A businessman shot dead over money he lent to friends. His pregnant girlfriend left for dead. Two killers fled across continents before justice caught up.
Who Were the Killers?
Lucy Young-Il Li was born as one of three identical sisters in Toronto, Ontario. Growing up as part of the famous Li triplets, she enjoyed a comfortable upbringing surrounded by wealth and privilege.
Her sisters gained minor fame through beauty pageants and social media, with one even competing in the Miss World Toronto contest. The triplets often posed together for photographs, building a small following online. Lucy never wanted for anything material during her youth.
Oliver Karafa arrived in Canada from Slovakia with his parents Maria and Zoldek as a young child. Unlike Lucy, Oliver’s background carried a dark stain that would foreshadow his future violence.
In April 2012, the then-teenager got behind the wheel of a 2007 Land Rover while heavily intoxicated. Driving at nearly three times the speed limit, he lost control on Mount Pleasant Avenue north of Eglington.
The vehicle struck a steel pole with such force that the SUV shattered into three separate pieces. His passenger, 19-year-old David Chiang, was ejected through the windshield and died instantly at the scene.
The crash made national headlines in Canada. Oliver faced multiple serious charges including impaired driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.
A court found him guilty on all counts in 2014. The judge handed down what many considered a lenient sentence of just five years in prison. David Chiang’s family and friends were devastated by both the loss and what they viewed as inadequate punishment.
After his release from prison, Oliver met Lucy through circumstances that remain unclear. Despite his criminal record and violent past, she chose to enter a relationship with him.
The couple eventually moved in together in Toronto, where Oliver pursued various shady business ventures including stealing vehicles, removing their tags, and selling them illegally.
The Victims and the Business Deal
Tyler Pratt was a 39-year-old father of three children, all under the age of eighteen. He grew up attending the Catholic St. Ann’s Academy in Kamloops and developed a passionate love for the Montreal Canadians hockey team.
Those who knew him described Tyler as a phenomenal father who was continuously driven for excellence in everything he pursued. He launched multiple legitimate businesses over the years, including a diamond company called Hard as Diamonds and a weight loss supplement company named Elite Organic Nutrition.
However, Tyler also had a darker side to his income. He openly admitted that some of his wealth came from selling cocaine. When he met Jordyn Romano, a 26-year-old woman who would become his partner, something changed inside him.
The couple fell deeply in love and became absolutely inseparable according to those who knew them. They shared every aspect of their lives together. When Jordyn became pregnant, Tyler decided it was time to leave the criminal world behind entirely.
The couple relocated to Ontario specifically to pursue more legitimate business opportunities. Tyler began lending money to entrepreneurs, viewing it as a cleaner way to generate income while supporting his growing family. Around this time, a mutual friend introduced Tyler to Oliver Karafa.
The introduction seemed promising at first. Oliver claimed he wanted to start a personal protective equipment business in Europe. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating massive demand for masks and medical supplies, the timing appeared perfect.
There was just one problem. Oliver had no money to fund the venture. Tyler, eager to invest in legitimate opportunities, offered half a million dollars to get the business running.
Over the following months, Tyler and Oliver met more than a hundred times to discuss the venture. Tyler showered both Oliver and Lucy with expensive gifts, including fancy watches. A genuine friendship appeared to form between the two couples.
The Scheme Falls Apart
Oliver’s PPE business was failing spectacularly. The profits he promised Tyler never materialized because they simply did not exist. Rather than admit the truth, Oliver constructed an elaborate web of lies to keep his investor satisfied.
He once showed Tyler an image on his phone depicting twelve million dollars in a bank account, claiming it represented their growing profits. The image was fake.
When Tyler pressed for documentation, Oliver stalled repeatedly. He promised to sign a formal contract but never followed through. He claimed that they needed to travel to Prague together to open European bank accounts.
According to Oliver, wire transfers directly to Canada would face heavy taxation, making the European accounts necessary. The COVID-19 travel restrictions conveniently prevented this trip from ever happening.
