Toronto police have identified a young girl whose remains were found in a dumpster in the city’s Rosedale neighbourhood over a year ago.
Neveah Tucker, 4, of Toronto, was found in a dumpster outside an unoccupied home that was under construction on Dale Avenue near Castle Frank Road, north of Bloor Street East, on May 2, 2022. Police were called to the area at about 4:45 p.m. that day.
Police were able to identify her through a tip from the public and work by forensic investigators, according to Insp. Hank Idsinga, from the homicide and missing person unit.
Idsinga said the girl’s body was placed in the dumpster when she was just shy of her fifth birthday. Neveah was born on May 18, 2017. Investigators believe she died in 2021.
Police notified her mother of the death on Thursday. No one has been arrested and no charges have been laid.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Idsinga told reporters at police headquarters in Toronto on Thursday afternoon.
“We will continue to work closely with our partners to investigate the circumstances leading up to Neveah’s death and the subsequent disposal of her body.”
He said the pathologist wasn’t able to identify a cause of death.
To generate tips from the public, police previously released a composite sketch of her, a photo of a vehicle of interest and images of two pieces of cloth.
According to police, the remains were found wrapped in a crocheted blanket inside a plastic bag, which in turn was wrapped in another blanket.
According to police, Toronto’s Office of Forensic Pathology had planned to piece together a timeline and to determine contributing factors to her death.