missing people toronto
© Toronto police / Richey familyTess Richey, Alloura Wells, Selim Esen and Andrew Kinsman all disappeared from Toronto’s Village neighbourhood.
At an hour-long press conference Friday morning, Toronto police reassured the public that there is no evidence of a serial killer being responsible for a wave of disappearances and two deaths in the city's LGBT community.

At least nine people have been reported missing in Toronto's Village neighbourhood, known as a hub for the city's LGBT community, since March. Of the nine, two men are still missing and two women, one of whom is transgender, have since been found dead. One other man who went missing in the area was found dead, but foul play isn't suspected. The others have been found safe.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders admitted to a group of reporters that the police may not have done the best job in handling these particular disappearances but looked to dispute any suggestion of a potential serial killer being responsible.

"We follow evidence," Saunders said. "The evidence is telling us that is not the case right now."


The rash of disappearances are highlighted by the death of Tess Richey, a 22-year-old woman who was reported missing last week. After a days-long search, her mother found her dead body in a Village stairwell. Although police originally said her death was not suspicious, the cause was later determined to be strangulation.

Tess Richey
© Facebook photoTess Richey vanished after a night out with a friend in the Village early on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017.
Detective Sgt. Graham Gibson said that Richey and a friend left Crews & Tangos, a popular drag bar on Church St. at 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 25. While spending time near a hot dog cart, they interacted with a man police said is the suspect in Tess' death. The group left the area and made their way toward Dundonald St. where they met up and spent time with another man and woman. Eventually, the man and woman along with Richey's friend left, leaving her alone with the suspect.

Police said security camera footage shows Richey and the suspect - described as a white man between 5"7 and 6"0 wearing a dark jacket and light pants - walk toward 582 Church St. where her body was found four days later. The camera footage then shows the suspect leaving the area, Gibson said.

Richey's mother found her body only steps away from where she was last seen alive, causing concern in the community that investigations into missing people in the neighbourhood are not taken seriously by police.

After saying he requested an internal review of how the Toronto police handles these missing persons cases, Saunders admitted the police could have handled the cases better in terms of sensitivity. He wouldn't go as far, however, as saying they dropped the ball.

"There was no point in time that I said we don't take missing persons cases seriously," Saunders said. "I think that when someone is calling in to report a missing person an element of sensitivity is necessary."

Families and friends of missing people in the neighbourhood have taken matters into their own hands by organizing search parties, something Saunders says makes him question the force's service to the community.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders
© Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia NetworkToronto Police Chief Mark Saunders addresses media during a press conference at Toronto Police headquarters in Toronto, Ont. on Friday December 8, 2017.
The Toronto police faced similar accusations when in November, they identified a body found in the Rosedale Valley ravine in July as Alloura Wells, a transgender woman. Wells, who was homeless and was a sex worker, disappeared in July but was only reported missing by her family in November. Her family has publicly complained that the police told them her disappearance was of low priority to them because she was homeless.

Although he's not a suspect, police are looking to speak with her boyfriend, Augustinus Balesdent, who is also homeless and may have been the last person to see her alive.

Faced with the accusations that they didn't take the disappearances of people with ties to the Village seriously, the police spent a large portion of the press conference revealing details such as how many interviews they conducted in each case.
Missing persons
© Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia NetworkMissing persons posters for Andrew Kinsman near Church St. and Wellesley St. E in Toronto, Ont. on Sunday December 3, 2017.
This was the case for the disappearances of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen, who went missing in June and March respectively. Police had no new information to offer on their disappearances but insisted that they were in no way connected to the cases of three men with strong ties to the neighbourhood who disappeared in quick succession in 2012.

In an attempt to repair its relationship with the community and ensure its safety, four additional police officers have been assigned to the neighbourhood.