Pod Insights Park Predators The Jog About this episode When a 21-year-old woman’s lifeless body is found in a popular Toronto neighborhood park, authorities are hard-pressed to find her killer. A mysterious shoeprint becomes a key clue for investigators, but somehow the suspect eludes their grasp.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And despite the fact that the case I'm going to tell you about today is nearly 40 years old, it still needs to be solved. There is an unknown predator who has gotten away with a heinous crime and who needs to be brought to justice. Or if they're no longer alive, at least give one Canadian family the answer to a question they've spent so many decades asking: Who killed Margaret McWilliam? The crime took place in the summer of 1987 in Toronto's Warden Woods Park, an urban green space that's situated on the eastern side of the city. According to the city's website, the landscape includes a body of water known as Massey Creek
0:43 Speaker 00 and a winding trail that cuts through the park, providing visitors with a nature oasis in what is otherwise a massive metropolitan area. If any of you listening are city dwellers or from Toronto, then you probably can picture what I'm describing. Warden Woods, like a lot of city green spaces, is a patch of thick forest right in the middle of intersecting neighborhoods and commercial roads. If you're in a car, you can get there very easily. If you're walking, biking, or even taking public transportation, you're also going to be able to find your way in and out without any problems. I mean, there's even a subway station about five minutes away from the park's northern entrance. In August 1987, a young woman using the space to exercise found out in the worst
1:27 Speaker 00 way possible that someone inside with violent intentions was watching her. And planning a crime so horrific, it remains one of the most notorious cold cases in Toronto Police Service's history. But my hope is that with the proper exposure and advances in forensic science, it won't stay that way forever. This is Park Predators.
2:31 Speaker 00 Around 10 a.m. on Friday, August 28, 1987, a woman named Marion Colburn, who was the manager of an older adults home in downtown Toronto, noticed that an employee of hers named Margaret McWilliam had failed to show up for her scheduled shift as a receptionist. And it wasn't like Margaret was just a few minutes late. She was two hours late, which to Marion felt very out of character for the 21-year-old. Because this seemed like a red flag, Marion dialed Margaret's home phone number and spoke with a homeowner who rented a modest basement apartment to her in the Scarborough neighborhood of Toronto. When that landlord checked the door to Margaret's unit, they discovered her keys were still in the door's lock and assumed she'd left them there the night prior,
3:16 Speaker 00 likely after leaving for a jog. Uneasy about what could be going on with Margaret, her manager decided to call the Toronto Police Service, then called the Metro Police, and report her missing and basically have them do a welfare check. In short order, officers started their investigation at Margaret's basement apartment, which was on a roadway in the eastern part of the city called Santa Monica Boulevard. No one answered when the officers knocked, which wasn't a good sign. So the next thing they did was conduct a full-scale search for her in the areas closest to her place, which included Warden Woods Park. And to give you just a little bit of geographical context real quick, the house that Margaret lived in the basement of was very close to the park,
3:59 Speaker 00 as well as that subway station that I mentioned earlier in the intro. So naturally, it made sense for authorities to search the green space as part of Margaret's missing person investigation. Throughout Thursday morning and afternoon, teams of officers scoured the area looking for any sign of her, but didn't have much luck. Then, around 5:30 p.m., things took a grim turn.
4:23 Speaker 00 According to coverage by the Toronto Star, investigators using tracking dogs discovered what they believed was Margaret's body in a remote section of thick forest about 100 feet away from the nearest road. A coroner quickly responded to the scene along with about 30 or so police officers who combed the area, searching for clues and potential evidence. Discoveries at the scene and subsequent findings from Margaret's autopsy confirmed she'd been struck in the face, strangled with a piece of material from her jogging suit, and sexually assaulted. The television programme "To Catch a Killer" reported that she was found face up, wearing only her socks, and her clothing and shoes had been neatly arranged in a pile near her body.
5:06 Speaker 00 According to Toronto Police Service's podcast, "24 Shades of Blue", it was clear to authorities from the get-go that Margaret had suffered a lot of violent trauma. A homicide detective named Steve Smith, who was interviewed for the podcast, said there were signs that she'd initially been assaulted closer to the trail, and then dragged up the hill and into some bushes and trees, further away from where she could be seen. Items investigators did not find with her body was a Walkman cassette player or headphones, which was something witnesses who'd seen her running in the past knew she usually took with her while exercising. Another clue that stuck out to investigators was a distinct shoe print that was discovered in the dirt close to her body.
