Toronto cops ID women murdered in 1936, 2004 cold cases
· Toronto Sun
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Maybe it was a domestic drama that careened into murder that day in 1936 while Canada and the rest of the world were in the depths of the Great Depression.
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Maybe it was something else. We will never know.
But the Toronto Police Service’s vaunted cold case unit said Monday morning they had cleared two violent death investigations that unfolded more than half a century apart. Both had been listed as unidentified human remains.
One of the investigations cleared was that of the Danforth Lady. The second was that of an Indigenous woman who died in a car inferno on Hwy. 401.
Remains found on Danforth
“These identifications represent the significant impact that investigative genetic genealogy can have on long-term unidentified human remains investigations,” said Det. Sgt. Steve Smith of the cold case unit.
According to cops, on May 18, 1995, officers were called to the Danforth Ave. and Coxwell Ave. area after demolition workers discovered the skeletal remains of an unknown woman buried beneath a former garage.
Forensic examination revealed that the victim had been intentionally buried. She had suffered an estimated half-a-dozen blows to the head from what detectives called a “hammer-like weapon.” Her death was ruled a homicide.
As in many unsolved investigations, cops had to wait for technology to catch up. TPS has been on the cutting edge of clearing historic homicides, sex assaults and unidentified human remains and the cold case unit has racked up a staggering number of successes.
After the 2016 identification and arrest of the Golden State Killer in California, many unsolved probes were reborn via genetic genealogy. In 2022, the Danforth Lady was chosen as part of the first class of Project 31 IGG investigations. But it wasn’t until November 2024 that a suitable DNA profile could be obtained.
Victim was a Scottish immigrant
Detectives learned that the Danforth Lady had Scottish ancestry and came from the Aberdeen area.
She has finally been identified as Mary McLeod Moffat (nee Davidson).
Moffatt was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1905 and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1913 when she was eight years old.
Investigators believe she was murdered in April 1936, and the likely killer was her love rat hubby, Andrew Lloyd Moffat. Cops say that Andrew had ditched his young wife and then married a slew of other women.
Love rat husband eyed in murder
Andrew Lloyd Moffat operated a tire repair business next to the location where his missing wife’s remains were discovered decades later. He fled Toronto and then assumed the alias Drake Lloyd Cummings, living in both the U.S. and Vancouver. He died in 1985.
Cold case detectives said because Andrew Moffatt is long dead, he can’t be prosecuted but is the primary suspect and likely killer of Mary Moffatt.
The second case of unidentified human remains is more recent.
Car engulfed in flames
On April 22, 2004, police responded to a fire on Hwy. 401 in the eastbound collector lanes near Hwy. 400, where a vehicle became engulfed in flames after intentionally colliding with a tractor-trailer.
After the fire was extinguished, investigators located the badly burned body of an unidentified woman in the passenger seat. The Fire Marshal determined the fire had been deliberately set using gasoline and that the woman had died before the fire was ignited, confirming it had been used to conceal the cause of death.
However, according to cops, the cause of death was never determined.
Suspect was deported in 2012
Driver Suimi Kilflu “Simon” Habteab, 38, of Toronto, was convicted in 2006 of Arson to Property; Arson Endangering Life; Mischief Endangering Life; Dangerous Operation, and Indignity to a Dead Body.
Habteab was hammered with an eight-year custodial sentence and deported from Canada in 2012.
But who was the victim? Despite numerous public appeals, police efforts fell flat. In 2022, the case was selected for further IGG testing.
Testing revealed that the victim possessed Indigenous ancestry connected to the remote Cree communities along James Bay and the Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba.
Victim had two children
On Monday, cops identified the victim as Patsy Flora Lagarde (also known as Legarde). She was born in Ontario in 1962 and her parents were from the Berens River First Nation and the Long Lake #58 First Nation, respectively.
Lagarde had two biological children, one of whom now lives in Alberta.
“After decades without answers, we have been able to restore the identities of Mary Davidson and Patsy Lagarde, provide information to their families, and uncover important facts about the circumstances surrounding their deaths,” Smith said.
‘Not knowing is the worst’
“This work reflects the dedication of our investigators and the value of Project 31 in advancing cold case investigations.”
Smith told The Toronto Sun the families are relieved.
“Both families were relieved to find out what had happened to their loved ones. Now they can grieve and heal,” he said. “Not knowing is the worst.”
The two investigations are two of the unit’s most significant unidentified human remains identifications completed by the Toronto Police Service through IGG.