More limbs found in Toronto-area body parts search
An arm and two calves have been found in the Toronto area as police investigate the recent discovery of a severed head, a foot and two hands in Mississauga and human remains in an east Toronto creek, sources tell CBC News.
It is not immediately clear exactly where the arm and calves were found.
Police did say earlier Monday the head, foot and two hands discovered in Mississauga last week and human remains found in Toronto on the weekend are from the same victim.
Police say they can't be 100 per cent certain, but there are "obvious similarities."
Forensic scientists will make the final determination but Peel Regional Police said Monday morning their investigators believe the gruesome discoveries in the nearby cities over the past week are from the same victim.
"It is fair to say that ... somehow parts of a person's body have been discovered in two different locations," said Sgt. Peter Brandwood.
On Saturday and Sunday remains were found in a creek in Toronto's east end.
On Monday Brandwood confirmed those remains are human.
"Those remains that were discovered in Toronto have now been confirmed to be identified as human remains. Investigators are convinced that there are obvious similarities between the body parts in our investigation here and the human body parts and the recovery of those human body parts in the Toronto jurisdiction," he said.
Last Wednesday hikers in Hewick Meadows Park in Mississauga, just west of Toronto, discovered a foot.
A day later Peel Regional Police search teams found a severed head. On Friday they recovered two hands.
On Saturday a golfer came across the first of two discoveries of human remains in Highland Creek.
The body parts come from a woman — but just who the victim is remains a mystery.
Brandwood told reporters on Monday that police hope to have more information from the forensics team soon — and that they hope that will help them to identify the victim.
Brandwood said that investigators "are pretty close" to finding out the identity of the woman but won't be able to say for sure until they get the forensic results.
"We still don't have the identity of the victim, however we are doing what we can with our jurisdiction and Toronto, to try and confirm and bring some closure to the family of the victim," he said.
Without a cause of death police say they can't rule the discovery as a homicide, but Brandwood said "I think it's fair to say there's some criminality involved here, just because of the nature of what we've been able to discover."
Toronto police say they have finished their search of the area near Highland Creek but police in Mississauga say they will continue to search the waters of the Credit River and surrounding areas for at least one more day, in the hopes of finding more evidence.