5:48 Speaker 00 According to what Detective Smith told "24 Shades of Blue" podcast, the print belonged to an estimated size 12 shoe, so kind of large as far as shoe sizes go. It was collected and preserved because the fact that it was found at the crime scene inherently meant it was a valuable clue. That TV show I mentioned a second ago, called "To Catch a Killer", reported something quite different, though, about this shoe print. That programme said it wasn't left on the earth near Margaret. It was actually an impression on her body, meaning whoever left it behind had seemingly stepped on her or applied pressure to some part of her body with their foot in order to leave it behind. Whatever the case was, though, the important takeaway is that back in 1987,
6:33 Speaker 00 the tread for the shoe was analyzed closely, and detectives compared it to shoe brands that had been sold in Canada that particular year. After their process of elimination was complete, they determined it belonged to an AAU High Top Athletic Shoe made in Korea, which had only been sold at Bata brand shoe stores. Between 300 to 500 pairs had been sold in 1987 across 18 different stores in the Toronto metro area. This "shoe" clue sort of took on a life of its own and became so important to investigators that they dubbed Margaret's case "The Cinderella Murder", because they were spending so much time and energy trying to find an individual who wore a size 12 shoe like it. However, despite working directly with the retail stores
7:18 Speaker 00 trying to narrow down who'd purchased the sneaker, police were unable to pinpoint who it belonged to. They got about a half dozen calls from the public about this shoe, but none of those leads panned out. Which was frustrating, because in addition to the shoe impression, police had also discovered several items in the woods and tree line near the crime scene that indicated someone had been living there for an extended period of time. None of the source material goes into specific detail about what those items were, but if I was gonna take a guess, I'd probably assume it was maybe trash, or food wrappers, or perhaps personal items that weren't your average pieces of litter. Unable to do much with that observation, though, until more information came in,
8:02 Speaker 00 police officers canvassed the neighborhood where Margaret lived, looking for anyone who might have seen or heard something that could aid the investigation. A relative of the owner of the home Margaret lived in told the Toronto Star, "She was a quiet, very friendly person who liked to stay fit. She was always jogging, although people in the neighborhood were always suggesting that she be careful in the woods. She was a sensible girl, but just got out a little later than was wise." According to that same article, other people who knew Margaret's usual routine also said that most nights she historically exercised sometime around or shortly after 7 o'clock. She usually went to Warden Woods Park, and since the weather on August 27th was reportedly
8:46 Speaker 00 really nice, it made sense for her to stick to her normal routine and go running that evening. On top of that, she and her mother Charlotte were planning to travel to England for a walking tour in the near future. In an effort to prepare for that trip, Margaret had taken up jogging. She'd even told her mom that she enjoyed exercising in a green space close to where she lived. All of this information was good intel for police detectives working the case to know. It meant that whatever befell Margaret had likely occurred sometime shortly before or after 7:00 PM on Thursday the 27th. That fact in and of itself was kind of interesting because that time of day was also when a lot of other visitors with dogs or families would have been in the park.
9:29 Speaker 00 Warden Woods Park was a popular spot because it was right off of St. Clair Avenue East, a major street in the city. It had one main trail that was flanked by woods on each side and ran through the middle of the park. Beyond that was a business park and several apartment buildings. On the blog post for this episode, I've actually provided some scene photos and aerial maps of what it looked like in 1987, so take a look if you want to get a better lay of the land that I'm describing. From the start, it really wasn't a question for police what Margaret had been doing when she was attacked. Based on everything they'd gathered so far, it was clear she'd been jogging on the trail alone when the perpetrator or perpetrators struck. Toronto Police Service Detective Sergeant Steve Smith told the host of the 24 Shades
10:13 Speaker 00 of Blue podcast that investigators back in 1987 were able to determine other important details about Margaret's movements on the evening she was killed. He said that in the early afternoon, she'd left work at the older adults home she worked at called Fellowship Towers and gone back to her apartment. Then around 6:00 PM, she'd spoken to a few people either in person or over the phone. And after that, she'd gone on a run.
10:39 Speaker 00 The glaring question in everyone's mind, though, was whether a suspicious person had followed her there, or perhaps been spotted in or around the park at the same time she was there. Because Margaret was a frequent visitor to Warden Woods, investigators needed to determine if maybe whoever had killed her had been watching her prior to the attack. Maybe even well before August 27th. You know, a stalker of sorts who'd laid in wait for the opportune time to strike. It wasn't the only theory the police were considering, but it certainly was one. Other avenues of investigation were whether Margaret's death was connected to a string of sexual assaults that had recently occurred in the same part of the city. One of which had actually happened about a month before her murder.
