Toronto police identify remains of two women in decades-old cold cases
Written by The Canadian Press on July 27, 2026
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.
The Canadian Press