Nicole Morin (Missing Person)

Tuesday July 30th 1985 was a hot day in Toronto, Canada. 8 year old Nicole Morin made plans to go swimming with a friend in one of the outside pools at the apartment complex where she lived. Nicole said goodbye to her mother at 11am, stepped into the hallway of the penthouse and vanished. The friend waited in the lobby for Nicole to come down in the elevator but she never arrived.  There are numerous theories and persons of interest in the case  but four decades on investigators are still trying to find Nicole.

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Nicole Morin

This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen.

8 year old Nicole Louise Morin lived with her mother Jeanette in a highrise condominium in Etobicoke, a district situated in west Toronto, Ontario. The complex stood at 627 The West Mall, near Highway 427 and Rathburn Road. It comprised four buildings with over 1400 individual apartments. The block where Nicole and her 50 year old mother lived had 419 units (Tough, this number varies in reports. It is sometimes said to be 429) The pair shared the two bedroomed Penthouse at the top of the 20 storey tower. Three elevators were in operation to ferry residents and guests upland down the building. 

Nicole, who was born on April 1st 1977, had a room typical of children her age during the mid-80’s. Two Cabbage Patch Dolls lay on the small, white four poster bed complete with pink and white canopy. Her walls were adorned with pictures she had drawn herself in school as well as a framed etching of Donald Duck and an embroidered prayer. Nicole’s pet rat, Bluebell, lived in a cage on a white dresser close to the bed, along with a Porky Pig lamp. 

Nicole was in grade 3 at school and described as a fun, happy go lucky character who loved McDonalds and going to fairs as well as the circus. Her parents, Arthur, or Art, and Jeanette were married for many years before they had Nicole. They thought they were unable to have children together so when they discovered Jeanette was pregnant the couple were overjoyed. For this reason The Toronto Star August 8th 1985 referred to Nicole as Art and Jeanette's treasure. 

Nicole’s parents separated in 1983. Jeanette now ran a daycare from the Penthouse apartment. She had been married before and had a son who lived with his father in London, Ontario. I think by 1985  Jeanettes son was a young adult and would come and visit from time to time. 46 year old Art lived a short 15 minute drive away in the neighbouring city of Mississauga. He worked as a driver for a dry cleaning company. The relationship between the estranged parents was somewhat strained, which is not unusual considering the circumstances.

The summer of 1985 was warm in Toronto and Tuesday July 30th was no exception. The temperature was hovering around 28 degrees celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit). Luckily the apartment complex where Nicole and Jeanette lived had not one but three communal swimming pools for the residents to enjoy. In previous summers Nicole had not been permitted to leave the apartment on her own, as she was not tall enough to reach the Penthouse floor button inside the elevator. By July 1985 the diminutive Nicole had grown sufficiently and now stood 4 ft 2 or 127 cm. She was able to move up and down in the elevator by herself, a degree of independence in which she revelled.

On the morning of July 30th Nicole had made plans with her friend Jennifer to go swimming. Jennifer lived in the same apartment block. They arranged to meet in the lobby of the building at 11.00am. At 10.30am Nicole left the Penthouse apartment and went to the building lobby to collect the mail. She promptly did this and returned to the penthouse to get herself ready for swimming. 

Just before 11am Jennifer called Nicole on the phone. Nicole said she was just about to leave. The 8 year old said goodbye to her mother at the door and stepped out into the hallway. 

Nicole was wearing a one piece bathing suit. It is variously described as light red, orange, salmon or coral in colour. The front of the swimming costume had gold and blue stripes. Nicole had on a green hair band and on her feet she wore red canvas shoes with a white trim. Nicole had with her a white plastic shopping bag with the following items:a peach-coloured blanket, a purple beach towel, a pair of green velveteen shorts with white trim, a white t-shirt with a logo, a pink handled hair brush and a pair of swimming goggles with black and yellow trim. She also had a  brown bottle of sunscreen. 

Jennifer waited in the lobby for Nicole to come down. As the minutes ticked by she saw the elevator go all the way to the top of the building and come back down to the lobby twice, but there was no sign of Nicole.  Finally after a quarter of an hour Jennifer buzzed the penthouse apartment using the internal comms sysyem to see what was taking Nicole so long. Jennifer spoke to Jeannette who told her Nicole had left already. She suggested Jennifer may have missed her and should go and look for her at the pool or playground. 

Jeanette had no inclination that anything was amiss and assumed Nicole had got distracted, perhaps she was riding up and down in the elevator as children often like to do. Anyway, Jeanette herself had her hands full with the children she was looking after as part of her day care business. 

Jennifer waited a few more minutes in the lobby but when Nicole still didn't show up she finally grew bored and went to the swimming pool. She figured Nicole would come along when she was ready. An hour after Nicole had said goodbye to her mother another boy left the apartment. He was one of the children Jeanette was looking after. He went downstairs to find Nicole and Jennifer in order to play with them. 

