Investigators are continuing their efforts to identify the remains of a young girl found dead in a dumpster in Toronto’s Rosedale neighborhood last week.
Toronto police Insp. Hank Idsinga says he hopes to have more definitive information about the case in the coming days as the police work through several cases of missing children.
“We’ve been going full steam ahead,” said Idsinga, speaking to reporters at Toronto Police Headquarters on Wednesday. “Our forensic folks went through the residence where the dumpster was with a fine-tooth comb.”
Police confirmed last week the child is between the ages of four and seven, and they suspect she may have been dead for nearly a year prior to the discovery of the body last Monday.
Idsinga says investigators are looking into cases of missing children from across the country, including several in the GTA, in hopes of making a match.
“To make that actual definitive link, it takes quite a bit of work as you could imagine,” he says. “It’s not as if she’s going to have fingerprints on file.”
He says police will need to rely on dental records and DNA to successfully identify the child. The forensics team is still working with the remains to find answers on timelines and the contributing factors to the child’s death.
“We’re getting lots of tips, we could always use more tips,” says Idsinga. “If anyone has any information whatsoever.”
Officers received a call for a medical complaint around 4:45 pm on May 2 when a worker found the child’s remains in a construction site dumpster at a home on Dale Avenue, near Castle Frank Road.
Investigators believe the body was left in the area sometime between 12 pm on April 28 and when it was discovered. However, they suspect the child may have been dead since last summer, or possibly even sometime before that.
The girl is described as Black, of African or mixed African descent, three-foot-six inches tall with a thin build. She has black curly hair sectioned into four ponytails, two of which were braided with black and blue bands.
Police released photos of blankets found with the body last Thursday.
