December 27 2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/12/27/still-no-leads-on-toronto-murder-case-27-years-later.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/12/27/still-no-leads-on-toronto-murder-case-27-years-later.html
She is file 36/87.
But for 21 years before that, she was known as Margaret Louise McWilliam.
On Aug. 27, 1987, McWilliam’s body was found in a secluded area of Warden Woods Park. She had been raped and badly beaten before being strangled with a piece of the jogging suit she was wearing. Police at that time said her face bore bruises from being punched, showing she had fought against her attacker.
In 2014 — 27 years after the murder — a DNA test revealed a “strong male profile” from skin cells left on McWilliam’s sweater.
Det.-Sgt. Stacy Gallant, head of the Toronto Police cold case squad said that since the DNA databank came into effect in 2000, a number of cold cases were revisited. McWilliam’s case was one of them
While the police have his DNA profile, the killer remains at large.
On the day she died, McWilliam left her basement apartment on Santamonica Blvd. at around 7 p.m. Police believe she jogged north on Santamonica to St. Clair Ave. E., went west on St. Clair Ave., passing the TTC station on Warden, and entered Warden Woods Park on the southwest corner of Warden and St. Clair. Police believe McWilliam was attacked as she jogged along the single-lane road that wound through the park.
Her body was found on the east side of the path.
Gallant said, because it was August, it would have been light even at 7 p.m. And although schools would have been out, the park would have many regular users — dog walkers and joggers. The area, at that time, was “very lush,” with a thick tree canopy, full of vegetation, so it would have been easy to pull someone off the trail and hide in the area.
The year that she died, McWilliam had worked as a dining room supervisor and receptionist at the Fellowship Towers senior citizens’ home — now Davenhill Senior Living – in the Yonge-Bloor area.
She was an earnest and well-liked employee, a 1987 report in the Star said.
]Around 10 a.m., two hours after she didn’t show up for work on Friday, Aug. 28, the then-office manager of the senior citizens’ home, Marion Colbourne, called the house where McWilliam rented the basement.
He said McWilliam likely wasn’t targeted.
“It was more along the lines of the offender happened to be in the park as well and saw this as an opportunity because there was no one else around or (that the suspect) acted on those urges that just happened at the time.”
Who the man was is what the police are still trying to solve.
To that end, apart from the DNA profile, police have a fragmented old shoe print, and a grainy sketch of a potential witness.
The man was described as a light-skinned black man with a thin moustache, muscular build, in his early 20s and wearing a red hat.
For a while, as police were on the lookout for a certain kind of shoes thought to be worn by the killer, the case was known as the “Cinderella Murder.”
A distinctive running-shoe print found in the area where McWilliam was killed was another “extremely significant” lead the police worked on. A search was called for owners of Korean-made, gray and white vinyl-top shoes with the letters AAU printed on the heel. They sold for $29.99 exclusively at Bata Shoe Stores in Canada.
Police at that time said about 500 pairs of those shoes were sold, and about 50 suspects were eliminated by combing through sales records.
DNA evidence is a step forward, but police are still on the hunt for the man responsible.
Painting a psychological profile of the killer, he said the person responsible, likely, would not be able to maintain a normal relationship with a woman.
“There would likely be a lot of conflict in his relationships,” he said. “He likely would not be in a high-profile job, likely be in a low-end job, change jobs frequently, not an excellent communicator more so with women than men, likely now if not at that time abusing alcohol and drugs, may have had some sort of a traumatic family issue happening at the time surrounding whether it was family violence happening within his home, against his own mother, a discord with his mother . . . ”
Gallant is certain that the man who killed McWilliam would have given some hint to someone about his deed — made a comment — said something, made an indication to someone.
“And I need that person to come forward,” Gallant said. “And just give me that name. We can do the rest.”