Woman murdered in 1936 and buried underneath building is finally identified

Nearly a century after her murder, the identity of a woman buried beneath a Toronto building has finally been confirmed as Mary McLeod Moffat, a Scottish national who immigrated to Canada in 1913.

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one of Toronto's oldest mysteries

The breakthrough came through investigative genetic genealogy, a technique that uses advanced DNA profiling to construct family trees, ultimately identifying the unknown individual. Detective Michael Kelly of the Toronto Police Service described the identification as the culmination of "one of Toronto's oldest mysteries."

While police estimate Moffat's murder occurred around April 1936, her remains were not discovered until May 18, 1995, at a demolition site. Forensic examinations at the time indicated she had been intentionally buried after being struck multiple times with a hammer-like weapon. An initial homicide investigation faced challenges due to the deteriorated condition of the remains and the difficulty in obtaining a suitable DNA sample.

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intentionally buried

In 2022, police reopened the case, submitting new DNA samples for testing. Despite substantial challenges in recovering degraded DNA, scientists successfully built a forensic profile. This led investigators to Moffat's relatives, whose DNA samples confirmed her identity. Investigators now believe Moffat's husband, Andrew Lloyd Moffat, was likely responsible for her death. He reportedly lived in Vancouver and the United States under the alias Drake Lloyd Cummings until his death in 1985. This case marks one of two long-unsolved Toronto murders now closed thanks to investigative genetic genealogy.

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only small amounts of severely-degraded human DNA