TORONTO, Canada: Toronto police identified the Danforth Lady as Mary McLeod Moffat on July 27, about 90 years after her murder, and named her late husband as the primary suspect.
Police announced the breakthrough at 10:24 am EDT. Investigators used genetic genealogy to identify Moffat, according to the Toronto Police Service.
Demolition workers discovered her skeletal remains beneath a building near Danforth and Coxwell avenues on May 18, 1995.
A forensic examination found that someone had deliberately buried her after striking her head at least six times with a hammer-like weapon.
Police selected the case for Project 31 in 2022. The remains’ age and degraded condition required several laboratory submissions before investigators obtained a suitable DNA profile in November 2024.
Texas forensic laboratory Othram said scientists completed multiple extractions before producing a forensic SNP profile. Investigators then compared the profile with DNA from potential relatives, helping confirm Moffat’s identity.
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Moffat was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1905 and moved to Canada with her family in 1913. Police believe she was murdered around April 1936.
Investigators named her husband, Andrew Lloyd Moffat, as the primary suspect. He operated a tyre business beside the eventual discover.
Site and later used the name Drake Lloyd Cummings while living in Vancouver and the United States. He died in 1985 and cannot face prosecution.
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The same police announcement identified Patsy Flora Lagarde as the woman found dead in a burning vehicle on Highway 401 in 2004.
Police said the two cases rank among the force’s most significant identifications using genetic genealogy.
