Body in bay believed to be missing teen

Mystery surrounds fate of Mitchell Somerville, 17

Every day since Mitchell Somerville went missing on Sept. 21, his father has woken hoping it would be the day he’d get good news about his 17-year-old son.

But on Sunday, police said the body of a male teenager was found in Pickering’s Frenchman’s Bay, about 30 metres offshore. Police said they believe it is Mitchell but are waiting for forensic tests to confirm identity and cause of death.

“We don’t know the reasons this happened,” said Mitchell’s father, Joseph Somerville, between sobs, from the family’s home in Ajax. “We don’t know what happened to him.”

Police don’t suspect foul play but the investigation is continuing, said Durham Regional Police Insp. Bruce Kovack at a news conference. “Our investigators would like to find out (about) the last moments of Mitchell,” he said.

So do others close to Mitchell, including his elite17-and-under baseball team, the Ontario Blue Jays.

Star baseball player texted father to say he was heading home, but he never made it

He’d only recently joined the team as an outfielder, after spending years on teams in Etobicoke and North York. All summer, he’d been going to the gym five days a week, training with his older brother in preparation for his new team. “His big-time dream . . . was to take his shot,” said Somerville, whose family started a Facebook page after Mitchell went missing, which got thousands of views. “I feel this is like the worst tragedy you can imagine . . . he’s only scratching the surface of who he’s going to be at 17.” Most of Mitchell’s time was spent on baseball, Somerville said, adding that he also played for his high school team. But on Friday, Sept. 21, he went to meet two girls. He was last seen alone that night at a McDonald’s in Whitby at about 10 p.m. Around the same time, his father said, the teenager texted him saying he was heading home. But he never made it. The next day, a dog walker found Mitchell’s school bag in a park near the water.

“This was totally out of character, whatever’s happened here,” Somerville said. “Why was he down in that park? There’s a whole lot of something that doesn’t make sense.”

He said he doesn’t consider suicide a possibility. “He’s too happy and has too much going on,” Somerville said.

On Sunday evening, Ontario Blue Jays head coach Dan Bleiwas was at a game with a team of players older than Mitchell. Many knew the teenager, and Bleiwas was preparing to tell them the news.

“We were all expecting him to come home,” said Bleiwas, who selected Mitchell for the team. “He was a supreme athlete, with great physical ability and a real understanding of the game. Obviously, all of that’s secondary, but it’s a tragedy . . . that we’ll never get to see him grow as person, as an athlete.”