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Nighisti Semret lived her life mostly in private, but the nightmarish nature of her death thrust the 55-year-old Eritrean refugee and mother of four into an unlikely spotlight Wednesday.

Neighbours who had never met Ms. Semret paused to place roses at a growing memorial in the Cabbagetown alleyway where she died, just seconds from her Winchester Street rooming house. It was here that a man quietly fell into step behind Ms. Semret as she returned home from work early Tuesday morning. Under cover of darkness and rain, he stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife, stopping only after her screams roused the neighbourhood.

By all appearances, the crime was random — and police warned Wednesday it could be the work of a serial offender.

“Somebody in the area knows who this person is,” Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux said. “This is something that this person does. This person has done this type of conduct before and as a result of that, somebody has a suspicion who this is, and we need to hear from them.”