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Police Identify Woman, Child Who Died in Apparent Murder-Suicide Plunge

Posted on: Monday, 4 December 2006, 18:00 CST

By TOBI COHEN

TORONTO (CP) - Toronto police have identified but not released the names of a woman and small boy who died in an apparent murder-suicide after plunging off a Highway 401 overpass.

Police are withholding the names because they are still in the process of notifying family members. Post-mortems concluded that the woman died of multiple trauma and the boy of blunt impact head trauma.

Shocked police officers found the bodies in the westbound collector lanes in east-end Toronto at about 7:15 p.m. Sunday.

Investigators said traffic came to a standstill after several vehicles struck the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Paramedics struggled to revive the young boy, but he was pronounced dead en route to hospital.

The public manner in which the two died is rare, said University of Toronto criminology professor Rosemary Gartner.

"Women will typically suffocate, drown their children or perhaps jump off a height, but typically not in a way that would injure other people," Gartner said. "This case is unusual in that sense."

Police described the woman as black, approximately five-foot-five with a light complexion and black hair worn in braided dreadlocks.

She wore a black three-quarter length winter coat with grey lining and a small size beige or off-white, ribbed wool sweater, a black GAP jean jacket and black stockings.

The boy is described as black with a light complexion and slim build. He wore a blue nylon coat with florescent green trim, an orange hoodie and a white sweatshirt with the words "Rookie of the Year" on the front.

He's believed to be three or four years old.

While murder-suicide cases involving mothers and infants are often the result of postpartum depression, Gartner said the majority of cases actually involve older children.

Mothers, however, typically do have a history of mental illness, she said.

"I would estimate in at least 75 per cent of women who kill their children and kill themselves - easily over 75 per cent - there is either a history of psychiatric treatment, hospitalization, or strong evidence of severe depression or personality disorder or psychosis," she said.

The exact nature of the relationship of the victims in this case, however, remained unclear Monday.

Source: Canadian Press

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