CANADA Canada - Margaret McWilliam, 21, Toronto, 27 Aug 1987 'Cinderella Murder'

[dotr]

I wonder if this Doe was ever identified as he could well be the person police wanted to speak to as a potential witness in 1987 but found dead in the river in 2002
HUNTER: They found this John Doe in the Don. Do you know him? | Toronto Sun
According to cops, on July 26, 2002, the remains of an unidentified man were found in the area of the Don River at the Queen Street Bridge.
The veteran investigator noted that the reason several drawings were produced of the victim was because cops weren’t sure whether the man was light or dark-skinned.
The mystery man is described as 30 to 40 years old, 5-foot-5, 217 pounds, with long black hair and a slight moustache.
At the time of his death, the victim was wearing a red T-shirt, a blue Roots sweater, brown cargo pants, a black belt, white socks, and black and white running shoes. He had a handful of loose change on him when he was discovered.

View attachment 323071

Ws thread..
CANADA - Canada - Toronto, Male, blue Roots sweater, cargo pants, Don River, Jul'02

 

[Track2]

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From digital archive.tpl.ca.
Police are asking anyone who owns running shoes like these to call them as part of the investigation into the rape-slaying of jogger Margaret McWilliam in Scarborough
Date10/2/1987
Names
Goode, Jeffrey Edward (photographer)
Toronto Star (publisher)

 

[Track2]

When LE questioned Paul Bernardo if he had anything to do with Margaret McWilliam’s slaying, apparently he responded something to effect of “no, but I knew about that murder because my father told me about it on my birthday.” Bernardo’s father was not his biological parent. The father had history of peeping Tom charges, and Bernardo’s sister had accused her father of sex assault.

 

[whiterhino]

View attachment 332365.
From digital archive.tpl.ca.
Police are asking anyone who owns running shoes like these to call them as part of the investigation into the rape-slaying of jogger Margaret McWilliam in Scarborough
Date10/2/1987
Name
Goode, Jeffrey Edward (photographer)
Toronto Star (publisher)

I remember hi top sneakers were quite popular at that time. Are these sneakers or wrestling shoes?

Are these shoes from submitted evidence tied to the crime or just an example of what to look for? A brand and size would be helpful (no criticism to whoever posted the pic).

I can think of at least 3 other crimes since then were the killer left boot or shoe impressions behind. In one case, the pattern on the bottom looked very much like this tread pattern. In the case of Sonia Varaschin, the boot print and model haven't lead to anything.

 

[dotr]

June 16 2022

''The 11th episode of 24 Shades of Blue - Cold Case Edition, Season Two, features the case of Margaret McWilliam, 21, hosted by Andy O'Brien. On Thursday August 27, 1987, Margaret McWilliam left her home between 6 and 7 p.m. to go for a run in the area of Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue. The following day, August 28, 1987, police responded to a check address call and located Margaret’s body in the wooded area of Warden Woods Park.''

 

[dotr]

HUNTER: Trans sex worker's 2003 murder linked to other attacks

The working girls mostly knew her as Tula and that she liked cats. She was private. Very.

torontosun.com

Aug 5 2022
''July and August are over-represented in the murder sweepstakes across North America: The weather is hot, booze is guzzled by the gallon, tempers flare and passions escalate.''

Margaret McWilliam: Murdered in Warden Woods Park. HANDOUT/ TORONTO POLICE

''Toronto is no different from Detroit and Dallas, even though we have fewer homicides. The summer spike is unavoidable. And sometimes, these homicides don’t get cleared.''

''Margaret McWilliam, 23, was a recent arrival in Toronto from Deep River and planned to attend school here. She had recently taken a job at a Scarborough nursing home.
On Aug. 27, 1987, McWilliam went for a run in Warden Woods Park. She did not leave the park alive.''


Her body was discovered the next day in some bushes. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled to death. McWilliam’s killer left behind his DNA and an FBI profile concluded he was in his 20s, a loner who possessed an explosive temper, lived in the area and had raped before.

Margaret and her mom had been slated to leave for a walking tour of the U.K. several days following the murder. That would never happen.

Murder would strike in the one area the warm-hearted young woman liked in the big city.

