Woman Shot With Crossbow After She Opened Door To A "Deliveryman"

A man in white turned his truck onto the leafy, brick home-lined Bayberry Drive outside Toronto and gathered a large cardboard box in his arms, careful to keep the trigger end of the crossbow on his side.

With a gloved hand, he rang a doorbell around 8 p.m. and readied the weapon. A woman answered, and after a brief exchange, the man fired a bolt into her chest, nearly killing her. She slammed the door. The man ran off.

Authorities released new details Monday on the Nov. 7 attack in Mississauga, including edited footage of the attack from a porch security camera partially showing the man's face, in a bid to find the attacker.

Investigators concluded that the attack was intentional, citing the brief conversation at the door, and indicated it may have been a hit orchestrated by another person.

"The attack was meant to end the victim's life," Peel Regional Police Superintendent Heather Ramore said at a news conference. "The victim suffered massive trauma that was both life-threatening and life-altering."

The crossbow used in the attack resembles one that is "commonly used by hunters to kill large game, such as moose and deer," Ramore said.

The victim did not know the attacker, Detective Sgt. Jim Kettles said.

Authorities declined to describe what was said in the conversation or reveal the victim's name out of concern for her safety.

Investigators suspect the man held a cardboard box in a double ruse - to appear as a deliveryman and to conceal the crossbow he held inside. In the video, the man appears to have stuck his right arm through a hole in the back of the box, with the other end pointed toward the woman.

Detectives are pursuing all possibilities. The attacker escaped in a dark truck, but investigators do not know whether he was alone. He wore a head covering under a white cap, though Kettles stopped short of saying whether they thought it was an effort to keep DNA evidence from the scene.

Police are asking people to consider all evidence from the brief video, like the logo on the attacker's hat and his shoes. The man wore white pants and a white jacket. A police spokeswoman said it wasn't clear whether he wore coverall-type clothes that investigators wear at crime scenes to prevent evidence contamination.

Kettles said the victim spent several months recovering in the hospital after suffering damage to her internal organs.

"Her life will never be the same," he said.