A homicide investigation has been launched and an Adelaide Street South property is being searched by officers after remains located in the city’s southeast over the weekend were identified as those of a missing Ingersoll man, police said Wednesday.
The remains were located Sunday afternoon in a wooded area near Ada and Jacqueline streets, a residential area just east of Adelaide Street and just south of the Thames River.
Police said investigators had been in the area following up on leads into the disappearance of 59-year-old Grant Edward Norton. Norton was last seen July 6, and was reported missing to Waterloo police on July 12.
London police said they joined the probe on July 13 and determined he was last seen in London. Further investigation prompted a co-ordinated search in the southeast London neighbourhood.
A forensic autopsy conducted in Toronto on Monday and Tuesday confirmed the remains located by police were those of Norton, and determined his death was a homicide.
In a statement, police said the remains were found in such a condition that confirming whether they were human was not possible without a forensic autopsy. A cause of death is not being released.
Investigators have turned their focus to a nearby address, 20 Adelaide St. S, and were engaged in a “search and forensic examination” of the property on Wednesday, police said.
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“Anyone having witnessed suspicious activity at or near that address in the past two weeks is asked to contact the London Police Service at 519-661-5674,” police said in a statement.
London police say they have taken control of the homicide probe as it’s believed Norton died in the city.
The investigation will also look into the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, police said.
The investigation into Norton’s death is the third homicide probe of the year.
Police are continuing to investigate the home invasion and shooting death of Bill Horrace in late June at a home on Pochard Lane.
One person has been taken into custody while three others are still being sought.
Keiron Gregory, 22, of North York faces a charge of second-degree murder.
His father, Toronto police constable Trevor Gregory, faces a breach of trust charge in relation to “misleading a police officer to obtain unauthorized information,” according to a court document.
Two 22-year-old North York women, Tianna Almeida and Tera Amoatema, face charges of “being an accessory after the fact to the offence of assault with a weapon.”
The homicide has drawn attention due to Horrace’s past in Liberia, including allegations he committed war crimes during his time in the National Patriotic Front of Liberia in the 1990s.
While police have said there is no reason to believe at this time that Horrace’s alleged past in Liberia was at all connected to his death, the revelations have raised questions about how Canada deals with those suspected of having committed war crimes before arriving in the country.
Horrace managed to fend off the government’s attempts to remove him from Canada for 18 years, filing four appeals in the Federal Court — the last of which was still unresolved when he was fatally shot.
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