11:21 Speaker 00 Detectives also told the press that it was entirely possible Margaret's slang was the act of a stranger, making her merely a victim of a random crime. Whatever the case was, though, there was no doubt her murder frightened women so much that they opted to avoid going into parks alone. One woman told Toronto Star reporter Dana Flavell, quote, "I probably would have done it before that McWilliam girl was murdered, but now I might think twice about it." End quote. Other women told the newspaper that, in their opinion, Warden Woods Park seemed too closed in of a green space to want to run there alone at night. In that same article, a spokesperson for a group in the city that was encouraging women to become more involved in urban planning said that the designs of many of Toronto's
12:06 Speaker 00 parks were to blame for folks like women feeling as if they were more vulnerable to attacks. The Parks Department's goal had always been to have a lot of trees and foliage in the city's recreation spaces. But that also meant the layouts were the ideal places for suspicious or nefarious individuals to lurk in. One of the first tips about this very sort of thing that came to police was from a woman who lived on Margaret Street. According to coverage by the Toronto Star, this witness told police that around 6:45 PM on the evening of the crime, she'd observed a suspicious man in the area who she described as 5'7" tall with a medium build and had short brown hair. She stated that he'd behaved rather oddly, shaking his head from side to side, and at
12:50 Speaker 00 one point crossed the street in front of her, seemingly pausing to stare at her. It's unclear from the source material if this individual was ever found in question, but what I can tell you is that in the first day of the investigation, while police were doing their thing, Margaret's parents, Ivan and Charlotte McWilliam, were notified of their daughter's murder after traveling to Scarborough to aid in the initial search for her. Also around this time, they spoke to reporters with local newspapers. The McWilliams were from the Deep River community of Ontario, about five hours northeast of where Margaret lived in Scarborough. She'd only been away from home for about a year before her murder happened. In fact, according to an article by The Ottawa Citizen, which featured an interview with
13:34 Speaker 00 Margaret's dad Ivan, she'd only been living in that basement apartment near Wardenwoods Park for about four months before she was killed. She'd moved from her hometown to the big city to pursue work and an education at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, which has since been renamed to Toronto Metropolitan University. She was scheduled to attend classes there in the fall and had a passion for culinary work and liked to cook and explore around the kitchen. Her end goal was to complete night classes at school and then eventually move back to the small town she was from to work with the elderly. About a week before her murder, her parents and 18-year-old younger brother Mike had spent some time together at their cottage in Berries Bay, Ontario.
14:16 Speaker 00 Charlotte told Toronto Police Services podcast 24 Shades of Blue that her daughter had been born prematurely, and so as a result of that, she'd faced some health issues during her childhood. But despite those challenges, she'd grown up to be a reliable and hard-working person who'd excelled academically in high school. In 1987, referring to how the McWilliam family dealt with the loss, Margaret's dad Ivan told reporter David Gamble, quote, "Margaret could not conceive of the kind of people who did to her what this man did. She was someone who was very, very special. This man has not only destroyed one person, but a whole family. We have no feelings of wanting to avenge her death. We just don't.
14:59 Speaker 00 If you had asked me a week ago about this as a hypothetical situation, I would have said I wanted to kill the man. For some reason, I just don't feel that way. I don't feel anything." End quote. In the wake of the tragedy, families and friends from the McWilliams tight-knit community in Deep River supported them as best as they could. Jim Wilks reported for the Toronto Star that at one point, Charlotte had to be admitted to the hospital to help her deal with her daughter's murder. On Tuesday, September 1st, five days after the crime, the McWilliams laid Margaret to rest at a cemetery in Deep River. As a final nod to her caring spirit and passion for the elderly, Margaret's family asked
15:40 Speaker 00 people who wanted to contribute funds in her memory to donate money to Fellowship Towers, the older adults' home where she'd worked. Two days later, residents at Fellowship Towers held their own memorial service for her. Either simultaneously or prior to working as a receptionist there, Margaret had been the facility's dining room supervisor. Her manager told the Toronto Star, quote, "She cared. She was a very nice person, who always did her best and was always enthusiastic." End quote. For a while after her death, flowers from Margaret's funeral were displayed in the lounge at Fellowship Towers. To keep the investigation from stalling out, the police set up a dedicated hotline for
16:22 Speaker 00 tips and began using a computer to log and cross-check information developed in the investigation. Now, I know to many of us listening in 2025, that might not seem like a big deal, but back in 1987, this was considered a big deal. The computer program was a tool that was very new age for detectives at the time, and it had proven successful in a serial sexual assault case the Toronto Police Service had solved prior to Margaret's murder. In that investigation, authorities were able to catch the perpetrator thanks to logging all of the information into the computer that they discovered in each of those cases. And organization was critical in Margaret's homicide investigation because one of the
17:03 Speaker 00 main ways authorities tried to gather new leads early on was by stopping cars along the roadway that she had likely jogged on shortly after leaving her apartment. According to an article by Judy Nyman for the Toronto Star, on Wednesday night, September 2nd, almost a week after the crime, about 15 officers spent an entire hour stopping every vehicle or pedestrian on Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue East.