Over the next four hours Jeanette assumed Jennifer had eventually found Nicole and the pair were caught up playing a game. At 3pm the daycare boy returned to the apartment and told Jeanette that he had not been able to find Nicole all day. Growing concerned she sent the boy back down the building to look again for her daughter. Jeanette then called Jennifer’s mother to check if Nicole was with her. Jeanette received the gut wrenching news that Jennfier had not seen Nicole all day.

The worried mother contacted the building superintendent to ask if he could go and start a search. Jeanette was still taking care of two small babies so could not leave the apartment. Friends and neighbours began looking over the apartment complex and surrounding area. The fear was that Nicole had been in an accident.

Eventually the parents of the day care children arrived to collect them and Jeanette was able to go out and join the search. At 6pm Jeanette requested that the building manager phone the police on her behalf. I believe it was the man's wife who actually made the 911 call. Officers responded swiftly from all over the Metro area and from every division to assist in the search. 

Nicole had a dental appointment scheduled for later in the day; had she gone somewhere to avoid going? It didn't seem likely as she had attended dental check ups before and had never expressed any indication she was fearful. Even with the stress of her parents separation it seemed unlikely Nicole would run off. Nicole was not said to be  streetwise. She was not a street wise kid.

It wasn’t until the evening that Jeanette phoned Art to ask if Nicole was with him. Needless to say,she wasn't. Art had been working all day and had taken some dry cleaning to Peterborough, two hours away, via Highway 7. When told of the situation, Art immediately jumped into his van and headed for Ontario Place, as he had taken Nicole there the previous weekend. Ontario Place is a popular waterfront park situated on Lake Shore Boulevard West.  Nicole had loved it there so much,  Art figured she may have returned on her own. After looking around the park it was obvious Nicole was not there. Art and Jeanette spent a sleepless night sitting by the phone waiting for news.

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In the morning the frantic parents watched from the enclosed penthouse balcony as the search went on around the apartment complex and grounds. Three police forces were involved plus 400 volunteers from the community. The parents agonisingly tried to think of any nook or cranny around the complex that might have been overlooked. At 2pm Jeanette suddenly thought of a sewer grate behind the apartment that she wanted to check herself. A police officer who had been put on guard duty at the Morin apartment escorted Jeanette to the location. Nothing was found there.

Detectives searched the Morin apartment, even looking under the beds, just in case Nicole was hiding there. Hair samples were taken from a brush and fingerprints were lifted from Nicole's bedroom. Other items removed from the apartment included paint brushes and a plaster cast Nicole had made of her own hand as part of a school art class. Investigators took away clothes in order to give Nicole's scent to the tracker dogs. The family car which was parked in the basement lot was also gone over by officers. Both parents passed these tests.

As is standard in these cases both parents were interviewed by police. Jeanette herself was questioned by officers in the apartment, while Art was taken to the Division 22 police station. Within the first few days Art volunteered to do a lie detector test in order to speed up the investigation. Art later said in an interview with the Toronto Star in July 1988 that in the initial stage of the investigation he was suspect number one and Jeanette was suspect number two. At some stage Jeanette also completed a lie detector test. 

Following Nicole’s vanishing the estranged couple briefly reunited and Art moved back into the West Mall Complex apartment. Art told the Toronto store in July 1988 that this was primarily motivated by financial considerations, as so much of his time was being taken up by searching for his daughter. Under the stress and strain of the situation both parents looked to blame each other for what had happened to Nicole. Jeanette later admitted that she only agreed to Art moving back because she supposed that Art may have hidden Nicole and she hoped that it might get him to bring Nicole back. For his part, Art had questions he wanted answered about his wife and so travelled to speak with Jeanette's first husband. 

Suspicions also fell upon other members of the family. In 1961 Art’s brother-in-law had murdered Art's sister. He now lived a 9 hour drive away in Quebec but police travelled there to interview him. They swiftly concluded he was not involved. 

Eventually both parents and members of the extended family were offcially ruled out by police as having any involvement in Nicole’s disappearance. 

Nicole's parents were facing the reality that someone had abducted their child, but there were so many questions. Art and Jeanette could not believe that a stranger could have taken Nicole from outside the building in  broad daylight without somebody seeing something. Only two weeks previously Nicole and Jeanette had watched a TV programme about some children who got lost and didn't know the area code in order to call home.  As a result Jeanette went over with Nicole what to do if she was ever approached by a stranger. If Nicole had been approached by a stranger Jeanette and Art were sure their daughter would have created a scene. This left Jeanette telling the Toronto Star just 24 hours after Nicole disappeared that she must have known the person who took her. Jeanette believed the perpetrator may well have been watching her and obviously knew the layout of the apartment building. 

