Gladys would have helped anyone. Even the killer who came to her door

Of all the apartments in the 20-storey building at 187 Park St. S., it's not clear why the killer chose Gladys Little's door on the seventh floor.

Had the person knocked and asked for help, the 79-year-old retired nurse would surely have offered it, say friends and family. That's just the way Gladie" was - compassionate and helpful, whether it was dropping off homemade baked goods or offering emotional support.

Taking care of people was her passion, it never stopped even after 35 years as a nurse at Henderson Hospital," said her son, Andrew.

On Monday, 26-year-old Larissa Shingebis was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Little, found by family in her apartment on May 16. Hamilton police say she was killed the previous afternoon.

Shingebis and Little didn't know each other and the 26-year-old did not have a connection to the apartment building, said Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, of the major crime unit.

In fact, she appears to only have arrived in Hamilton earlier this month.

Police were so concerned about the random and violent nature of the homicide that detectives sought permission to release Shingebis' name and picture late Saturday, May 23, hours before getting a warrant for her arrest. It's a rare move, but in this case, Thom said he believes it was the right thing to do.

By 9:20 a.m. Sunday morning, police received a call from someone at a local shelter reporting that Shingebis was there. She was arrested without incident.

Little last spoke with a friend by email around 1:45 p.m. on May 16. Sometime after that, police allege Shingebis was captured on surveillance camera at the building, which is equipped with five cameras. Thom said she caught the attention of a detective looking through the footage because she seemed out of place."

The video shows her leaving about an hour and a half after she first arrived.

There was some suggestion from a couple of the tenants that there may have been someone knocking on doors," Thom said. But detectives still need to narrow down the timeline to see if it could have been the killer.

When police were first called to the building around 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 16, it wasn't immediately clear Little had been killed. Police wondered if her death might be medical. But on Wednesday afternoon, four days after her body was discovered, the autopsy in Toronto showed Little's death is a homicide.

That same day, police started looking into the suspicious woman in the video. She was deemed a person of interest and her image was circulated within the police service, Thom said. The next morning, a patrol officer who had dealt with Shingebis downtown identified her.

By Saturday around 6 p.m., police believed they had enough information to charge Shingebis.

After her arrest Sunday morning, she was interviewed by police, but Thom said he cannot discuss details of what she said.

Police are also not releasing Little's cause of death, nor will they comment on whether a weapon was involved.

But Thom said detectives believe there was some planning and deliberation." For the charge of first-degree murder, the planning doesn't need to be lengthy or elaborate. In this case, detectives allege that it was from the time she was in the building.

Nothing was damaged or stolen from Little's apartment, police said. Detectives cannot find any evidence of another crime or motive beyond murder.

Little worked for 35 years as a nurse at Henderson Hospital, raised two sons and was a grandma. She loved to garden and bake. She was private and had a small circle of friends, but could also always be counted on to help.

She was among a group that graduated from nursing school at Hamilton General Hospital in 1962. About 35 years ago, they began organizing class reunions and Little was always involved. For 30 of those years, Anna Loughlin has been the chair of the committee.

She was loyal, supportive, non-judgmental and, in many ways, Gladie was the solid person there," she said, adding that if you asked Little do something, it always got done.

She would bring jam or baked goods or some other homemade treat to every meeting. She would have her son, Andrew, make banners and other materials for the events - two days long, every five years. She was always the first to show up and she was the group's photographer.

Loughlin said she would have opened her door to anyone to help out.

If someone had knocked on her door and said I need food, Gladie would have let her in ... she was very generous."

Another of Little's classmates, Marlene Scott, was among a group of five or six who would meet once a month for lunch. The women both worked at Henderson hospital for more than three decades. They would usually go the Mandarin to tell stories of the old days and catch up.

Scott recalled when her mother, then in her 90s, would come stay with her for the winter. Little, who didn't know Scott's mother, would come and visit with homemade soup, shepherd's pie or muffins.

That was the kind of person she was," she said.

For Little's family, the whole situation is tragic.

My mother was compassionate and caring to everyone she met," her son, Andrew, said, adding that his mom would have helped anyone struggling in life.

We also realize that there are many victims in this situation," he said, not just his family and his mom's friends, but also the accused woman.

Indigenous women face insurmountable odds in life and my heart breaks that her life tragedy seems to have crossed paths with my mother and my mother couldn't help her," he said.

It is not clear what brought Shingebis to Hamilton. She's from the Thunder Bay area and was described by police as being transient.

She has a fairly extensive record" that includes more than a couple violent crimes," Thom said.

In Thunder Bay, she was convicted of assault in connection with a 2014 homicide where a 44-year-old man was killed.

She also spent time in Dryden, Ont., before moving to southern Ontario. Police believe she had been in Hamilton since the beginning of May. Before the homicide, she had several minor police occurrences." All were downtown and none resulted in charges.

Police also believed she has a history of substance abuse.

It's not clear where she was staying at the time of the homicide. She arrived at a shelter several days after the homicide. Police were expecting to search her room at the unspecified shelter on Monday.

The family asks that anyone wishing to make donations in Little's memory send them to the scholarship fund of the girls school Little attended: St. Clements School at 21 St. Clements Ave. in Toronto.

Hamilton police ask anyone with information to call Det. Andrew Coughlan at 905-546-3874. To remain anonymous contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or crimestoppershamilton.com.

Nicole O'Reilly is a Hamilton-based reporter covering crime and justice for The Spectator. Reach her via email: noreilly@thespec.com