CANADA Canada - Simone Sandler, 21, Toronto, 23 July 1994

[dotr]

https://www.torontopolice.on.ca/homicide/case/35/1994

Cold Case Files

Homicide #35/1994

Victim:

Simone
SANDLER


Age: 21
Gender: Female
Murdered on: July 30, 1994
Location: 51 Division
Details of Investigation:

On Saturday, July 30, 1994, at about 3:00 p.m., police responded to an emergency call in the area of Lake Shore Boulevard E and Don Roadway.

The victim was discovered in the Keating Channel waterway, suffering from medical trauma, and obviously deceased.

Investigators believe the victim was last seen on Saturday, July 23, 1994, in the Yonge Street and Gerrard Street area.

Additional Information:

Other media:

Simone carried this knapsack the day she disappeared and it has never been recovered

Photo of scene where Simone's body was recovered

These shoes were worn by Simone at the time of her disappearance

Simone stood at Yonge and Gerrard next to this sign recruiting Extras for films

 

[dotr]

Handy link with map, thanks to whomever compiled the information.
https://batchgeo.com/map/cdc936c0374badc9aa450895f6453b40

Homicides, both solved and unsolved and violent crimes committed within Ontario for the dates 1960 - 2016. (incomplete September 13, 2016) First 250

 

[dotr]

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2009/08/30/womans_murder_unsolved_but_not_forgotten.html

[h=1]Woman's murder unsolved but not forgotten[/h]After 15 years, Simone Sandler's murder is still a cold case mystery. No motive, suspects or leads.

By Michele HenryCRIME REPORTER

Sun., Aug. 30, 2009

She springs out of bed. Red lights on her clock radio flash 4:20 a.m. "Where is Simone?"

That question has passed Linda Sandler's lips a thousand times in the past 15 years. Especially in the dead of night, when her subconscious transports her back to July 24, 1994, when she was startled awake and knew – with a mother's intuition – that she would never see her daughter again. "I woke up thinking `this is wrong,' " Sandler says now. "Something is wrong."

It would be another nine agonizing nights before her worst fears were confirmed, but chances are good 21-year-old Simone Penni Sandler was already dead by the time her mother fumbled for the phone to call York Regional Police.

Simone's body was bloated and battered. She was naked from the waist down. A green garbage bag was knotted around her neck as she floated in the Don River among the empty potato chip bags, Styrofoam cups and construction debris.

The consummate ingénue, Simone was sweet and pretty, shy and trusting. Petite and fair-skinned with flaxen-coloured curls, she loved to pose for pictures, bake carrot muffins and work out at the YMCA. But her parents admit she lacked savvy and street smarts.

Fresh off her first year in hospitality and tourism at Humber College, Simone took a summer job with a now-defunct casting company called Actors and Models Studio.

Her office was a sandwich board parked at gritty Yonge and Gerrard Sts., between the now-shuttered La Maison croissant shop and the Evergreen Youth Shelter. Her task was recruiting passersby to become extras on film and TV shoots.

After Simone's body was discovered, an autopsy merely concluded she had died of strangulation. The body was so badly decomposed that dental records were used for final identification. There had been an unsuccessful attempt at rape.

"It was one of those nasty investigations," Mendelson says. "Every time we thought we turned a corner and answered a question, we didn't. We just picked up three more questions." Perhaps, the biggest impediment was the quality of witnesses – the homeless kids Simone had befriended, the wayward youth, the hot dog vendors. Sure, they recognized the girl who had become a local fixture. But could they shed light on what happened to her? Who did it? A resounding no.

 

[dotr]

Bumping for Simone.
Simone Penni Sandler (1973-1994) - Find A Grave...


Simone Penni Sandler
Birth Apr 1973
South Africa
Death Jul 1994 (aged 21)
Canada
"Simone Sandler was born in South Africa, but, emigrated to Canada with her family when she was eight years old. She grew up in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill Ontario.

In 1994, she was working in down town Toronto as a talent scout, and it is believed that this is where she met the person who murdered her.

Her body was found floating in the Keating Channel. Her death remains unsolved".

 

[dotr]

repost
By Michele Henry Aug. 30, 2009
Woman's murder unsolved but not forgotten | The Star
"Fresh off her first year in hospitality and tourism at Humber College, Simone took a summer job with a now-defunct casting company called Actors and Models Studio.

Her office was a sandwich board parked at gritty Yonge and Gerrard Sts., between the now-shuttered La Maison croissant shop and the Evergreen Youth Shelter. Her task was recruiting passersby to become extras on film and TV shoots.

Getting through those long summer days downtown was tough at first for Simone. But quickly, she struck up a partnership of sorts with the street rats and homeless kids who hung around the area.

Implausible as it seemed for this sheltered Thornhill girl to carve a niche among these social misfits, Simone was absorbed by the group, even falling for a new boyfriend. "Joe," tattooed but attractive, was a year older. He had a way about him, detectives said, and certainly "knew how to work it." Later on, "friends" would say that Simone was often seen holding Joe's hand. But others said the two broke up a week before her disappearance.

