Stories of Murder in Toronto's Gay Village
Murder that occurred in Toronto, or of Torontonians
On May 1, 2000, police discovered the body of antique dealer Neil Parker, 49, three days after he had been murdered in his apartment. Residents had called to complaint about a foul odour. His live-in partner, Christopher Partak, 24, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Parker, found in a bathtub at their 77 Maitland … Read more
July 7, 1999 was seventy-two-year-old Hugh Sinclair’s last day alive. Sinclair was murdered in his 42nd-storey apartment at 44 Charles Street West in the Manulife Centre. His murderer would be convicted before his body was found. Sinclair was a retired Sun Life insurance company employee and an avid antiques collector. He met Timothy Culham, 29, … Read more
On Monday afternoon, May 24, 1999, an anonymous phone call sent Toronto police to a 15th-floor apartment at 200 Wellesley Street East. Anthony Charles Dowding, 56, was dead inside, beaten. The Globe and Mail reported that police found a trail of blood leading away from the apartment door. Homicide Det. Larry Linton said the attacker … Read more
On Friday night, May 30, 1997, a lawyer directed investigators from the Metro police homicide squad to an apartment. In the bathroom they found the body of James Edward Detzler, 54. The lawyer acted for Steven Todd Craig, 26, of Dundas Street East. The apartment was Craig’s home, the Globe and Mail later reported. Craig … Read more
On Monday, December 16, 1996, employees at an industrial complex on McLevin Avenue in Scarborough noticed that someone had apparently set a fire in one of the dumpsters, the Globe and Mail reported. The Toronto Star described a smouldering dumpster in the Sheppard Avenue East and Markham Road area. The body inside was burned beyond … Read more
Thirty-one-year-old Deanna (Thomas) Wilkinson was the last victim of spree killer Marcello Palma, who killed three prostitutes within just a few hours on Victoria Day weekend, May 20, 1996. Wilkinson was also a songstress who had performed at various venues, and was a poetess and short story writer. The Sex Workers Alliance of Toronto held … Read more
Shawn Keegan was just 19 years old when they was murdered by Toronto spree killer Marcello Palma. Keegan, described as a “transvestite prostitute”, was killed with the same gun as “female prostitute” Brenda Ludgate, 25, and “transsexual prostitute” Deanna (Thomas) Wilkinson, 31, within about three hours, on May 20, 1996. Keegan had lived for some … Read more
On Monday, January 29, 1996, Les Aykler went to check on the superintendent of his family’s apartment building at College Street and Roxton Road, just east of Ossington Avenue. Tenants had last seen Clayton Russell on Saturday. Aykler had spoken to him that day too. Now neither the residents nor the realty firm could reach … Read more
At about 8:30 on the morning of Tuesday, September 12, 1995, the superintendent of an apartment building on Cosburn Avenue, near Pape Avenue in East York, let a Metro police officer into a third-floor apartment. A friend had asked police to check on the tenant after no one heard from him over the weekend, the … Read more
Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms used to state that every individual is to be considered equal regardless of religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, sex, age or physical or mental disability. It did not explicitly include sexual orientation. Activist Jim Egan took the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada … Read more
At 1:30 p.m. on Friday, October 28, 1994, a woman’s body was found behind the Palais Royale dance hall on Lake Shore Boulevard West. The Toronto Star reported two days later that she had been strangled. She was Virginia Lee Coote, 33, known to her friends as Flex. The Star said the body had washed … Read more
At about noon on Saturday, November 19, 1994, a man walking his dog found a body in a heavily wooded part of a Rosedale ravine. The Toronto Star reported that it was badly decomposed. An autopsy found that the man had died of head injuries from a severe beating. Police counted the death as Metro … Read more
On Monday, September 19, 1994, at about 5 p.m., an ambulance crew climbed to a 14th-floor apartment on Sherbourne St. A friend had gone there looking for Harry Ronald Isaac, 50, who had not turned up for work at a hotel on Lombard St. The friend found him dead. The Toronto Star reported the next … Read more
Prostitute Julieanne Middleton, 23, was working the Parkdale neighbourhood when she was murdered. Police suspect she is a victim of serial killer Peter Dale MacDonald. She was found July 7, 1994 in Lake Ontario, just a few minutes’ walk from the Palais Royale at 1601 Lake Shore Blvd West, along Toronto’s western waterfront. Middleton was … Read more
On May 7, 1994, John Beverly “Bev” Wilson, 60, a well-known stage manager who once worked with the National Ballet of Canada, was found dead in the laundry room of his Eglinton Avenue West and Avenue Road apartment building. He was found in a large pool of blood, dead from a single stab wound. Wilson, … Read more