Over the first few days Jeanette was convinced that something evil had happened to her daughter, telling the Toronto Star on August 1st that she just knew someone had killed her.   Art speculated that Nicole had been attacked in the elevator, where she found herself cornered and unable to escape. 

There are a lot of confusing and contradictory sightings of Nicole from the morning and early afternoon of July 30th. I should add here that there was no closed circuit television within the apartment building. In a cruel twist of fate, cameras were due to be installed at the West Mall Complex the day after Nicole went missing. (Some reports even say it was planned for the day of her disappearance). Investigators did discover that two commercial companies had made deliveries to the building that day and they were aiming to speak with those individuals. They were keen to talk with anyone who had been in the lobby, used the backdoor or basement during the window of time in which Nicole vanished. 

Reading original newspaper reports from the time, the police were never completely sure of the timeline of events that day, and this uncertainty remains. After Nicole left the apartment at around 11am the narrative is rather murky. In an article in the Toronto Star in July 1987 Staff Inspector David Boothby of the Metro police said that while a lot of witnesses reported that they saw Nicole the day she went missing, they all contradicted each other. We can’t even be sure that Nicole even got inside the elevator as Jeanette never saw her daughter do this. The last time her mother saw her was as she stepped into the corridor outside the Penthouse apartment. In the interests of being thorough, during this episode I will share all the documented sightings of Nicole which came in during the course of the investigation.

The Toronto Star reported on July 31st 1985 that a fifteen year old friend of Nicole named Diane saw and spoke with Nicole in the apartment complex playground between 2.15 and 2.30pm. The paper reports other witnesses  saw Nicole at this time, with one stating the little girl was riding on a carousel in the park close to the pool at 2.30pm.  It does not specify but I presume these witnesses were also children. Diane also reported seeing a large, red, late model car with a man in the driving seat parked in a nearby parking lot. The man sat there for one and a half hours. Diane, who had lived in the apartment block for 8 years, did not recognise this man; he was a stranger to her.

Only a day later the Toronto Star was reporting that police were unable to substantiate the sightings of Nicole in the playground during the afternoon. It's unclear what made them doubt the information given by fifteen year old Diane and the other witnesses. In the same article one of the officers co-ordinating the search for the little girl, Staff Sergeant Donny Sampson, did confirm that Nicole was seen in the building lobby and again near the outdoor pool at around midday. However the lifeguards on duty at the pool said she never arrived to swim. As I said, it's a complicated and contradictory timeline.

The search itself incorporated many members of the public from across the Metro area. This included 70 residents of the building. Individuals and groups, like the scouts and local businesses, all offered assistance. The regular police were supported by the auxiliary police (part-time volunteers). A base of operations was set up in the lobby of the West Mall Complex. Food such as sandwiches, muffins, fruit and pop was provided by individuals and local stores to fuel the hundreds of searchers. It wasn't long before the work out grew this location and the command post moved to the basement of Division 22 police station.

Etobicoke Mayor Bruce Sinclaire offered the assistance of his staff in the effort to find Nicole. Many police officers worked long past the time their shift had finished without taking payment for overtime. The apartment block itself was thoroughly gone over, led by the building superintendent Charles Heywood. He ensured the roof, drains, elevator shafts and the basement were all combed over meticulously. Sergeant Ray Desjardins was in charge of the door-to-door inquiries. He had a team of six officers working 14 hour days to speak to the hundreds of residents. They visited every apartment five times.

Mounted police and specialised marine units were used to scour all the parks, creeks and wooded areas within 3 km, or 2 miles, of the West Mall Complex. One area focused upon was the corner of Centennial park. One officer even brought in his own tracker dog to assist the task force. An undisclosed rural location north of Toronto was searched two days after Nicole went missing following a tip from a concerned citizen. Nothing was found, but as we shall soon see, this tip would resurface many years later. 

The area around the West Mall complex was gone over again and again. The Ontario Provincial Police helicopter scanned the rooftops of nearby buildings. A mobile broadcasting unit comprising a truck and loudspeaker drove around the neighbourhood asking for people to come forward with information. Metro police crime stoppers put up a $1000 reward in exchange for information about Nicole’s whereabouts.

6000 posters were hastily put together and paid for  by the Toronto Star newspaper. 200 alone were distributed around the local neighbourhood, which incidently had always been viewed as a low crime and safe area. The poster included a photograph of Nicole and a physical description. Nicolel was 4 foot 2 or 127 cm and weighed 52 lbs or 23.5 kg. She had brown eyes and brown hair. She had good teeth with a gap between the upper front two. Nicole had a medium tanned complexion with a pea sized birthmark on her right upper forehead near to the hair line. Nicole had slightly protruding ears which were pierced. The 8 year old was said to be soft of speech. I have already mentioned what she was wearing and carrying when last seen.