The group invited her to gatherings in the wooded areas off Cherry Beach to smoke marijuana around sandpit bonfires. Detectives would later place Simone at one of these "parties" the night she disappeared. But they will never really know how she spent her last hours."

 

[dotr]

Feb 6 2021
Does Simone Sandler’s downtown Toronto murder point to the work of a serial strangler?

Toronto Unsolved
Does Simone Sandler’s downtown Toronto murder point to the work of a serial strangler?

"Feb. 6, 2021
Simone Sandler was sweet, empathetic and painfully naïve when she took a summer job on downtown Yonge Street in 1994, asking strangers if they wanted to appear as extras in movies.

“The world of Yonge and Gerrard was nothing that she was ever exposed to,” former Toronto police lead homicide investigator Mark Mendelson said in an interview.'

 

[SaintGertrude]

Bumping for Simone.
Simone Penni Sandler (1973-1994) - Find A Grave...


Simone Penni Sandler
Birth Apr 1973
South Africa
Death Jul 1994 (aged 21)
Canada
"Simone Sandler was born in South Africa, but, emigrated to Canada with her family when she was eight years old. She grew up in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill Ontario.

In 1994, she was working in down town Toronto as a talent scout, and it is believed that this is where she met the person who murdered her.

Her body was found floating in the Keating Channel. Her death remains unsolved".

I think this may hold the clue to where she may have been murdered then taken to the Keating Channel IMOO
The group invited her to gatherings in the wooded areas off Cherry Beach to smoke marijuana around sandpit bonfires.

 

[SaintGertrude]

Modus Operandi - Strangulation
Possible place of death - Wooded areas or Cherry Beach or Keating Channel where her body was found floating.
In 1994, Simone was working in down town Toronto as a talent scout, and it is believed that this is where she met the person who murdered her.
Other sources say that she was mixing with recreational drug users in the woods.
Occupation of killer - Possible Actor extra/photographer/musician or model. Someone with confidence and emotional strength who would have been likely to have been scouted.
Does anyone know if there was a particular field of talent scouting Simone was involved with for her work.

 

[dotr]

Modus Operandi - Strangulation
Possible place of death - Wooded areas or Cherry Beach or Keating Channel where her body was found floating.
In 1994, Simone was working in down town Toronto as a talent scout, and it is believed that this is where she met the person who murdered her.
Other sources say that she was mixing with recreational drug users in the woods.
Occupation of killer - Possible Actor extra/photographer/musician or model. Someone with confidence and emotional strength who would have been likely to have been scouted.
Does anyone know if there was a particular field of talent scouting Simone was involved with for her work.

To be an ''Extra" (Background) in film.
Noting fwiw, SS was born in SA and emigrated with her family to TO when she was 8.

 

[SaintGertrude]

To be an ''Extra" (Background) in film.
Noting fwiw, SS was born in SA and emigrated with her family to TO when she was 8.

Thank you. I was thinking along the line of the music industry and many a new talent being spotted busking in the streets or over sandpit bonfires with a good voice and a guitar.
Have there been any other murders in Canada or America where the perpetrator had a small role in the film industry.
The only one I can think of is Canadian actor Luka Magnotta but he was born in 1983 so just an example.

 

[SaintGertrude]

1991: While working in the area of Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue on the early morning of September 8, 1991, 21-year-old Lori Pinkus was assaulted, strangled, and left suffering from medical distress in the car lot of Brockton HS by an unknown assailant. After being discovered by a caretaker who alerted emergency services, paramedics arrived at the scene and attempted to save her life - but were unsuccessful in doing so.
HUNTER: Cops determined to solve 1991 Lori Pinkus cold case murder | Toronto Sun
Police Have a DNA Profile of The Man They Believe Killed Lori in 1991

Just looking at this one as involves strangulation and leaving the body in an open space rather than trying to conceal.

 

[dotr]

1991: While working in the area of Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue on the early morning of September 8, 1991, 21-year-old Lori Pinkus was assaulted, strangled, and left suffering from medical distress in the car lot of Brockton HS by an unknown assailant. After being discovered by a caretaker who alerted emergency services, paramedics arrived at the scene and attempted to save her life - but were unsuccessful in doing so.

Ws thread..
CANADA - Lori Pinkus, 21, Toronto, 8 September 1991, * Fresh initiative, DNA*

 

[SaintGertrude]

1991: While working in the area of Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue on the early morning of September 8, 1991, 21-year-old Lori Pinkus was assaulted, strangled, and left suffering from medical distress in the car lot of Brockton HS by an unknown assailant. After being discovered by a caretaker who alerted emergency services, paramedics arrived at the scene and attempted to save her life - but were unsuccessful in doing so.
HUNTER: Cops determined to solve 1991 Lori Pinkus cold case murder | Toronto Sun
Police Have a DNA Profile of The Man They Believe Killed Lori in 1991

Just looking at this one as involves strangulation and leaving the body in an open space rather than trying to conceal.

