And Toronto Police say the woman slain behind Wallace Emerson Community Centre, near Dufferin and Dupont Sts., may be a grandmother who disappeared after heading out for a walk around 9:30 a.m.
“It’s possible it’s her,” Homicide Det. Hank Idsinga said at the scene Wednesday.
He said a passerby spotted the victim on the grass behind the community centre around 10:30 a.m. and called 911.
The woman was covered in blood and suffering from such severe facial trauma that police initially thought she may have been shot.
Investigators have since determined a gun was not involved, but the cause of death was not immediately available.
Idsinga said a lifeguard from the community centre rushed to help the woman and firefighters also responded.
“So first aid was being rendered very quickly after she was found,” he said.
Emergency responders were still administering CPR as they whisked the woman away to hospital, but she was pronounced dead soon after, making her the city’s 47th murder victim of 2014.
Police cordoned off the large park on the south side of the community centre as Forensics officers gathered evidence.
A large knife was recovered from a nearby storm sewer but it’s not yet known if it was the murder weapon.
Officers also visited a home on nearby Lappin Ave. after a man from the residence reported his mother missing.
Police were tight-lipped about the possible connection, saying only that the victim is “believed to be in her 50s.”
However, neighbours expressed concern for a 65-year-old grandmother, who lived in the Lappin Ave. home and went missing.
Angela Mior, a senior who lives across the street, was washing leaves away from the front of her home around 9:30 a.m. and saw her neighbour heading out for her regular walk.
“She looked at me, waved and then off she went,” Mior said. “She’s a nice lady.”
Although she didn’t know her long-time neighbour’s name, she said she spoke to the woman’s son briefly and he was visibly upset.
“He was crying, he thinks it’s his mom,” Mior said. “He said his mother always comes back home (after walking), but today she did not come home.”
The son, who also lives in the home with his wife and their toddler, was too distraught to talk to media.
It’s not the first time cops have investigated a murder behind Wallace Emerson. In 2005 a man was shot to death in the park.
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