In the coming weeks another image was released, showing Nicole as she had looked that morning. Jeanette Morin met with forensic illustrator Laura McGaw. McGaw had composed the sketch of Dennis Melvin Howe, a suspect in the 1983 Toronto murder of 9 year old Sharin Morningstar Keenan. As an aside, Keenan now in his eighties still remains at large, though I don’t believe he is considered a suspect in Nicole’s case. The picture of Nicole used water colours to bring out the bright swimming costume she was wearing.               

Needless to say for Art and Jeanette this time was unbearable, but there was one woman who knew exactly what the pair were going through. A few days after Nicole's disappearance, Janet Jessop from Queensville, Ontario, reached out to the Morins to offer support. Janet’s 9 year old daughter Christine had been abducted and murdered on October 3rd 1984.

That day Janet, together with Christine’s older brother Kenny, had gone to visit Christine’s father Bob, who was in custody at Toronto East detention centre. Christine was left at home as regulations meant she was too young to visit. Christine arranged to play with a friend in a local park. The friend waited but Christine never arrived. On New Year’s Eve 1984 Christine's body was found in a field in the Sunderland block township, around a 50 minute drive from her home. She had been stabbed and there was clear evidence of sexual assault. Semen was found in her underwear.

In August 1985 the police had a neighbour of the Jessops a, a 22 year old man named Guy Paul Morin (no relation to Nicole’s family), in custody for the crime. As we shall discover, Christine's case was far from over; many decades later it would be revealed that Nicole and Christine’s case could be connected. More on that later. After Nicole disappeared Janet Jessop just wanted to do everything she could to help Art and Jeanette. The Morins did meet with Janet and her son Kenny. It was helpful for Art and Jeanette to talk with someone who had gone through what they were experiencing. After meeting with the Morins, Janet and Kenny even went out and joined the search for Nicole. 

The police were struggling to find any leads, with Staff Sergeant Dan Sampson saying on August 1st that, “we’ve got nothing”. The Metro police said it was very unusual not to find anything in a missing person case like this. Police did publicly voice a theory they were considering that Nicole had been abducted from the elevator. This was a fear that, as I have mentioned, Art had already openly shared.

Five days after Nicole disappeared the police finally were given a potential clue. On Saturday August 3rd a couple walking their dog in a field in Bradford, a 45 minute drive north of  Metro Toronto, found a green headband. It looked similar to the one Nicole had been wearing when she left the apartment. Jeanette Morin studied the headband and said it was the same size and colour as her daughter’s. The finding of this green headband is mentioned from time to time in coverage of the case but I can't find out if it was ever 100% identified as belonging to Nicole.

Around this time the police refocused their search specifically back to the West Mall apartment block. A roadblock was set up on Saturday August 3rd and all cars leaving the complex were searched. The police declined to make public what made them switch their focus back to the building itself and away from the surrounding area. The following information may shed light on their decision. 

There was yet more information released concerning Nicole's whereabouts on the day she disappeared. Originally police had said there was no proof that Nicole had ever made it to the swimming pool that day. They now said they had obtained evidence to the contrary. Police believed Nicole was at the pool in the early afternoon, though they did not know if she was with someone or alone. It was speculated in the press this was the reason for the refocusing on the West Mall complex. 

Police added that they were looking for a man who apparently saw Nicole after she left the apartment that morning. This man had left the country in the days after the disappearance and investigators were struggling to trace him. It's odd because modern reporting on the case does not seem to mention this detail. It might well be that this man was tracked down and ruled out. 

Shortly after this the Metro police brought in two homicide specialists to familiarise themselves with the case as it stood. Staff Sergeant James Jones and Sergeant Tony Warr. They joined a 17 member investigative team already hard at work. After this operational change the Metro police were keen to stress that they had yet to find any evidence of foul play. These officers were being brought in case they would be needed. 

Art Morin and the family were trying to remain confident Nicole would be found alive. The finding of the headband spurred on the family and Art announced that he would be mortgaging the Penthouse apartment to raise a $50,000 reward fund. Seeing the family offer to make such a sacrifice, Crimestoppers, a relatively new organisation at the time, stepped in and were able to raise the money on the family’s behalf. The Metro police matched the donation. The reward stood at $100,000 for the safe return of Nicole. 

Sadly the investigation was set back by harassing and malicious telephone calls. A man telephoned police on Tuesday August 13th and said Nicole’s body could be found in an area off Featherstone Drive in Mississauga. 20 Officers spent many valuable hours searching the spot and found nothing. The caller had given deliberately false information. The call was traced back to a 64 year former police officer, who later pleaded guilty to the offence.

