After nearly three decades, a man who was found dead in downtown Toronto in the summer of 1996 has been identified.
Toronto police announced on Wednesday that it has closed its cold case investigation into the man’s death. They did not release his identity as they say no foul play is suspected.
The man’s body was found in a field near Lake Shore Boulevard West and Spadina Avenue on Aug. 23, 1996. Police said his body had been at the field for some time and that he did not carry any identification or possessions.
“Initial attempts were made to identify the man by searching through local missing person cases, but no match was found. In recent years, his DNA was compared to the DNA of relatives in the National DNA Databank, but he remained unidentified,” police said.
Last year, police decided to use investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) after getting an approval from the coroner’s office and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service.
In recent years, police services have resorted to IGG to identify human remains and solve cold cases. It uses existing DNA data to create a family tree, which investigators would then use to locate potential relatives.
In this cold case, police found the man’s distant relatives who traced their heritage to Quebec.
From there, investigators focused on one man from Quebec and in March, a DNA comparison with his relatives confirmed his identity, police said.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal then notified the man’s family.
