Police charge man in 1998 killing of pregnant woman after identifying him using DNA
Written by The Canadian Press on February 7, 2025
A man has been arrested and charged in the 1998 homicide of a 24-year-old pregnant woman in Toronto after police say they used investigative genetic genealogy to crack the cold case.
Det. Sgt. Steve Smith says a 50-year-old man from Gander, N.L., who had been on a flight from Edmonton was intercepted and arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and has been charged with first-degree murder.
Smith says Donna Oglive was a sex worker form British Columbia and had been in Toronto for only about five weeks when she was allegedly strangled to death by a client in a parking lot on Carleton Street.
Smith says police found a suspect’s DNA at the crime scene, but they could not identify the person after running the evidence through a national data bank.
Police say they used investigative genetic geneology to track down the accused man’s family last year.
The accused man is remanded in custody in Toronto after he appeared via video link at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre on Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2025.
The Canadian Press