At the end of September 1985 police released information about a person who was seen in the West Mall apartment building on the morning Nicole disappeared. As yet they had not been able to track this person down.  They were looking for a  woman who was seen in the Penthouse hallway by a neighbour of the Morins shortly before Nicole left her apartment. She was described as 35, 5 ft 5 or 165 cm, with dark blonde, shoulder length hair. She was wearing a white skirt with black pattern. She had on a white or cream coloured short sleeved blouse and cream high heel shoes. At this time police stressed the woman was not a suspect but could well be a valuable witness. 

The search for Nicole was then taken in a new direction when a man named Alfred Ward, purporting to be a psychic, said he believed the girl's body could be found in a wooded area in east Oakville, Mississauga. Art Morin himself led a group of 50 volunteers as they scoured the open countryside. This was an unofficial search not backed by the police. Ward provided a sketch of the spot to guide the search team. A bag of rubbish was discovered in a small lean-to shelter which had been built by local teenagers. After the contents had been gone through, it was not deemed to be connected to the case. Nothing else was found during this search. 

Not long after, an official search by police took place near Pearson international airport. This is about a 24 minute drive from the West Mall complex. 50 officers focused on the west end of the airport and an area near to Etobicoke Creek. Police would not reveal what had led them to this new spot and would not clarify if it was based on old information or a recent tip. Staff Sergeant Bary Donovan told reports to draw their own conclusions. The family also said they did not know why this area was being looked at. Regardless, the search proved fruitless.

Nine months after Nicole vanished the task force that had been established to find her was disbanded. Over the last few months the task force had slowly been whittled down from 20 officers, but apparently there  wasn't even enough work for them to be getting on with. 

25,000 staff hours had been spent and 500 people had been questioned. The operation had so far cost $2 million dollars. Hundreds of leads, tips, anonymous phone calls and letters had been investigated. Hundreds of sex offenders had been looked at and several were determined to have been in the area at the time. Some became persons of interest but all of them were cleared. There was enough documentation to fill two large filing cabinets, yet the investigators had nothing concrete to show for it. On July 30th 1985 the West Mall apartment complex had been full of people, yet apparently no one had seen a thing.

Interestingly what police did divulge at this juncture was that they were working on the premise that Nicole wasn't attacked in the elevator but rode safely to the lobby. What they didn't know was whether she had been abducted from inside or outside of the building. Information was released about a woman who said she had travelled down to the ground floor with Nicole on the morning of July 30th. She witnessed Nicole walk out into the lobby. The woman continued to the basement where her car was parked. The women heard nothing about Nicole going missing until that evening when a police officer knocked on her door and showed her a photograph of the girl. 

At the time police said they believed this information was reliable and the unnamed woman was officially listed as being the last person to see Nicole. This is a detail that is not often cited in  reference to Nicole’s case. It seems investigators may well have changed their mind about the reliability of the information. Perhaps the woman was referring to the time Nicole travelled down to check the mail before she returned to her apartment to get ready for swimming. In a Toronto Star article in September 1986 it says Nicole's mother Jeanette was the last person to see her daughter.

As a note, this unnamed woman was not the woman seen by a neighbour in the Penthouse hallway. Police made the point of saying she had never come forward, something which they could not fathom if she was innocent.

 As the one year anniversary of Nicole’s disappearance approached it was the Morins’s turn to offer support to another grieving family. 

Alison Parrott loved to run and was an up and coming athletics star. The 11 year old  disappeared in Toronto after receiving a phone call from a man claiming to be a photographer wanting to do a shoot of her in her sports gear. The man made an appointment to meet her near Toronto University. In the weeks prior to the abduction the Parrott's babysitter reported that a man had phoned the house on a previous occasion saying he was interested in taking photographs of Alison. Two days after Alison went missing her body was found under a bridge near the Humber River in Toronto’s west end. Thirteen years later this case would be solved using DNA evidence. More on this later, as it does impact Nicole’s case.Insert Alison

Art Morin continued his own efforts to find his missing daughter. He wrote to politicians, both regional and national, TV stations and newspapers from all over North America to ask for help. His quest even went international with 5000 posters being circulated to Canadian embassies and consulates across the globe. In May 1986 carnations were provided by a local flower market and sold at $5 each in order to raise funds for these endeavours. Art wanted to produce more posters and even hire a private investigator. The Nicole Morin Trust fund was set up and all together $26000 was raised, with $15000 going on a PI who specialised in finding missing children. The PI started working on the case on June 2 1986.

The Metro police were not happy with Art's decision to do this and released a statement saying they did not support this action or condone asking the public to give money for this purpose. They argued that despite the disbandment of the task force there were still 7 Metro officers working the case. Art was adamant that a PI was needed as the police did not have the specialist experience to handle these kinds of cases.

In October 1986 Art was hoping to procure the services of another Private Investigator. In 1972 PI Jay J Armes had successfully orchestrated the release of actor Marlon Brando’s kidnapped son, Christian. He was expensive and charged $140,000 a case so Art was aiming to raise the money to hire him. I'm unsure if Armes did ever work Nicole’s case.

