More than three decades after an unidentified man was found dead on a downtown Toronto church lawn, police have finally confirmed his identity through investigative genetic genealogy.
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) says the man, who was discovered unresponsive near Queen Street East and Church Street on Sept. 15, 1992, has been identified as Derek, a British-born man who moved to Toronto in the 1970s.
Police, firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene after the man was found lying on the church property. Despite life-saving efforts, he was pronounced dead. Investigators determined at the time that the death was not suspicious.
The case remained unsolved for more than 30 years because the man had no identification and traditional investigative methods failed to establish who he was.
In 2025, Toronto police selected the case for review under Project 31, a humanitarian initiative focused on identifying long-term unidentified deceased individuals through DNA technology.
Investigators obtained a DNA profile from the man and uploaded it to public genealogy databases in January 2026. Although the closest genetic matches were distant relatives, the results suggested the man had roots in the United Kingdom.
Police genealogists and investigators spent months building family connections before determining the unidentified man was likely Derek.
Investigation reveals surprising twist
According to police, Derek was not reported missing until December 1993, roughly 15 months after his body was discovered. The report was filed by his lawyer, but no connection was made between the missing-person investigation and the unidentified deceased man found in 1992.
Years later, the missing-person file was closed after investigators were told Derek had died on a specific date. Police now say that information stemmed from a misunderstanding.
Rather than having a confirmed date of death, investigators said Derek had been legally declared dead after years of failing to respond to correspondence. No official record ever documented when or where he died.
The breakthrough came when Toronto police located Derek’s fingerprints in another country. Investigators compared those prints with the fingerprints of the unidentified man found in Toronto in 1992 and confirmed they belonged to the same person.
Police have since notified Derek’s family in the United Kingdom of the identification.
Derek is the 14th unidentified person to be named through Toronto police’s Project 31 initiative.
Launched in 2022, Toronto police said Project 31 targets 31 open cases involving unidentified deceased individuals whose DNA is available for advanced forensic testing.