”Margaret, coming from a small town, discovered the park and liked the pleasant country atmosphere,” her mother told The Sun’s Michelle Mandel in 1993. ”I’m sure it was nice to get away from the heavy traffic of the city, never dreaming …”

​

 

[dotr]

Brad Hunter Aug 03, 2023 rbbm

HUNTER: Cold-case murder of Margaret McWilliam still vexes cops

One of Toronto's most famous unsolved slayings is the Thursday, Aug. 27, 1987, murder of Margaret McWilliam.

torontosun.com

''At about 7 p.m. that night, she began jogging north to St. Clair Ave. E. before travelling west to Warden Woods Park. Cops believed she didn’t sense the danger lurking in the east-end park because she was wearing headphones attached to her Walkman.

Detectives surmised that she had been attacked and then dragged into the woods. Once there, the unknown killer then beat and sexually assaulted McWilliam before strangling her with a piece of her jogging suit.''

''According to cops, the man who killed McWilliam battered her face, leaving it bruised. It was clear she had put up a fight''

''What cops know is that McWilliam was not targeted and likely did not know her killer. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Investigators found a distinctive shoe print at the scene. It matched a Korean-made grey and white runner with vinyl tops and the letters AAU on the heel. The shoes were sold at Bata Shoe Stores in Canada.

There is, cops believe, one witness who had left the park after 8 p.m. on the night McWilliam was murdered: A light-skinned Black man in his 30s with a thin moustache and muscular build who was wearing a red hat.''

Psychologists said the killer has difficult relationships with women, uses drugs and alcohol and the murder may have been triggered by a “traumatic incident.”

Cops don’t think McWilliam was his first attack victim.

They believe the perpetrator is either dead or has fled the country.''

 

[dotr]

''Jul 17, 2015
In 1987, the year Margaret McWilliam was murdered in Toronto, there was no such thing as Geographic Profiling as it's done today. Developed in the 1990’s to identify serial killers, Geographic Profiling identifies the patterns of “between locations”, the place where the perpetrator lives, where they kill, and where they leave the body.Even Margaret’s case began with no real sense of who the killer was, and no knowledge of similar victims. But Michael Arntfield and his team knew there were other aspects of what was developed in the 90’s that could help. One thing he wanted the team to figure out was which of the four key categories of Serial Killers Margaret’s murderer could fit into: The Hunter, who kills on their home turf; the Poacher, who attacks away from their home turf, and the Troller, who is opportunistic and whose locations are vary between the Hunter's and the Poacher's.After evaluating the place where Margaret was found, the team became convinced that if Margaret’s Killer had killed before or after her murder, they could be either a Hunter or a Troller because of the proximity to residential homes and the hidden nature of where her body was found.''

 

[Lexiintoronto]

''Jul 17, 2015
In 1987, the year Margaret McWilliam was murdered in Toronto, there was no such thing as Geographic Profiling as it's done today. Developed in the 1990’s to identify serial killers, Geographic Profiling identifies the patterns of “between locations”, the place where the perpetrator lives, where they kill, and where they leave the body.Even Margaret’s case began with no real sense of who the killer was, and no knowledge of similar victims. But Michael Arntfield and his team knew there were other aspects of what was developed in the 90’s that could help. One thing he wanted the team to figure out was which of the four key categories of Serial Killers Margaret’s murderer could fit into: The Hunter, who kills on their home turf; the Poacher, who attacks away from their home turf, and the Troller, who is opportunistic and whose locations are vary between the Hunter's and the Poacher's.After evaluating the place where Margaret was found, the team became convinced that if Margaret’s Killer had killed before or after her murder, they could be either a Hunter or a Troller because of the proximity to residential homes and the hidden nature of where her body was found.''

Thank you for posting that, it’s very interesting.

It makes me happy to see that so many experts have given her case careful thought.

 

[dotr]

Screen grab from YT, Wondering if that hat was very common style at the time, was the hat definitely red, might it have been white, would the poi have several colours in the same hat style, might it be a popular style to wear to a gay nightclub for example........? complete speculation, imo. fwiw

Jul 14, 2015
A small-town girl who had just moved to the big city of Toronto is on her regular evening jog in Warden Woods Park, when she is dragged from the path, beaten, raped and strangled to death. More than 26 years later, police still have not found her killer. Michael Arntfield and his team work hard to ease the anguish of Margaret’s aging parents by approaching the case with their fresh perspective and use of modern technology