For their part, in September 1986, police took the unusual step of completing another round of door to door inquiries in the West Mall complex. Residents were asked if they had noticed anyone who had changed their habits or behaviour since Nicole went missing and whether they remembered any visitors staying in the building at the time. It was thought that at the time Nicole went missing someone may have felt trapped into covering for a friend. With the passing of time it was hoped allegiances may have altered. 

On the two year anniversary of Nicole going missing Art Morin voiced that he was 80% sure his daughter was still alive. Part of this belief was based on a note found by police during their search of Nicole’s bedroom in the days following her disappearance. The note was hand written by Nicole and said “I am going to disappear”. Investigators had dismissed the note and viewed it as nothing more than evidence of Nicole's creative imagination. Art wasn't so sure. 

Art thought his daughter may have had prior knowledge of a plan to take her away. As mentioned, at the time Nicole went missing Art and Jeanette had been separated for two years and there was tension between the parents. Art claimed that after condo fees and taxes he did not have enough money to live on. There had been a court case to settle the dispute over maintenance payments. Had an upset Nicole unjustly felt as though she was to blame for the conflict in her parents' lives? 

In 1985 Art was attending what is described in the Toronto Star as a fundamentalist church. Some people at the church were aware of the situation going on in the Morin family. In an interview with the Toroanto Star on July 7th 1987 Art speculated that perhaps someone from the church had tried to intervene and remove Nicole from the family. Art told the newspaper about a woman who attended one of the court hearings concerning the dispute over the maintenance payments. The woman sat at the back of the court but Art did not know who she was. He had not been able to ascertain her identity.

Apparently people at the church were looked into but it was concluded that no one there had anything to do with Nicole's disappearance. 

Art and Jeanette split up in July 1987 and officially divorced in 1989, though both were equally determined not to give up their search for Nicole.  There were a few possible sightings and tips that briefly raised hopes.  40. 38 Though they all came to nothing.  One Report came in of a 9 year old girl living on Vancouver Island who had a similar sounding first and last name to Nicole. The lead was checked out but it was not Nicole. Later another sighting came in from Quebec of a girl who looked strikingly similar to Nicole. Again this was followed up but led nowhere.  

In July 1988  in Ontario there was yet another frightening incident involving a small child. An 8 year old girl was abducted from an underground parking lot in the Caledon area of Oakville and driven 45 minutes south to a field in York where she was sexually assaulted. Her attacker then let the little girl go near Highway 27. Staff Inspector David Boothby said there were similarities to the cases of Nicole Morin and Alison Parrot. The survivor of the assault was able to provide the following description: her attacker was a white male with short blond hair and light brown eyes. He had a mole on one cheek. He was wearing a pin striped shirt, blue trousers and a tie. The man had a scar on his right wrist and right palm near the thumb. He wore a grey watch and was driving a brown car. As the name of the survivor was not given, for obvious reasons, I am unsure if this man was ever tracked down or if he committed other offences. 

 Later in the summer of 1988 a psychic who went by the name Nora of the North (real name Linda Mckay) told Jeanette that Nicole was alive and living in a rural location west of Calgary. The Calgary Herald reported on August 8th of that year that Jeanette had contacted Nora of the North for help but had not told the psychic about Nicole. Through their conversations Nora had informed the desperate mother that Nicole was now living under the name Deborah. She said Deborah was living on a farm near a town with a man and woman aged in their 40’s or 50’s. What Nora didn't know was the name of the town, though she said it was named after a flower or weed. Nora drew a map for Jeanette and circled eight possible locations. The Royal Canadian Mounted police (RCMP) did check out this information but found no evidence it was true.

On his part, Art thought it a waste of time and dismissed the claims of Nora of the North. He said he didn't believe in psychics. I wonder if that was because of his own earlier experience. The Toronto police were also unimpressed by the tip. Staff Inspector David Boothby believed that in all likelihood Nicole had been murdered.  

A couple of months after the furore concerning the claims of the psychic yet more startling news came to the fore. A 41 year old man with the initials L L R from New Hampshire, USA was arrested on August 20th 1988 on the Maine/New Hampshire border for sexual misconduct. The man was of no fixed abode and gave himself the moniker, “The Interstate man”. When his car was searched by Maine police a diary was found which included references to several unsolved homicides from across the USA and Canada. During questioning LLR claimed he had been involved in the kidnap of Nicole Morin but he had given her to someone else. He confessed to having killed 30 people and said he was involved in taking numerous children. 

After further questioning police were sceptical of “The Interstate man’s” claims of being a serial killer. He was was later found guilty of rape and remains on the Maine sex offenders registry but he was never charged in connection with Nicole’s disappearance. 