17:29 Speaker 00 The intersection of those two streets was one of three ways you could get into Warden Woods Park and was likely a route Margaret traversed. So investigators wanted to know if anyone who normally took that route through the area might have seen something that could be important to the investigation. It doesn't appear from the source material, though, that much came from that effort, other than detectives telling reporter Cal Miller that they'd been able to successfully narrow down what route Margaret took into the park. According to investigators, they determined she left her house on Santa Monica Boulevard sometime after 7:00 PM, jogged for a few brief minutes on St. Clair Avenue East, passed the subway station entrance, and then entered Warden Woods Park.
18:11 Speaker 00 That would have been at the corner of Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue East. If it's helpful to any of you, I've provided a map that the Toronto Star created delineating this route. It's on the blog post for this episode. About 12 days into the investigation, detectives conducted a reenactment of the crime with Crime Stoppers and aired that segment on TV, hoping it would generate new leads. The one big detail I saw reported in that push for information was that the police publicly speculated that a man had attacked Margaret, which I think may have been everyone's assumption already by that point, but still, it was the first time I saw authorities come out and say that definitively. Unfortunately, though, more time went by, and police were still no closer to identifying a suspect.
18:56 Speaker 00 Anne McLeod reported for The Ottawa Citizen that detectives assembled a dedicated task force to work the case and remained hopeful that additional forensic testing on items of evidence collected from Margaret's body and crime scene would provide them with better leads. Towards late November of 1987, investigators announced they'd worked with the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit to develop a profile of the killer. According to coverage by the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen, authorities believe the guy was a young man in his mid-20s who was likely unemployed and knew the layout of Warden Woods Park fairly well. They thought he could have possibly gotten hurt during his struggle with Margaret and most likely had an explosive temper or felt a lifelong sense of rejection from women.
19:41 Speaker 00 Investigators said his motive for the crime was most likely sexual in nature, and after committing the murder, he'd probably started acting differently, perhaps more upset. That change in behavior would have been something his family and friends would have noticed. The FBI's profile also indicated that if he was married or in a relationship, it was most likely volatile. About a month before that profile came out, police got what I imagine felt like their best lead yet: a possible suspect.
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21:22 Speaker 02 My name's Jack Wagner, host of Other World, a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained. I have no idea how I got there.
21:30 Speaker 03 I don't think I've ever seen anything that looked like this. It felt like electric stars on fire.
21:35 Speaker 02 I started Other World to take a grounded approach to the paranormal, help people tell their own stories, and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but maybe one day we will. Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Other World now for free wherever you get your podcasts.
21:57 Speaker 00 Near the end of October 1987, so about two months after Margaret's murder, authorities announced they had a fairly specific suspect. They described him as a "light-skinned black man with a thin mustache" in his twenties to thirties, wearing a reddish-colored cap, who had been seen walking away from the park around 8:00 PM on the night of the crime. Whoever saw this guy worked with investigators to create a composite sketch of his likeness and attire. Once this sketch went out to the public, investigators were hopeful that folks would call in and lead them straight to the suspect. But that didn't happen. The case remained static, and Margaret's family was desperate for answers. On November 25th, Charlotte, her mother,
22:42 Speaker 00 read and recorded a letter she'd written, which ended up being more of a public plea for information to anyone who may have known her daughter's killer, like a mother, sibling, or girlfriend. It was broadcast across Canadian radio stations. And I would normally abbreviate a lengthy statement like this for the sake of time, but I feel it's important to provide the whole thing for you. Here's a voice actor to read it in its entirety.
