Toronto police say they have identified a woman found dead in Trinity Bellwoods Park two years ago.
Officers were called to the area near Dundas and Shaw streets in the early hours of the morning on June 10, 2020 after a passerby noticed a woman unconscious in a sleeping bag.
Police said that when officers arrived, the woman was not breathing. It was later determined that she had died of natural causes.
The death is not believed to be suspicious.
At the time, the woman did not have any identification and officers could not find any connections to a missing persons report.
An artist rendering was released by investigators later that month, as well as photographs of the woman’s clothing, in an attempt to identify the deceased.
“Several tips came in to police, however, none led to the woman’s identification,” officials said in a news release issued Tuesday.
In September 2021, a sample of the woman’s DNA was submitted to the DNA Doe Project, a non-profit organization whose mission is to identify deceased persons. The organization was able to find two people that shared common DNA with the woman found in Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Three months later, the DNA Doe Project contacted Toronto police with a possible identification and the family of the woman was reached. The ID was confirmed through dental records.
“When our volunteer investigative genetic genealogists began work on the family tree for this woman they found a number of good connections in the database. In less than a week, they had zeroed in on her identity,” DNA Doe Team Leader C. Lauritsen said in a statement.
“The search to find her name was greatly aided by family genealogical projects and having that information significantly enhanced our ability to identify her.”
The woman’s family is requesting privacy, police said, and do not want their loved one identified publicly.
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