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Unit:
Homicide and Missing Persons Unit
Case #: n/a
November 19, 2025, 8:00 AM
The Toronto Police Service has identified a man in a human remains investigation.
On March 29, 2008, at 12:15 p.m., the Toronto Police Service were called to the area of Bloor Street East and Parliament Street where a man was found deceased. Coronial and police investigations determined that the death was not suspicious.
Attempts to identify him through conventional investigative techniques proved unsuccessful.
In 2023, this case was selected for investigation using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). The initial IGG findings were that the man was from Europe. Subsequent investigation resulted in a bulletin being circulated among online groups from a specific region in Europe.
Shortly thereafter two tips were provided, one from Ontario and one from overseas, that the unknown man could be a man named Alcides.
Investigators located a relative living overseas and a DNA sample was obtained and sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences for comparison.
On November 7, 2025, DNA testing confirmed that the unknown man is Alcides. His family was notified of the identification and provided with the details of his burial location. Alcides was never reported missing but those who loved him always wondered what happened to him as they had not heard from him in years.
This investigation was made possible through a grant provided by the Ontario Solicitor General, and the collaborative efforts of the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the Toronto Police Service, Othram, the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
This is the ninth person identified from the Toronto Police Service’s humanitarian initiative ‘Project 31’.
Project 31 began in the summer of 2022. It was so-named for the 31 open Toronto Police Service cases involving long-term unidentified deceased people for whom DNA material is readily available.
The goal of Project 31 is to identify all 31 people through the vigorous use of DNA-based investigative techniques, including investigative genetic genealogy.''
Homicide and Missing Persons Unit
Case #: n/a
November 19, 2025, 8:00 AM
The Toronto Police Service has identified a man in a human remains investigation.
On March 29, 2008, at 12:15 p.m., the Toronto Police Service were called to the area of Bloor Street East and Parliament Street where a man was found deceased. Coronial and police investigations determined that the death was not suspicious.
Attempts to identify him through conventional investigative techniques proved unsuccessful.
In 2023, this case was selected for investigation using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). The initial IGG findings were that the man was from Europe. Subsequent investigation resulted in a bulletin being circulated among online groups from a specific region in Europe.
Shortly thereafter two tips were provided, one from Ontario and one from overseas, that the unknown man could be a man named Alcides.
Investigators located a relative living overseas and a DNA sample was obtained and sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences for comparison.
On November 7, 2025, DNA testing confirmed that the unknown man is Alcides. His family was notified of the identification and provided with the details of his burial location. Alcides was never reported missing but those who loved him always wondered what happened to him as they had not heard from him in years.
This investigation was made possible through a grant provided by the Ontario Solicitor General, and the collaborative efforts of the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the Toronto Police Service, Othram, the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
This is the ninth person identified from the Toronto Police Service’s humanitarian initiative ‘Project 31’.
Project 31 began in the summer of 2022. It was so-named for the 31 open Toronto Police Service cases involving long-term unidentified deceased people for whom DNA material is readily available.
The goal of Project 31 is to identify all 31 people through the vigorous use of DNA-based investigative techniques, including investigative genetic genealogy.''
