Murder charge shocks relatives, former co-worker (Picture included)

Leonard Cross “never dreamed” his second cousin Joline Cross would be capable of killing anyone.

Joline, 22, pictured here in her high school year book, was charged with first-degree murder Sunday by the North Bay Police Service, in connection with the death of Rita Quinlan.

Both were patients at the North Bay Psychiatric Hospital, where Quinlan’s body was found Friday night.

A post-mortem examination is being done Monday to establish cause of death, but police believe Quinlan was strangled.

Having mental health problems
“I’m shocked. I never dreamed this would happen because she has a great personality,” said Leonard Cross during an interview with baytoday.ca in his Callander home.

“She’s built very small like me too, and I would never have thought she’d be strong enough to do that to somebody.”

Cross said Joline, the daughter of Donald Cross and Carmen Cross, appeared to be having mental health problems, which may have been made worse by the break-up of her parents.

“I guess she took a nervous breakdown and ended up in the psychiatric ward,” Leonard Cross said.

“I went and saw her a couple of times and she seemed to be alright, but I guess she needed to be in there on medication.”

Transferred to psychiatric hospital
Cross’s wife Marge said the last time she’d seen Joline, she was being transferred from the North Bay General Hospital to the psychiatric hospital.

North Bay Police Service inspector Mark Montgomery said both Cross and Quinlan had been in the hospital for less than a month when the murder occurred.

Donald Cross works well up in Northern Ontario and could not be reached for comment.

A man who answered the phone at the home of Lloyd Cross, Joline’s grandfather, declined comment.

Couldn't ask for a nicer person
Leonard Cross’s niece Tammy Keown worked with Joline for a year as chambermaids for a North Bay hotel.

“You couldn’t ask for a nicer person,” Keown said.
“She was an excellent worker, got on well with the staff and was well liked by everybody.”

Cross attended a Christmas party for the chambermaids, Keown said.

“We went to Peachy’s and exchanged gifts, and it was really nice.”

Wouldn't come in
Joline drove a small truck which Leonard called “a Tonka toy.”

She would pick Keown up for work and take her back home.

“Joline didn’t really want to come in, I guess because she was a shy, quiet girl,” Leonard Cross said.

Keown said she began noticing a change in Joline near the end of her employment at the hotel.

“She was giddy, laughy, in her own little world, and we’d talk to her but she’d laugh at everything we said,” Keown said.

“I don’t know if she was on any medication at the time. But what happened on Friday, that is a real shock.”