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Peel Regional Police say the 25-year-old victim of a fatal stabbing in Mississauga and the suspect who has now been charged with second-degree murder were involved in a past relationship.

Emergency crews were called to a home on Roadside Way, near Ninth Line and Eglinton Avenue West in Mississauga, shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Police said in a statement that the woman was found with apparent stab wounds. The victim, who was later identified as Brittney Newman, died at the home a short time later.

Officers said the suspect was found at the scene and arrested.

Also in the home were Newman and the suspect’s two children, both of whom are under six years old. They were uninjured during the incident.

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Twenty-seven-year-old Abdiljibar Mahamoud was charged with second-degree murder. He was scheduled to appear in a Brampton court on Monday for a bail hearing. The allegations haven’t been proven in court.

Police said Newman and Mahamoud were in a previous relationship and that they were separated at the time of the stabbing. The exact circumstances leading up to the incident weren’t disclosed as of Monday evening.

Fatal Stabbing in Mississauga – https://t.co/N1i5XCS3Cq — Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) February 10, 2020

Gabriele Vording-Newman, Newman’s grandmother, told Global News on Monday that her granddaughter and the accused had a “toxic relationship.” Family and friends said Newman and Mahamoud met about seven years ago.

“He was very controlling, and undermining, and manipulative,” she said, adding Newman lived in a shelter two years ago to “escape from him.”

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Vording-Newman said she didn’t know what led to the stabbing on Sunday and that the children aren’t aware of what happened.

She said she wanted her granddaughter to be remembered as a caring mother and as someone who was “beautiful inside and out.”

“[Brittney] was always smiling. She had such a warm heart. She had a beautiful, beautiful soul,” Vording-Newman said.

“She loved those children more than anything.”

News of Newman’s death comes amid ongoing community concerns about high-profile, domestic-related Peel Region homicide investigations. In 2019, almost half of all homicides were alleged to have been committed by family members or those who were intimate partners of the victims.

Geri Dornford, a friend of the family and a volunteer at a Mississauga women’s shelter, said Newman “lit up all of our lives.”

She said it was around three years ago that the mother-of-two had reached out to her for help.

“She got in touch with me. She wanted to get out. She needed a place to go because the relationship became so volatile, but she wanted to make a break and leave,” Dornford said, adding she was able to help connect Newman with housing-related resources to help.

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“The fact that she was able to get out and able to get away. She was on the other side of that and that he was able to manipulate his way back in somehow… I can’t wrap my mind around it.

“You never think it’s going to be so close to home.”

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign was setup to help the family with Newman’s funeral expenses.

Anyone with information was asked to call police at 905-453-2121 ext. 3205 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

— With files from Erica Vella and Alanna Rizza