Shock and disbelief gripped residents of one of Canada’s wealthiest neighborhoods Thursday as Toronto police revealed the remains of a girl had been discovered in a construction dumpster outside a home in the area. .
Investigators said they have not been able to determine the girl’s cause of death, nor do they know when she may have died, but believe her remains were placed in the dump sometime between last Thursday and Monday.
As police asked the public for help identifying the boy, those who lived in the upscale Rosedale neighborhood north of the city center said they were processing news of the discovery.
“It’s kind of crazy to think that would happen,” said Mikkel Shiffman, who has lived in the house across the street from the discovery with his parents since he was four years old.
“It makes you feel that things like this happen much closer than you think.”
Officers responded to a call about remains found in a construction dumpster Monday afternoon. The property where the remains were found is vacant and under construction, police said.
An autopsy completed Wednesday identified the remains as those of a girl between four and seven years old, investigators said. The girl may have died as early as the summer of 2021 or even earlier, police said.
“Our first priority is to find out who this girl is,” Insp. Hank Idsinga told reporters. “We will get to the bottom of the matter no matter what it takes.”
On Thursday afternoon, yellow police tape could be seen stretched out along the driveway of the home where the construction dumpster had been. A police car was parked near the house, on a residential street.
At the end of a stone path by the house’s entrance, a pot of pink flowers had been placed with a card reading “little one, we pray heaven has dried your tears.”
Steven Koshchuk, who lives around the corner from where the incident occurred, said the news was disturbing.
“I was extraordinarily shocked, not because of the neighborhood or the demographics or whatever, just because someone would abuse and mistreat a child in that way and abandon them,” he said.
Terry Kirk, who has lived in the neighborhood for about nine years, said it was hard to think about “the circumstances around a child being treated that way.”
“It’s not something that’s part of everyday life, that’s for sure,” he said.
Police said the girl’s remains had been found wrapped in a crocheted blanket inside a plastic bag, and that bag was wrapped in a colorful blanket. Police shared images of both blankets in the hope that someone would recognize them and help identify the boy.
Jason Conover, who lives around the corner from where the remains were found, said he felt sorry for whoever made the discovery.
“Finding an abandoned child must have been horrible for the person who did it,” he said.
The girl was described as black, of African or mixed-race descent, three feet six inches tall and with a slim build. Police said her hair was cut into four short pigtails, two of which were braided and secured with black and blue elastic bands.
“Children don’t just die,” said Idsinga of the Toronto police. “If anyone has any information, please call us immediately.”
Toronto police’s missing persons unit and homicide squad were working closely on the case, police said. While some missing persons reports had come close to matching the profile of the girl whose remains were found, so far none have definitively matched, Idsinga said.
Police are reportedly looking at a charge of indignity to human remains in connection with the case, but that could change quickly as more information emerges, Idsinga said.
“We are investigating this death at the highest level,” he said. “We have the investigative assets to deal with wherever the evidence leads.”
—Adena Ali, Canadian Press
Reference-www.wltribune.com