Residents near an undisclosed Etobicoke park may be surprised to see cadaver dogs in their green space Thursday.
The working dogs will be with members of Please Bring Me Home (PBMH) — a volunteer group that searches for missing persons in cold cases — in an ongoing search for the remains of Nicole Morin, who was eight years old when she vanished a generation ago.
On July 30, 1985, the little girl left her apartment on the top floor of 627 The West Mall, on her way to meet a friend in the lobby, so they could use the swimming pool in her building.
She was wearing her favourite peach-coloured bathing suit and a pair of red canvas shoes when she said goodbye to her mom and left the penthouse apartment.
She was never seen again.
The city was galvanized by news of Morin’s disappearance almost 40 years ago, and her name has remained in the news and in the public consciousness.
Earlier this month, it was announced that as part of a new missing persons unit, Toronto Police have renewed their work on the case — there is a full-time investigator, among other staff, dedicated to solving the disappearance of the child.
As the Toronto Sun reported in June, officers undertook an extensive dig just north of the city based on several tips and on information from 2014.
Det. Stella Karras said at the time that Morin’s case is being treated as a homicide.
The hope is that her body, once found, will yield her killer’s DNA.
On July 14, the PBMH group will search Etobicoke park, checking the area based on information from an eyewitness who was 12 years old when Morin vanished.
Brett Robinson, director of Central Canada for PBMH, said the eyewitness believes she saw Nicole with a man. The woman said she knew the man and that he had sexually assaulted her.
Nick Oldrieve, executive director and co-founder of PBMH, said Thursday’s search is not being “done on some whim.
“The location has a number of important factors, including things such as ease of access, the fact that certain parts of the park are hidden from public view, and that it’s close enough to where she went missing to be a reasonable location to search.”
Police have said Morin never arrived in the lobby of her building where her friend was waiting, suggesting she was taken in the building and may have gone willingly with someone.
Someone she knew?
It’s possible, said Oldrieve. Or it could have been someone in a uniform familiar to a child and trusted.
If it’s true she was taken in the building, Oldrieve said, “you have to wonder if she was being watched. If it was premeditated.”
The person who took Nicole Morin could easily have been working in the area and targeted her, he theorized.
Robinson will lead the search Thursday, where the immediate plan is to hope the cadaver dogs indicate something.
The long-range plan is to somehow, someday bring closure in this case.
Please Bring Me Home turns over everything they find to police. The group is 100% volunteer and has a GoFundMe page to finance Thursday’s use of the cadaver dogs.
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