Tyler grew increasingly frustrated but never threatened Oliver. He trusted his business partner and believed the delays were temporary. Oliver and Lucy, however, felt the pressure mounting with each passing week.
They knew Tyler would eventually discover the truth. Rather than confess to losing his money or attempt to pay him back over time, they chose a far more sinister solution. They would murder Tyler and his pregnant girlfriend, eliminating any witnesses to their fraud.
The planning began in earnest. Oliver contacted a friend and borrowed a gun. He asked this friend to stay in their apartment while they were away, routinely using their SIM cards to make calls and send messages.
This would create the illusion that the couple remained home during the murders. The friend had no knowledge of what Oliver actually intended.
Oliver also arranged to sell two vehicles after the killings were complete. His own Audi SUV and Tyler’s white Range Rover would each fetch four thousand dollars from a buyer.
The Day of the Murder
February 28, 2021 began normally for all four people involved. At 1:13 PM in the afternoon, security cameras captured Lucy and Oliver entering the elevator of their Toronto apartment building and heading upstairs. They spent the next two hours preparing for what they planned to do.
At 3:33 PM in the afternoon, Lucy reappeared in the elevator footage. She wore fake clothes, a hood, and a blonde wig in an obvious attempt to disguise herself. Despite her efforts, investigators would later confirm her identity without difficulty.
Oliver did not appear in the elevator footage, suggesting he took the stairs to avoid the camera.
The couple drove to a warehouse on Arvin Avenue in Stony Creek, arriving at 5:07 PM in the evening. Lucy’s mother owned this industrial property, which Oliver had described to Tyler as the perfect location for a new marijuana growing operation.
He claimed to possess several medical licenses that would make the venture legal and profitable.
Tyler and Jordyn arrived fifteen minutes later at 5:23 PM in the evening. Oliver instructed them to pull around to the back of the property where they would supposedly meet a realtor. When the couple got there, they found the warehouse locked tight with no realtor in sight. Something felt wrong.
Tyler stepped out of his vehicle to speak with Lucy and Oliver while Jordyn waited inside. The three walked toward the warehouse doors and attempted to get inside. When they could not, Tyler began expressing his frustration with the situation.
That was when Oliver pulled out the gun and opened fire.
Bullets and a Desperate Escape
The first shots struck Tyler multiple times. Six bullets would eventually be recovered from his body.
Three rounds passed through his arm. One entered the back of his neck and exited near his ear. Another grazed his chin. The final and fatal shot pierced his chest, puncturing his left lung before lodging into his back.
According to forensic pathologists who later testified at trial, Tyler did not die immediately. He likely survived for anywhere between two minutes and two hours after being shot. During those final moments, he screamed a warning to Jordyn that would save her life.
“Get away!” Tyler yelled.
Jordyn heard the shots and her partner’s desperate warning. She threw the vehicle into reverse and slammed the accelerator.
Oliver turned his weapon toward her and fired multiple rounds. Bullets tore into her body, including one that struck her directly in the chest. Despite the devastating injuries, she kept driving.
The vehicle sped down Arvin Avenue as Jordyn drifted in and out of consciousness. She lost control at some point but the car kept moving.
Eventually she crashed and crawled out onto the concrete, using her hands and knees to pull herself toward the road. A passing driver spotted her and immediately called for emergency services.
Oliver and Lucy spent the next hour prowling the streets around the warehouse in their Audi. They searched desperately for Jordyn, knowing that a surviving witness could identify them.
Every minute that passed increased their danger. Eventually they gave up, convincing themselves that even if she had escaped the initial shooting, she would certainly bleed out before receiving medical help.
They were wrong. Paramedics reached Jordyn in time and rushed her to a hospital where surgeons fought to save her life.
The Three-Month Manhunt
When Oliver and Lucy realized Jordyn had survived and might wake up to identify them, panic set in. They returned briefly to their apartment to grab essentials before fleeing into the night.
At approximately three in the morning, they drove to a remote gas station and waited in their car until it opened at six.
