beloved community worker dead and Ejigu wounded.
Sgt. Jennifer Pound, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said the case is heartbreaking, as Hagos only allowed Ejigu to stay with her temporarily because she couldn’t find any other accommodation.
“It is extremely tragic,” Pound said Friday. “This is a case where she just wanted to reach out and help this woman because she didn’t have a place to stay.”
Both women immigrated to Canada from Ethiopia and spoke the same language, but only met when Hagos was called to the Surrey Pre-trial Services Centre several months ago to interpret for Ejigu. Shashi Assanand, executive director of the agency where Hagos worked for 19 years, said everyone is devastated by the murder and at a loss to understand why Hagos took in a client, which is against agency policy.
“We never knew the woman was staying with her at all. There is a very clear guideline that we don’t even give out our cell numbers, let alone our home numbers,” Assanand said.
“We get threats because we do anti-violence work and our staff are advocates for women and children.”
She said the society wouldn’t normally work with a client charged in a violent crime, but since no one else spoke Ejigu’s language, Hagos was called in to help. Hagos also believed the woman now charged with killing her was a victim of domestic violence, Assanand said.
“The only reason she was there was because there was nobody who could interpret,” Assanand said. “In the beginning, she came to me and I said to her, ‘Other professionals — it is their case. You are never a primary case worker here. You only interpret — and that is your role.’”
She doesn’t know why other agencies didn’t follow up with Ejigu, but suggested Hagos must have ended up feeling responsible for the woman.
Assanand was away during the summer months when Hagos told co-workers that she was struggling to find housing for Ejigu. The society is reviewing the file to try to understand why Hagos made the fatal call to secretly take in Ejigu.
“I am thinking that her own conscience wouldn’t have allowed her to just leave [Ejigu] in a lurch,” Assanand said.
She said there is a general lack of support for people like Ejigu with a multitude of issues, including mental health problems and language barriers.
“If you take them to any shelter, if you take them to mental health, nobody takes the responsibility,” she said.
“The woman is from her community and Bayush is very warm-hearted and outgoing and kind and even if there is a person on the street or a stray dog, she would take them in.”
She hopes other agencies also review what happened to ensure any mistakes are not repeated.
“They were all involved ... it was their responsibility,” Assanand said. “How on earth and when on earth did it become our worker’s responsibility? I have no idea.”
Const. Jackelynn Passarell, of Fort St. John RCMP, said Ejigu was originally taken into custody on June 2, 2010, on the attempted murder allegations.
She said bail was initially granted on March 25, with “lots of conditions.”
The trial had been slated for two weeks in August, but “they needed additional time,” Passarell said.
“So at that point there was a modification made on Aug. 22 to her recognizance — a judge made a modification varying some of the conditions, such as her address.”
The continuation date of the attempted murder trial has not yet been fixed, she said.
Hagos was like a mother to the local Ethiopian community, Assanand said, and the society is doing what it can to support her many friends. A celebration of her life is being held today at 1 p.m. at the Renfrew Community Centre in east Vancouver.
Assanand said she also has brought in trauma counsellors for Hagos’s colleagues, who work as advocates for victims of domestic violence and are struggling to cope with their own loss. “We have been working through the sadness of it all and how do we deal with it,” she said. “This is my biggest nightmare.”
kbolan@vancouversun.com
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