Toronto Neurosurgeon murders his doctor wife after asking for divorce

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They were two talented doctors who had committed their lives to their patients.
Husband and wife Mohammed Shamji, 43, and Elana Fric-Shamji, 40, were a highly regarded couple

Mohammed was a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital and a faculty member at the University of Toronto.
Elana was a talented physician and worked as a family doctor at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital in Toronto.


Elana had been smitten with Mohammed, who had followed his father into a medical career.
While Mohammed had quite a serious nature, Elana was light-hearted and approachable – and people found it easy to confide in her.

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After marrying, the couple had three children, two girls followed by a boy.
To balance how hard they worked, the couple were into fitness and would run marathons together.
They were both high achievers in every way.

Despite posting social media pictures of themselves looking happy on holiday or at weekends, their marriage was in tatters and Elana was miserable.
It turned out that Mohammed controlled his wife’s social media accounts to make sure the outside world believed they were the perfect family.

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Mohammed liked to keep a firm hand on his wife, as was proved when the police were called to the house over a domestic disturbance.

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Elana didn’t press charges as she didn’t want to tarnish their reputations or upset the children, but she told officers that Mohammed had put such a grip around her neck that she’d become unconscious.
Elana discovered her husband was being unfaithful and would happily disappear rather than be the family man she desperately wanted him to be.

‘If I ever go missing, or if something ever happens to me, you will know who did it,’ she told a friend.

In desperation, Elana started a brief affair with another doctor.

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Finally, in late November, Elana filed for divorce, claiming their 12-year marriage had been marred with domestic violence.
Friends say she was in good spirits looking forward to a new start and, although she was very apprehensive about her husband’s reaction, she instructed lawyers to serve Mohammed divorce papers on November 28.

 


But then two days later, Mohammed reported Elana missing, saying she had taken a suitcase and gone.
He’d sent her a text saying: ‘Good morning. Not sure where u are. I guess I will get kids ready and take them to school. Pls call.’
But there was no reply.
It was completely out of character and her loved ones were very concerned.

Two days later, a member of the public discovered a suitcase in an underpass near the Humber River.
Inside was the body of Elana.
She’d been a victim of blunt force trauma and strangulation.
Straight away, Mohammed was the prime suspect.

Elana hadn’t left with her suitcase as Mohammed had said – she’d left in it.
A day after Elana’s body was found, Mohammed was arrested in a coffee shop.

The house where Elana was killed and then stuffed in a suitcase


He’d even tried to make it look like her lover had done it by sending incriminating phone messages.
Witnesses confirmed that they’d heard the couple arguing at their home the night Elana was killed.
Investigators determined she was hit with a blunt force object in the couple’s garage.
Mohammed had broken his wife’s neck and ribs, and choked her to death as their three children slept.
Elana Fric-Shamji was a doctor at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital in Toronto
 
Elana’s eldest daughter awoke to the sound of her mother screaming and a clamour of banging coming from her parents’ room.
He’d ordered her back to bed.
Elana had been beaten so badly her family could barely recognise her when they identified her.
Mohammed then stuffed her body in a suitcase that still had her name tags on.
He put the suitcase in his car and drove 35 kilometres north to dump her.
Incredibly, he went about his normal routine – even performing surgeries.



‘I’m so sorry we don’t have the death penalty in this country because Mohammed Shamji deserves death for what he did,’ she said, adding that the murder had destroyed her family.


Mohammed made a statement saying he should have taken his own life instead of his wife’s.
Elana's friends and family wore purple ribbons to court to honour victims of domestic violence
 
‘Mine was the ultimate betrayal to a woman who gave so much to so many people, especially me,’ he said.
‘There have been no justifications or excuses for what I have done that has hurt so many people.
'Somehow, I turned my back on my oath and calling and took a life, Elana’s life.
'I don’t know how I could cause such pain and anguish.’
Mohammed was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.

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