A man who was never reported missing has finally been identified, more than three decades after his body was pulled from the waters of Lake Ontario in Toronto. The breakthrough is thanks to a cutting-edge DNA technique that is reshaping how investigators solve cold cases across North America.
Toronto police announced April 14 that the unidentified man, whose body was recovered from the Inner Harbour area of Lake Ontario on July 27, 1992, has been confirmed through DNA testing to be a man named Kevin, originally from Saskatchewan, the Toronto Police Service said Tuesday. His last name has not been publicly released.
For 33 years, Kevin had no name in the eyes of investigators. Coronial and police work at the time determined his death was not suspicious, but conventional identification methods hit a dead end. He was buried as an unknown, and the case went cold.
Those who loved him, however, never stopped wondering.
"Kevin was not reported missing, but those who loved him had long feared what had happened to him as they had not heard from him in years," Toronto police said in the press release.
The breakthrough came through investigative genetic genealogy, or IGG—a technique that uses DNA profiles uploaded to public genealogy databases to trace family connections and ultimately identify unknown individuals. In 2025, Kevin's case was selected for the approach. Investigators obtained a DNA profile and uploaded it to public-facing databases on Jan. 8.
Within five days, investigators had a name.
They tracked down relatives living in Western Canada, obtained a DNA sample from a close family member, and sent it to the Centre of Forensic Sciences for comparison. On March 9, the match was confirmed. Kevin's family was then notified and given details of his burial location.
The identification was made possible through a grant from Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General and a collaboration between the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the Toronto Police Service, private forensic firm Othram, the Centre of Forensic Sciences, and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Kevin's identification represents the 10th success story under Project 31, a Toronto Police humanitarian initiative launched in the summer of 2022. The project is named for the 31 open cases involving long-term unidentified deceased individuals for whom DNA material is readily available, with the goal of giving each of them back their name.