Lucy went inside and entered the public restroom carrying a black garbage bag. Inside that bag were bullets, a hat, and the blonde wig she had worn during the murder. She dumped everything and walked out. The couple then abandoned their vehicle entirely and called for a taxi.
Surveillance cameras at Montreal Airport captured both Oliver and Lucy later that day. Within twenty-four hours of murdering Tyler Pratt and shooting Jordyn Romano, the killers had slipped out of Canadian airspace and boarded a flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
Jordyn spent three days in a coma while her family prayed she would survive. Doctors warned that she might not make it. The gunshot wounds had caused severe nerve damage to her leg and breast, and she had lost the baby she was carrying.
When she finally regained consciousness, however, her memory was fully intact. She told investigators exactly who had shot her and killed her partner.
Hamilton Police issued arrest warrants for Oliver Karafa and Lucy Li. The couple was already in Europe by the time the warrants became public. From Frankfurt, they drove to Slovakia and took refuge at Oliver’s parents’ home.
His parents were initially accommodating but became furious when they learned about the arrest warrants through news reports. They demanded that Oliver and Lucy leave immediately.
Oliver’s father helped them one final time. He arranged for them to hide at a safe house in Hungary, protected by acquaintances who owed him favors. For seven weeks, the fugitives remained hidden from international authorities.
The Capture and the Trial
After nearly two months in hiding, Oliver and Lucy received information suggesting their international arrest warrants had been dropped.
Believing themselves safe, they traveled to Budapest and attempted to obtain fake Canadian passports. Hungarian authorities arrested them during this attempt.
The lovers were separated into individual cells and assigned their own attorneys. Despite everything they had been through together, Lucy’s loyalty began to waver almost immediately. Her lawyers negotiated a deal with Canadian prosecutors.
She agreed to return to Canada voluntarily in exchange for prosecutors limiting their charges to murder only. Oliver was furious when he learned of her decision, but he too would be extradited back to Canada, though without any deal in place.
During her interrogation, Lucy complained that she normally flew first class and found the economy class accommodations on her extradition flight unacceptable. Her mother even offered to pay for first class tickets for everyone involved if authorities would permit it. The request was denied.
In January 2022, Lucy was released on a 2.7 million dollar bail bond. She violated her conditions twice and was rearrested in May 2023, remaining behind bars until trial. Both defendants pleaded not guilty when their trial began in May 2024.
The evidence against them was overwhelming. Forensic analysts found Tyler’s blood on the hood of the Audi that Oliver and Lucy drove to the warehouse. His blood was also on the center console of his own Range Rover and on gray tracksuit pants the killers had discarded.
DNA from both victims appeared on masks that Oliver dumped at a general store in Port Carling. The abandoned Mercedes and the blonde wig were recovered. Paint transfer analysis linked the Audi to structures at the crime scene.
Jordyn testified against her attackers, telling the court she considered them good friends before the shooting. She described her ongoing struggle with alcohol, PTSD, and constant fear that the killers’ associates might come after her. She told Oliver and Lucy directly that they were pathetic, scary monsters.
“My scars are a daily reminder I survived what was meant to destroy me,” Jordyn said.
Lucy’s defense claimed she was on the opposite side of the warehouse when Oliver opened fire and had no knowledge of his intentions. She called herself perhaps the stupidest person in the world for getting involved with his business.
She claimed the blonde wig was for a fetish and that she happened to be wearing it when fleeing an argument with Oliver. The jury did not believe her.
After a seven-week trial, deliberations lasted only one day. The jury found both Oliver Karafa and Lucy Li guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Tyler Pratt and guilty of attempted murder for the shooting of Jordyn Romano.
Neither showed any emotion as the verdicts were read. Jordyn shouted “Bye, Lucy!” as her attacker was led away in handcuffs.
According to CBC, both killers received automatic life sentences with no possibility of parole for twenty-five years. Their earliest possible release date is 2049.
Tyler Pratt left behind three children under eighteen and a partner who still grieves for both him and the baby she lost. His killers threw away a life over half a million dollars that had been given to them in trust and friendship.
