National Post (National Edition)
Suit alleges son’s suicide was really homicide
OTTAWA • A family who have been fighting for 15 years to have their son’s death investigated as a homicide have launched a $12.5-million lawsuit against the Toronto police, alleging the force destroyed, concealed, replaced and ignored evidence from the scene of the death.
Dr. John Connelly and his wife Gloria are also asking a judge to rule that Toronto police should have conducted a homicide investigation into their son John Connelly’s death on Dec. 9, 2001, and want the court to now order Toronto police to reopen the case as a homicide.
According to the family, the Toronto police rushed to judgment in pronouncing their son’s death a suicide.
Connelly, 22, was in his third year of the University of Toronto’s pharmacy program when he fell from the roof of a high-rise building on Walmer Road in Toronto.
Police concluded Connelly — who was in the midst of exams — killed himself after breaking up with his fiancée and the discovery of what police believed to be a suicide note in his apartment.
But his family said Connelly had no history of mental health problems or suicidal ideation. They allege the investigation was the “most perfunctory and superficial” possible — and ignored key evidence that suggested something much more sinister may have happened.
The lawsuit follows unsuccessful appeals by the family to at least 10 provincial oversight bodies for a new investigation or a coroner’s inquest.
A Toronto police spokesman said the force intends to defend against the lawsuit.