LGBTQ men go missing in Toronto
TORONTO — The disappearances of several men linked to Toronto’s LGBTQ community have prompted police to set up a special investigative team, the force said Friday.
The team’s mandate is concentrated on two cases, which were reported this year, but a police spokeswoman said new evidence could lead the force to reopen past investigations into three similar instances of missing men dating as far back as seven years.
Meaghan Gray said a review of the first three disappearances, which took place between 2010 and 2012, did not establish a connection with the two most recent situations.
Now that more resources are being dedicated to the 2017 disappearances of Selim Esen and Andrew Kinsman, however, she said that could change.
“By this afternoon we could have new evidence that comes forward that would make that connection,” Gray said. “It’s never being ruled out as a possibility. It’s just as of our work today, we’re able to say that there’s no connection.”
Esen and Kinsman went missing this year from the outskirts of the Church Street and Wellesley Street area, a neighbourhood popular among the city’s LGBTQ community.
Esen, 44, was last seen near there in mid-April. Kinsman, 49, vanished from its eastern boundary in late June.
Police said it is out of character for both men to be out of contact with their loved ones and have classified both cases as suspicious.
Both men were familiar with the neighbourhood that’s home to many of the city’s gay bars and a major LGBTQ community centre, and both were believed to be using dating applications at the time they went missing.
The three previous cases also bear striking similarities to the 2017 disappearances. Those also involved men in the same age bracket known to be fixtures of the neighbourhood.
Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, disappeared from the heart of the neighbourhood in September 2010, to be followed by 44-year-old Abdulbasir Faizi vanishing from a location blocks away less than three months later.
Almost two years went by before Majeed Kayhan, 58, vanished from the neighbourhood in October 2012.
Two months after Kayhan disappeared, police convened an investigation dubbed Project Houston to examine all three cases at once.
Gray said the 18-month-long probe yielded neither suspects nor leads into the men’s fate.
While police do not have any evidence to suggest the cases of all five men are related, Gray conceded that members of the LGBTQ community are concerned and pushing for answers.
Greg Downer, who knew Kinsman, has organized a meeting for the community next week for people to air their anxieties.