A nonprofit group soliciting advice on missing persons cases plans to use dogs to search for bodies Thursday at a large park in Etobicoke for the remains of Nicole Morin.
Morin was eight years old when she disappeared on July 30, 1985. She was last seen around 11 a.m. that day at her home at 627 The West Mall. She left her top-floor unit to go swimming with a friend and did not she has been seen since. Today, Nicole would be 45 years old.
Brett Robinson of Please Bring Me Home (PBMH) said that about two years ago he started talking to a woman who believes she saw Nicole with a man she knew in a West End park on the day of her disappearance.
The alleged witness, who is now in her early 50s but was around 12 at the time, declined to speak to the media at this time.
“This person she identified had allegedly sexually assaulted her. There’s a lot of pain, a lot of trauma there,” said Robinson, who visited the undisclosed green space late last month.
Robinson said his organization decided to go ahead with a search of the park after failing to “eliminate” this person from being in that unidentified location at the time indicated by the witness.
“Responsible investigation is about removing people and we couldn’t do that in this case, so we decided to inspect that park with cadaver dogs,” he told CP24.
“It made sense that theoretically that could have happened.”
Robinson said they expect the sweep of the west end park, which is “a few miles” from Nicole’s apartment building, to take two to three hours.
“If we get any type of hit, we will notify law enforcement immediately,” he said, noting that PBMH has a policy of sharing all leads they receive with law enforcement unless specifically requested otherwise.
Toronto police said a previous excavation of Nicole’s remains was carried out “during the course of (Nicole Morin’s) investigation,” but did not confirm the location or provide other details.
Spokesman Kevin Masterman said investigators have looked into whether there is any link in this case to the late Scarborough resident Calvin Hoover, who was identified through DNA as the person who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed nine-year-old Christine Jessop.
Like Nicole, Christine was just a child when she disappeared from her Queensville, Ontario. She marries on October 3, 1984. She Disappeared only 10 months before Nicole was last seen. Christine’s body was found dumped in a wooded area in the Durham region three months later. Nicole’s remains, however, have never been found.
Masterman said Toronto police would “follow up on any leads or evidence,” particularly those that may implicate Hoover.
“At this time, there is no evidence that (he) had any involvement in (Nicole’s) disappearance,” he told CP24.
Over the years, the police have received dozens of tips about Nicole’s disappearance. They issued several press releases and made several appeals, but she is still missing.
At the time of her disappearance, Nicole was described as white, four feet tall, and 55 pounds with shoulder-length straight brown hair and brown eyes, and a birthmark on the upper right side of her forehead. An updated artist’s interpretation of how she would look like today can be found. here.