It was already a tragic case, involving a woman found dead in June 2020 in Trinity Bellwoods, where she had been living. Even worse: no one knew who she was.
Toronto police had determined the woman died of natural causes, and no foul play was suspected. But in the weeks, then months, that followed her death of her, they could not identify her. They examined active missing persons cases, but found none that matched her description of her. They had no dental records or fingerprints on file. The force’s missing person unit released sketches of the woman’s face and images of her clothing from her, hoping to jog someone’s memory from her. Nothing worked.
On Tuesday, 20 months after the woman’s death, Toronto police said they finally know her name.
The woman’s identity has been confirmed through genetic genealogy, an emerging DNA investigative technique celebrated for its ability to crack open decades-old cold cases, including in 2020, when it identified Calvin Hoover as the killer in the high-profile 1984 murder of Christine Jessop .
The technique, which involves police accessing DNA profiles uploaded to online ancestry services, has also been criticized by civil rights groups, who say the privacy rights at stake demand greater public debate and oversight of the investigative tool.
It’s the first time the technique has been employed to identify an unknown deceased person, said Toronto police Acting Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith, with the Toronto police cold case and missing person unit, part of the homicide squad.
“It’s a huge door that’s opening for us,” Smith said. “This is going to be a big game-changer for unidentified human remains.”
Toronto police are not releasing the woman’s name at the request of her family. But Smith said investigators were glad to provide closure to the woman’s relatives in a case where “society let her down.”
Genetic genealogy can be used as an investigative tool when police have a DNA sample, either from a crime scene or in this case, a deceased person. They then submit the genetic information to an ancestry website, such as GEDmatch, allowing them to compare the sample to the hundreds of thousands of other genetic profiles submitted by people seeking genealogical information.
The process can produce multiple potential familial connections, requiring follow-up research by a genealogist who scours public records to identifications as well as traditional police techniques, such as interviews.
Toronto police said the idea to use the technology in the 2020 case rose when they were approached by The DNA Doe Project, a US-based volunteer non-profit that identifies so-called “John and Jane Does” through genealogical research. Last year, the project offered its service to Toronto for an unidentified person case.
Smith said they selected the 2020 woman’s case because it was “really close to the hearts of our investigators” and, as a new case, they knew the DNA sample was high quality, increasing the likelihood of a good genetic profile.
Provided with the woman’s DNA sample, the Doe Project got to work, sequencing then submitting the sample to GEDmatch, Smith said. When two people who shared common DNA were identified, researchers began reviewing public information, such as obituaries and social media.
“In less than a week, they had zeroed in on her identity,” said DNA Doe team leader. C. Lauritsen, in a statement Tuesday.
In December, the group told Toronto police they had a name. Police then obtained dental records and soon confirmed the identity with the coroner’s office.
“We’re really happy that we’re able to utilize this to provide closure to the family,” Smith said.
Toronto police have come under fire for their handling of unidentified remains, including in connection to the high-profile case of Alloura Wells, a 27-year-old trans woman who disappeared in 2017. Wells’ remains were discovered in the Rosedale Valley Ravine, but they sat unidentified in the morgue for months due to a series of failures by police. Former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders later apologized to Wells’ father of her.
In last year’s omnibus report on the force’s missing persons investigations, conducted after the arrest of serial killer Bruce McArthur, former Ontario Court of Appeal judge Gloria Epstein found “significant deficiencies in how unidentified remains cases had been investigated.”
Epstein found poor co-ordination between police and the province’s coroner’s office meant information could be missed, and that officers had “little or no understanding” of provincial or national databases that could help identify human remains. She acknowledged, however, that significant improvements had been since the creation of the dedicated missing persons unit in 2018.
Smith told the Star the use of genetic genealogy for non-criminal cases now brings huge potential for police to close other unidentified remains cases. “Hopefully, (we’ll) be able to work back to give them their names back,” he said.
Brenda McPhail, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s privacy, surveillance and technology project said there’s significant nuance to the use of genetic genealogy by police.
While it’s hard to argue against giving families closure about a missing loved one, she said there has to be far greater public debate about whether, and under what circumstances, police should be allowed to access genetic information.
“We shouldn’t be allowing a backdoor into the police use of the most personal information we have, the building blocks of our bodies,” McPhail said Tuesday.
One major concern, McPhail said, is that when people submit their DNA to genealogical websites they are making the same choice for their ancestors and unborn children. When they opt in to allow their DNA to be provided for criminal investigations — consent is now explicitly required by some genealogy services — McPhail questions whether individuals truly understand they could be “putting a family member in police crosshairs.”
“It absolutely cannot, and should not, be a free for all,” McPhail said. “We need a legal framework, or at least a publicly transparent, accountable policy regarding police use of his kind of genetic information.”
Last week, Vancouver police announced they’d used DNA technology and genetic genealogy to identify two murdered boys whose remains were found in Stanley Park in 1953. Their killer has never been identified and for nearly 70 years, the victims’ names were also unknown.
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