Toronto police say the use of DNA alongside genetic genealogy has helped them identify a suspect in a cold case murder of a 47-year-old man in 1982.
On May 17, 1982, Kevin McBride died of multiple stab wounds inside of his apartment on Sheppard Avenue East near Markham Road, police said.
McBride was last seen two days before his body was discovered by officers who went to his apartment for a wellness check after he did not show up to dinner plans with friends, police said.
Det. Sgt. Steve Smith, with Toronto Police’s cold case unit, told Global News that McBride was an art dealer.
“It appears to us as though it was a robbery,” Smith said. “Obviously our victim had numerous pieces of art that were valuable. We know that the offender actually lived in the same place as the victim during a small portion of time.”
McBride lived alone and was not associated with any criminality, police said.
The investigation in the 80s found McBride’s vehicle, a credit card and other things had been stolen and used between May 15, 1982 and May 17, 1982, police said.
Investigators have suggested the date McBride was killed was May 15, 1982.
The case remained unsolved for decades until it was revisited by Toronto Police in 2016 by cold case homicide detectives.
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“The primary focus of the ensuing investigation was to re-test exhibits and seized items from the original investigation to determine if advancements in forensic testing and a DNA databank creation could determine any further leads,” police said.
“Testing of evidence found at the crime scene revealed a male profile, not of the deceased,” police said. “In 2022, Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) was utilized along with a private science lab and the suspect William Taylor was identified.”
Smith said investigators believe Talyor “went in with the intention of actually robbing him of his valuables. We believe that he did.”
“Unfortunately in the process of this he also stabbed our victim and killed him,” Smith alleges.
The DNA testing revealed Taylor “was the source of the unknown DNA left at the crime scene.” He was 34 years old at the time of McBride’s murder.
However, Taylor died in May 2023, police said.
Toronto Police explained to Global News that IGG is a long process “that takes several months to narrow down a potential suspect.” Taylor was identified as a suspect after his death in 2023.
Police said it also took another few months for “traditional police techniques to confirm that his DNA is that of the offender.”
Investigators said if Taylor was alive today, he would be arrested and charged with first-degree murder of McBride.
Taylor did not live in Ontario for several years, police told Global News.
Smith said Taylor was not on police radar at all as he did not have a criminal record. Taylor was originally an American living in Toronto for a while and then went back to the U.S.
Taylor was living in western Canada at the time he died, Smith said.
“Obviously when we identify somebody, we would like to bring them before justice so that they would have to face the crimes that they committed at this time,” Smith said.
“It’s unfortunate when we find out the offender is actually deceased. But at least we are able to tell the families what happened to their loved one and who it was that killed their loved one.”
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