The Toronto 2024 Homicide Victim List is available here
Toronto police responded to a call for a missing child in the Roselawn Avenue and Marlee Avenue area on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, at approximately 11:25 a.m.
TPS said in a press release that the victim’s father contacted police from a residential building to report his four-month-old baby missing. Officers arrived on the scene and located the infant. Life-saving efforts were performed and the the infant was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
The victim has been identified as Azuri Bacchas, 4 months, of Toronto. An image of the victim has been released.
The infant’s mother, Karessa Edwards, 30, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with:
- Failure to Provide the Necessities of Life
Following an autopsy, this charge has been upgraded to:
- Second Degree Murder
She was scheduled to appear in court at the Ontario Court of Justice, 10 Armoury Street, on Monday, November 25, 2024, at 10 a.m., in room 102.
Update May 6th 2026: On the morning of Nov. 20, 2024, Karessa Edwards, reportedly experiencing auditory hallucinations, threw her young son down a garbage chute from the eighth floor of their midtown Toronto apartment building while Sadiki was out running errands. The child, Azuri, later died from the injuries he sustained.
According to the Toronto Star, Karessa Edwards was found not criminally responsible for second-degree murder because of a mental disorder, specifically schizophrenia, following a joint submission from Crown attorney Elizabeth Jackson and defence lawyer Christien Levien. A forensic psychiatrist testified that her condition was likely worsened by postpartum depression, sleep deprivation, and cannabis use.