A person of interest came onto the scene with the solving of another longstanding Toronto cold case. In 1999 Franicis Carl Roy was given a life sentence for the 1986 murder of 11 year old Alison Parrot. On July 25th of that year, then 29 year old Roy posed as a photographer and abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Alison. At the time he was on parole for the rapes of a 19 year old woman and 11 year old girl. Like Alison Roy was a keen runner and used the same track facilities as the little girl. Roy was questioned by police in the initial stages of the investigation but claimed he had been running at the track before going to a bar. 

Despise being discarded as a suspect in Alsions murder Roy was found guilty of the two rapes and spent time in prison. After release he then moved to Vancouver and unbelievably obtained a job as a youth counsellor. He lied about his qualifications and no one looked into his background. In 1989 he moved back to Toronto had police started to eye him with suspicion. Another man, who himself was under arrest, said detectives should look at Roy for a series of murders of young women. All the women were sex workers.  Roy was never charged with these crimes but his name remained on file with the police.

Following a review of Alison's case in 1996 Roy’s name came up and it was soon discovered that there were inconsistencies in the albi he had given. Police decided to follow Roy in order to try and obtain a sample of his DNA. This they were able to successfully do and it was compared with semen found in Alison's body. It was a match. Roy came up with a truly outlandish and disgusting excuse for why his semen was found inside Alsion. I'm not going to repeat it here. Suffice to say the jury didn't buy it and found Roy guilty. An appeal against his conviction was dismissed in 2003.

Police investigators told television news that Roy was now being looked at in connection with Nicole Morin’s case. In relation to Nicole, no charges have ever been made against Roy but I’m unsure if he was ever officially ruled out. His name does not seem to have been mentioned by police in connection with Nicole's case in a very long time.  In November 2023 Roy’s first attempt at parole was rejected. The 66 year old’s claim he no longer had any deviant sexual fantasies was contradicted by the evidence of prison staff. He remains behind bars.

In July 2014 a social media campaign was launched by the police titled, Find Nicole. A very short re-enactment video of Nicole leaving her apartment was also released. The desire to finally crack the case came after Toronto police received a tip earlier that year that astonishingly suggested Nicole may still be alive. If true she would have been 37.

The renewed interest in the case motivated a person who had provided a tip back in 1985 to make contact again with the police. According to a piece by CTV news on October 8th 2014  the tip led to an area north of Toronto being searched just two days after Nicole vanished. At the time nothing was found but all these years later the information this person had shared continued to play on their mind. The substance of the tip is not known but I'm guessing it was based around something odd the person witnessed.

At the end of October 2014 40 officers were involved in searches near the township of  Springwater, a community 1.5 hours drive north of Toronto. Specifically ditches along Old Second Road South off Horseshoe Valley Road were examined. This location is 20 km north of the city of Barrie, Ontario. According to the aforementioned CTV article the police believed it was unlikely they would find anything but they wanted to be thorough.

2020 witnessed significant developments and the emergence of a person of interest in the case. As I referred to earlier, in October 1984 9 year old Christine Jessop was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered. Her mother Janet and brother Kenny helped to support the Morin family in the aftermath of Nicole going missing. The Jessop's neighbour Guy Paul Morin (as I said before no relation to ncioel’s family) was arrested for the crime against Christine. He was put on trial for the murder in January 1986 but acquitted. After an appeal by the Crown, Morin was tried again in 1990. 

After two long years he was found guilty of the murder. Many people felt a travesty of justice had taken place and Morin was innocent. After a well organised campaign to exonerate Morin in January 1995, DNA evidence taken from semen found in Christine’s underwear proved without doubt he was not the perpatrator. It was the first occasion in Canadian legal history that a person had been exonerated through DNA evidence. It led to a public inquiry which saw the tunnel vision employed by the investigators in this case came under heavy criticism.

In October 2020 this same DNA evidence pointed to a man named Calvin Hoover as Christine's killer. At the time of Christine’s murder Hoover was 28 years old and was a friend of the Jessop family. Hoover's then wife worked alongside Christine's father, Bob and he had baby-sat for the Jessops in the past. Hoover's two children would regularly play with Christine and her brother and it came to light that Hoover had been at the Jessop’s house just a couple of days before Christine’s abduction. Hoover was also one of only a few people who knew Christine's mother and brother had gone to visit Bob in the detention centre that day, leaving Christine alone. Hoover was linked to the case after a second cousin once removed named Ken uploaded his own DNA to a public website. Ken constructed a family tree and his research was praised as being influential in finding the alleged killer of Christine

Unfortunately, Hoover could not be brought to justice as he was deceased. In 2015 his son went to his father’s rural home in Port Hope to find him hanging in the garage; the car engine had also been left running. If he had been alive the police stated that he would have been charged with Christine's murder.  Hoover's DNA was on file as a sample was taken at his autopsy.

