Toronto police identify remains of two women in decades-old cold cases
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
TORONTO – Toronto police say they have identified two women killed in decades-old cold cases using DNA analysis and genealogy databases.
Investigators say a woman whose skeletal remains were found buried under a building by demolition workers in 1995 has been identified as Mary McLeod Moffat.
Police say Moffat was born in Scotland in 1905 and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1913, and investigators suspect her husband murdered her around April 1936. They say the suspect died in 1985 and cannot be prosecuted.
Investigators say they have also identified a woman whose body was found in burning car that had deliberately collided with a truck on Highway 401 in April 2004 as Patsy Flora Lagarde.
They say Lagarde was born in Ontario to Indigenous parents in 1962 and had two children.
Police say Suimi Kilflu “Simon” Habteab, a 38-year-old man from Toronto, was found guilty of multiple charges including arson endangering life and indignity to a dead body in 2006 and sentenced to eight years behind bars. He was deported from Canada in 2012.
Police say the cases are two of the most significant identifications of human remains that the force has carried out using investigative genetic genealogy.
Officers say they can now uncover important facts about the women’s deaths and provide answers and closure to their families.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2026.