A man found dead on a downtown Toronto church lawn in 1992 has been identified as Derek, a British-born man who moved to the city in the 1970s, after a police investigation using genetic genealogy and fingerprints.

CityNews reported that Toronto police have notified Derek’s family in the United Kingdom, ending more than three decades in which his identity remained unknown. Investigators had determined his death was not suspicious.

Police, firefighters and paramedics responded after Derek was found unresponsive on church property near Queen Street East and Church Street on Sept. 15, 1992. Despite life-saving efforts, he was pronounced dead. He carried no identification, and traditional investigative methods did not establish who he was.

The identification effort gained new momentum in 2025, when police selected the case for Project 31, a humanitarian initiative that uses DNA technology to identify long-term unidentified deceased people.

Investigators obtained a DNA profile and uploaded it to public genealogy databases in January 2026. The closest matches were distant relatives, but they pointed to roots in the United Kingdom. Police genealogists and investigators then spent months tracing family connections before identifying Derek as the likely match.

His disappearance had been reported, but that investigation was never connected to the unidentified man found in Toronto.

According to police, Derek’s lawyer reported him missing in December 1993, about 15 months after his body was discovered. The missing-person file was later closed after investigators received information that he had died on a particular date.

Police now say that information resulted from a misunderstanding: Derek had been legally declared dead after years without responding to correspondence. There was no official record establishing when or where he had died.

Confirmation came when Toronto police located Derek’s fingerprints in another country and matched them to those taken from the man found in 1992.

Derek is the 14th person identified through Project 31. Launched in 2022, the initiative targets 31 open cases involving unidentified deceased people whose DNA is available for advanced forensic testing.

Sources