Police described Hoover as a self centred man who liked to drink and gamble. He treated his own family with utter disregard and contempt. After killing Christine, Hoover got divorced and then remarried. His second wife died in 2009. 

Investigators looked into Hoover’s history. He did not have any previous criminal convictions for sexual assault, though he did have a charge of drink driving against him in 1996 for which he was found guilty. The question was could Hoover be responsible for any more violent unsolved crimes?

Following the revelations about Hoover, Detective Sergeant Steve Smith, who had led the investigation into Christine Jessop’s murder, joined the team working on Nicole’s case. There were obvious similarities between the two cases. Both girls were of similar ages and lived maybe a 45 minute drive from each other. Hoover lived in Scarborough which was roughly halfway between the two locations. Hoover was employed by a phone company and worked all over the Greater Toronto area. He would have had access to a van which would have been the ideal vehicle for abducting children and then hiding them from sight. After Hoover killed Christine Jessop and seemingly got away with it without suspicion, did he go after another child?

Hoover’s DNA was run through databases in Canada and USA but no hits were found. Obviously in Nicole’s case there is no DNA evidence with which to compare. 

Investigators working Nicole’s case got to work trying to to cross reference Hoover's work schedules and delved into vehicle records to determine what he was driving in July 1985

2022 saw the case notes in Nicoole’s file digitised for the first time. While going through the wealth of documents, investigators were drawn to a piece of information that suggested Nicole’s body could be found at a location north of Toronto. This was not based on new evidence but rather a reexamination of the 2014 tip. Between May 30th and June 3rd 2022 officers returned to the area searched in 2014 to look for human remains. The search team was from a new operation named Project Finic (short for Find Nicole). Detective Stella Karras who was in charge of project Finic stated plainly that the case was being investigated as a homicide.  Investigators were confident evidence related to the case could be found at the spot. Their priority was to find a body and hope that DNA evidence might be available to hunt down the killer. Detective Karras added that they had not zeroed in on one particular suspect. It was revealed in the The Toronto Star that this search was based on a supposition that Nicole’s disappearance could be connected to the Christine Jessop murder. Detective Karras confirmed that Calvin Hoover remained a definite person of interest in Nicole’s disappearance and presumed murder. As of yet they had failed to find any solid links between Nicole and Hoover but Karras was hoping to talk with Hoover's ex-wife. 

A couple of weeks later another search was carried out at an undisclosed park in the Etobicoke area of West Toronto. This search was carried out by the Canada wide volunteer group “Please Bring me home” based on information given by a woman who came forward in 2020. The woman was a girl of 12 when Niicole went missing and said she had seen Nicole with a man she knew in the park on the day she vanished. The woman said she had not spoken up before because of fear. The man had sexually molested her as a child. 

45% of the park was searched by cadaver dogs from the Black Tracks K9 corporation. The Toronto Star reported that the dogs did indicate they had found something, Obviously there is no guarantee that this was Nicole’s body and as of the recording of this podcast in January 2024 her remains have not been discovered. 

There are plenty of theories and apocryphal stories about Nicole’s disappearance online. One website claims to have identified Nicole's face  on a CD-Rom compiled by a Dutch paedophile ring. It was seized by authorities in 2005. As far as I am aware this has never been conclusively proved and I imagine it would be nigh on impossible to do so. Other people are convinced she was abducted by a resident of the West Mall apartment block. 2005 Toronto police superintendent Tony Warr, who worked the case from early on, does not think Nicole was taken by a random stranger. He thinks it was someone who lived in the building. Rather unhelpfully, someone has shared online the supposed names of the people who lived in the apartment building. Obviously these names may not be correct but even if they are, actions like this run the risk of innocent people being accused of things they had nothing to do with. 

The search for Nicole is the largest missing person investigation in Toronto's history. It deeply affected the many police officers and volunteers who worked on the case. Nicole’s mother Jeanette passed away in 2007 following a heart attack. She never gave up hope of seeing her daughter again. I believe Art still lives in the Toronto area. He has not spoken a lot publicly in the last decade or so but on the 30th anniversary of Nicole's disappearance in 2015 he said he hoped the mystery of what had happened to his daughter would be solved in his lifetime. Throughout the researching and writing of this podcast I have had Art in the forefront of my mind. As a father I cannot begin to imagine what he had gone through. He has done all in his power and then some to find his daughter. I really hope he is granted some peace. There is undoubtedly someone out there who knows and they need to come forward.

As recently as May 2023 Detective Sergeant Maelaine Tretter stated that the Toronto police have not given up the search for Nicole. One full time investigator continues to work the case with other officers supporting when needed. No one has ever been arrested in Nicole’s case,  let's hope this sad state of affairs is rectified and soon.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Nicole Morin you can contact the Toronto Metro police on 416-808-2200, Crimestoppers on 416 222 8477 or online at 222.tips.com.

Sources

http://tinyurl.com/5yanytzs