Update: Niagara Police Homicide Unit Identified Victim After Human Remains Found Near Lake Ontario. At the request of his family, his name is not being made public.

The 2025 Ontario Homicide Victim List is available here

On Sunday, August 31, 2025, around 2:00 p.m., officers from the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) 2 District, serving Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake, responded to a report of possible human remains near Read Road along the Lake Ontario shoreline.

Upon arrival, officers discovered what appeared to be a human skull. The area was quickly secured, and detectives from the 2 District Criminal Investigation Branch took over the case, with assistance from the NRPS Forensic Services Unit.

By Wednesday, September 3, 2025, police had recovered a full set of skeletal remains from the site. The NRPS is now working closely with the Office of the Chief Coroner and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service to identify the individual. Due to the level of decomposition, no further information regarding the person’s identity is currently available.

Update September 9th: Following an ongoing investigation, detectives with the Niagara Regional Police Service have now confirmed that the victim’s death is being treated as a homicide.

The victim is described as a Black male, believed to be between 18 and 22 years old, standing approximately 5’10” to 6’3″ tall, with a muscular build. Police have not released any images.

Investigators believe the death occurred sometime between late 2021 and the spring of 2025. Due to the condition of the remains, the case is particularly complex, and forensic and postmortem examinations are still in progress.

Update December 10th 2025: Detectives with the Niagara Regional Police Service’s Homicide Unit have confirmed the identity of the human remains, the victim is a 24-year-old Black man from Toronto who had been reported missing and was last seen in May 2022.

At the request of his family, his name is not being made public.

The case remains an active homicide investigation led by NRPS detectives, with support from the Toronto Police Service. Anyone who may have information is urged to contact police at 905-688-4111, option 3, extension 1009417.