‘Words cannot explain what I feel,’ says mom of slain teen
Father’s whereabouts a mystery a week after Simone Reid’s death
When Simone “Shanni” Reid told her mom she wanted to become a police officer, Karlene Palmer couldn’t help but fear for her youngest child, aware of the dangers of the job.
But her daughter was fresh out of high school at Toronto’s William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, enrolled in Police Foundations at Centennial College, and determined.
“I was scared about that, but that’s what she wanted to do, so I said to go ahead,” Palmer said in an interview from her home in Jamaica on Thursday.
“She listened to her father. Everything he tells her to do, she listens. She doesn’t go out, she doesn’t party, she doesn’t drink.” SHANDA REID SIMONE’S HALF-SISTER
It was Reid’s absence from college Friday that first signalled something was wrong in the life of a teenager repeatedly described by family and friends as funny, fun-loving and always friendly.
Reid maintained connections to Canadian friends and those in her native Jamaica through daily contact — but as calls and texts to her went unanswered Friday, police began investigating at the Scarborough apartment the teen shared with her father.
Inside, they found Reid unconscious, not breathing and with obvious signs of trauma. She was pronounced dead at the scene, though homicide detectives have not yet released the cause of death.
Her father, Winston “Paul” Reid, 49, has been missing since the day the body was discovered.
His whereabouts is now “the million-dollar question,” said Whoston Wray, a close friend of the family, who says relatives and friends have failed to make contact.
Police, too, have been seeking Paul Reid, issuing a plea last weekend for the public to call in any sightings of him or his blue Toyota Sienna minivan, licence plate BKSK 765.
But police do not have sufficient information to call Paul Reid a suspect, said Toronto police homicide detective Ted Lioumanis. As he was one of the last people to see her alive, police need to speak with him.
On Thursday, forensic investigators continued to examine the crime scene at Reid’s apartment at 3275 Sheppard Ave., near Warden Ave. and Hwy. 401. Lioumanis says investigators are seeking any clue to explain what could have happened to a “great kid.”
Detectives do not have any information about possible suspects, although Lioumanis stressed the investigation is in its infancy.
As word travelled from Canada to Jamaica that Reid was dead, Palmer’s instinct was to repeatedly call and text her daughter, in disbelief.
“Words cannot explain what I feel, honestly, there’s no word. She is my youngest child,” Palmer said. “I cannot explain it. But I’m a Christian, and that’s just what’s keeping me. I’m praying for myself and others are praying for me.”
Palmer said she has had no contact with Paul Reid since her daughter’s death. She was texting with Simone on Wednesday night and said there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
Shanda Reid — Simone’s 26-yearold half-sister, who lives in Toronto — is trying to think of every possible place their father could be. “If I knew, he would be found right now. But I just don’t know,” she said.
“She listened to her father. Everything he tells her to do, she listens. She doesn’t go out, she doesn’t party, she doesn’t drink. She was so focused on school; that’s the kind of person she was,” Shanda said.
Reid’s death has been especially hard on her 10-year-old half-sister in Toronto. She has been taken out of school and is frequently going off on her own and crying.
“The whole family is destroyed. It’s not just Shanni’s life that was taken away, it’s all of our lives. She didn’t deserve it.” Wray has started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the estimated $12,000 cost of transporting Reid’s body back to Jamaica for burial.
Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca or 416-869-4894.