Distance between the two murders is approx 12:5 km and 30 minutes by car.

 

[SaintGertrude]

To be an ''Extra" (Background) in film.
Noting fwiw, SS was born in SA and emigrated with her family to TO when she was 8.

Thanks, so they didn't need to be talented as this article also mentions.
The Unsolved Murder of Simone Sandler
'Trying to recruit passers by to serve as extras in films'.

It is more than likely that she was killed at Cherry Beach and the perpetrator could be a random stranger she was hanging out with who she perhaps tried to recruit earlier that day.

Cherry Beach Clarke Beach Park
When Simone spent time with her new group of reportedly “lower-class” friends, she often attended get-togethers “in the wooded areas off Cherry Beach to smoke marijuana around sandpit bonfires.” The police later discovered that Simone was at one of these parties the night she disappeared. Was Simone killed by someone at this party? If she was, the police have never been able to prove it, and the party attendees sure are not talking.

 

[SaintGertrude]

This is interesting as another body was found in a similar area this year and thought to be under suspicious circumstances but no further information given.
CityNews
Police on scene to recover body found floating in Don River in area of Lake Shore Boulevard and Cherry Street.
Police are treating the incident as suspicious until the cause of death has been determined by the coroner.
Was there ever an update on this incident.

Simone Sandler Location - At approximately 3:00PM on Saturday July 30th, 1994, the police responded to a 911 call from Lake Shore Boulevard E. and Don Roadway. Simone’s badly decomposed body had been spotted floating in the Keating Channel waterway by a couple passing by in a vehicle.

 

[SaintGertrude]

 

[SaintGertrude]

View attachment 323069

And look both were near this place the film studios of Pinewood
https://pinewoodgroup.com/studios/pinewood-toronto-studios

 

[SaintGertrude]

Another one here in 2002 but was not thought to be suspicious. The police comment about serial killer victims is interesting. Do police then think there is a serial killer dumping bodies in the location.
HUNTER: They found this John Doe in the Don. Do you know him? | Toronto Sun

Back to Arntfield and the “missing missing.” Likely, that man floating in the river was never reported as missing. If his family isn’t looking for him, neither will the cops.

“Not to sound crude, but they are an endangered species, and it’s incumbent upon society and the police to keep an eye out for people who are living on the margins,” Arntfield told the Toronto Sun last year.

He was talking about the majority of serial killer victims. It doesn’t appear the man found in 2002 was one of them.

But by any standard, he still counts as the “missing missing

 

[SaintGertrude]

Another one here in 2002 but was not thought to be suspicious. The police comment about serial killer victims is interesting. Do police then think there is a serial killer dumping bodies in the location.
HUNTER: They found this John Doe in the Don. Do you know him? | Toronto Sun

Back to Arntfield and the “missing missing.” Likely, that man floating in the river was never reported as missing. If his family isn’t looking for him, neither will the cops.

“Not to sound crude, but they are an endangered species, and it’s incumbent upon society and the police to keep an eye out for people who are living on the margins,” Arntfield told the Toronto Sun last year.

He was talking about the majority of serial killer victims. It doesn’t appear the man found in 2002 was one of them.

But by any standard, he still counts as the “missing missing

The Doe in 2002 found at Don river actually looks a bit like the person cops wanted to speak with as a potential witness with the Margaret McWilliam Cinderella murder which was also strangulation so I have added more details to the following thread CANADA - Canada - Margaret McWilliam, 21, Toronto, 27 Aug 1987 'Cinderella Murder'

 

[dotr]

Thank you. I was thinking along the line of the music industry and many a new talent being spotted busking in the streets or over sandpit bonfires with a good voice and a guitar.
Have there been any other murders in Canada or America where the perpetrator had a small role in the film industry.
The only one I can think of is Canadian actor Luka Magnotta but he was born in 1983 so just an example.

Unfortunately, yes there have been a few over the years, this one is fairly recent and particularly horrendous, cannot even think about it.
MA. had some interesting comments regarding the perp..
Post #948
March 2 2021 rbbm.
HUNTER: 'Unlikely' Rori and Kandis only Strong victims, says expert | Toronto Sun
''Adam Strong will be leaving the stage sometime on April 21-22 when he will likely be sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
But before he goes away forever for the suspected sexually driven murders of two Oshawa teens almost 10 years apart, disturbing questions remain.''

''This is the big one: How likely is it that the 48-year-old film-set flunky and gas jockey remained dormant for a decade?
One expert had a ready answer: “not very.”
Michael Arntfield — a criminology professor at the University of Western Ontario and a former cop — thinks there may be more to come with Strong.
“It’s very rare for that kind of offender to take that kind of hiatus,” Arntfield said, adding that no doubt detectives are looking at other cases of missing young women and girls.''
Ws threads..
GUILTY - Canada - Rori Hache, 18, pregnant, found deceased, Oshawa, Ont, 29 Aug 2017


CANADA - Kandis FITZPATRICK, 18, Oshawa, Ontario, 2008, *DNA located*