A heartbreaking ordeal has come to a somewhat positive end with the arrest of a Barrie man and the recovery of 1,600 deleted images from a Winnipeg resident's stolen laptop.
Bradley Warford, 35, was apprehended early Thursday, May 13. He has been charged with break-and-enter and breach of parole.Warford had a May 14 court appearance where he was remanded in police custody.On Saturday, May 8, Teresa Solta was visiting her elderly father Laurence Michalski, a resident at the Princess Margaret Hospital Lodge at 545 Jarvis St., when her laptop was removed from her father's room at 4:25 p.m.The suspect reportedly entered the Michalski's third-floor room and removed a black HP laptop placing it inside a black carry-all bag belonging to the victim before leaving the hospital.A lung cancer patient, Michalski, 89, was staying at the downtown facility for out-of-town patients living with cancer and their loved ones as he underwent treatment. He was watching a hockey game in the facility's main floor lobby with his daughter at the time of the theft.The stolen laptop contained priceless images of Michaski's deceased granddaughter, Marisa Noel Solta, who died March 23 at the age of 17 after a nine-year battle with a rare form of spinal cancer.The laptop was recovered Wednesday, May 12 but its hard drive had been wiped clean. A North York-based company was able to recover the lost files.Dell has also stepped forward giving Solta a new laptop.-Joanna Lavoie with files from Andrew Palamarchuk