Toronto police have successfully identified the remains of a man who was found dead in 1992, marking a significant breakthrough in a case that had remained unsolved for over three decades. The unidentified man was discovered unresponsive on the lawn of a church near Queen Street East and Church Street on September 15, 1992. Despite the efforts of first responders, he was pronounced dead at the scene, and due to the absence of identification, investigators were unable to ascertain his identity at that time. The case was selected for review under Project 31, an initiative aimed at identifying long-term unidentified deceased individuals using advanced DNA technology.

In January 2026, a DNA profile of the unidentified man was uploaded to public genealogy databases, which ultimately led investigators to determine that he was likely a man named Derek, who had emigrated from the United Kingdom to Toronto in the 1970s. Interestingly, Derek was not reported missing until December 1993, approximately 15 months after his death, by his lawyer. At that time, no connection was made between Derek's missing-person report and the unidentified body, which complicated the investigation for years. The missing-person file was eventually closed after investigators were misled into believing Derek had died on a specific date, a claim that stemmed from a misunderstanding rather than confirmed evidence.S1S2

The breakthrough in Derek's identification came when Toronto police located his fingerprints in another country. A comparison of these prints with those of the unidentified man confirmed they belonged to the same individual. Following this confirmation, police reached out to Derek's family in the UK to notify them of the identification. Derek is now the 14th unidentified person to be named through Project 31, which was launched in the summer of 2022 and focuses on 31 open cases involving unidentified deceased individuals whose DNA is available for testing. This initiative has previously led to the identification of other long-term unidentified individuals, including a man named Alcides from a 2008 case.S1S2