Police to probe officers’ handling of disappearance

Tess Richey’s body was found last week, treated as homicide

The Toronto police professional standards unit will be examining how it handled the disappearance of Tess Richey, the force said Monday.

The 22-year-old woman, whose body was found last week in the Church-Wellesley neighbourhood and whose death has since been deemed a homicide, had been reported missing four days earlier. The announcement comes on the heels of media reports that it was Richey’s own mother who found the body.

“No mother should find their own child,” Richey’s mother, Christine Hermeston, wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post. “Not one cop searched the area where she was last seen and had they immediately checked after given the address she may have been still alive, there may have still been a chance.”

Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash would not confirm whether Hermeston found Richey, saying that is part of what is being examined by professional standards investigators.

For William Ayers, who owns the business next door, the image of 22-year-old Richey — lying facedown in her clothes, at the bottom of concrete stairs in an alley — is still clear in his mind.

“We didn’t know if she was passed out, sleeping or dead,” he told the Star.

Moments before, he’d been helping a customer in his shop. But then two women outside screamed. “Call the police!”

Ayers and his customer rushed outside. There was a body in the alley, they were frantically told. The group tried to rouse the woman, with no response. Police arrived on scene minutes later.

“Then we found out it was Tess,” Ayers said, his voice soft.

Police believe Richey was in the presence of a man somewhere on Church St. between Wellesley and Dundonald Sts. between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., shortly before her death.

The man has been described as white and somewhere between five foot seven and six feet tall, with a slim build and light-coloured short hair. Homicide investigators ask anyone with information to contact them at 416-808-7400.

Pugash did not provide any additional information on the professional standards unit, but added that the homicide investigation is ongoing and police are working hard to determine what happened. It is not unusual to have a missing persons case turn into a homicide investigation, he said. With files from Wendy Gillis and Jenna Moon