Police looking at several missing persons cases as work to ID girl found in Toronto dumpster continues

Police said they are looking at several missing persons cases as officers work to identify a little girl whose remains were found in a dumpster outside of a Toronto home last week.

Speaking at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, Toronto police Insp. Hank Idsinga told reporters the force is looking into several known missing persons cases in the GTA and from across the country to identify the child who was found inside the dumpster outside of a vacant home in the Castle Frank Road and Dale Avenue area on May 2.

Police have estimated the girl was between four and seven years old, and say she could have been dead since sometime in 2021.

Speaking at a press conference last week, Toronto Police Det. Sgt. Renee Foley, said the girl is described as three-feet-six-inches tall with a thin build. She had all of her teeth.

Foley said the girl had black, curly hair that was sectioned into four short ponytails, two of which were braided and secured with black and blue elastic bands.

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She is described as Black, of African or mixed-African decent, Foley said.

2:40 Investigation continues after human remains found in Toronto

On Wednesday, Idsinga said the investigation has been going “full steam ahead.”

He said police have sought assistance from the Child and Youth Advocacy Centre who are “doing a lot of digging through missing persons occurrences.”

“Our forensic folks went through the residence where that dumpster was with a fine tooth comb,” he said. “We’re getting lots of tips, we could always use more tips.”

He said the force has “a couple missing person occurrences that we’re still looking at.”

“But to make that definitive match — it’s gonna take quite a bit of work as you as you can imagine,” he said.

Idsinga said the force is looking at “several” missing persons occurrences from across the country.

“And there’s several in the GTA that we’re definitely looking at,” he said.

Idsinga said the Office of Forensic Pathology is “still working on the remains” to help determine the timeline and contributing factors to the girl’s death.

“We’ve got an awful lot of people working on this, and I’m pretty confident that we’ll come up with some answers,” he said.

Idsinga urged anyone with information to contact police.