23:06 Speaker 04 I am writing to you because I think we are both suffering. As a mother, I am suffering because I have lost my dearly loved daughter, with whom I was well pleased. I am suffering because I don't know what long-term effects his sister's death will have on my son. As a wife, I am suffering because I am closest to understanding the anguish and the pain my husband is feeling at the loss of his cherished child. I think you know who killed my daughter. I think this knowledge is causing you great pain. I think you have already suffered a great deal in your life, much more than I had up until August 28th, 1987.
23:45 Speaker 04 I don't think my pain will ever go away, but I think yours may abate if you seek help for him. Nothing is irretrievable except death. He killed my gentle child. She did him no wrong. He has caused far-reaching suffering to so many people who have done him no wrong. He must understand the suffering he has caused, and he must pay the price that society deems just for what he has done. Only then does he have a chance of being better. Only when you do the right thing for him and for yourself, do you have a chance of feeling less pain.
24:21 Speaker 00 Around the same time Charlotte issued this statement, authorities announced they were going to ask the city's police commission to set a reward for information in Margaret's case far higher than the normal amount, which was $50,000, to instead $100,000. And the city agreed. Shortly after that announcement, investigators issued a warning to the public, but specifically to women, to be on guard. Because TPS was officially linking three sexual assault cases from earlier in 1987 to the same perpetrator. However, they did not believe that this man was Margaret's killer. The police cautioned female citizens to be careful while walking or traveling at night because at least three young women had been attacked by a man in his 20s
25:06 Speaker 00 near bus stations or roadways in the city. In one case, a survivor had been dragged between two homes and assaulted, while another had been dragged into a backyard and also sexually assaulted. These incidents, though horrific, were distinctly different from Margaret's case because in all of them, the women had survived, and they described their attackers as white men. But if that wasn't frightening enough, by January 1988, yet another attack had taken place in Toronto. This time in the Scarborough neighborhood, which was the same geographic area where Margaret had lived. According to Gwen Jaco Thomas's reporting for the Toronto Star, a trio of men had broken into the victim's home, sexually assaulted her,
25:49 Speaker 00 tossed her place and stolen some of her jewelry and cash. But again, it was the police's belief that this incident, as well as the other attacks, were not the work of Margaret's killer. Because of the sheer number of attacks going on, authorities were beginning to suspect that several men could be to blame for the slew of sexual assaults happening in the city. In fact, by March of 1988, investigators came right out and said that they were sure at least three different serial sexual predators were attacking women across neighborhoods in Toronto. Between 1986 and the end of 1987, the number of sexual assaults had skyrocketed, to the point where people in the neighborhoods where they were occurring were growing increasingly concerned.
26:34 Speaker 00 In late August 1988, with some of those investigations going cold, as well as Margaret's murder remaining unsolved, organizers with Toronto's Rape Crisis Centre decided to hold their annual "Take Back the Night" march in Wardenwood's Park. It was the first time in the organization's history that the event was not held downtown. Choosing to have it at the place where Margaret had been killed was intentional. The group wanted to send a clear message that women should be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, and not feel that their lives are in danger. Ivan and Charlotte McWilliam joined the march with nearly 400 women. Charlotte gave a brief speech that brought some participants to tears. But after that event, news coverage and interest in her daughter's case
27:18 Speaker 00 seemed to wane. Toronto police detectives didn't make much headway in their investigation throughout the 1990s, despite other high-profile homicides and sexual assaults getting solved. The McWilliams remained hopeful that answers would come, but year after year went by with no arrests, and despite authorities questioning some men who'd been caught for similar crimes, they couldn't link any of those individuals to Margaret's murder. In the fall of 1997, 10 years into the investigation, Margaret was one of 50 documented female murder victims in the Toronto metro area dating back to 1959, whose case was still unsolved. Her parents had a good relationship with law enforcement at that time, and were resolved to find out who killed their daughter.
28:03 Speaker 00 But feeling like they had a purpose in what they were doing did not mean their pain or anger had subsided in the least. Ivan told Ottawa's citizen reporter Don Campbell, "Not a day goes by that I don't think about her and wonder what we might be doing. She's in our thoughts more now than ever. As you get older, you get the feeling something is missing in your life more and more. You think that this person would have filled that void. We enjoyed cycling together. We enjoyed hiking together. When it gets right down to it, I miss her as a friend." End quote. They were convinced that whoever killed Margaret had likely returned to a family of their own and lived among the citizens of Toronto.
28:47 Speaker 00 In 2010, more than 20 years after the crime, the McWilliams' hopes were teased once again when a man named Russell Williams was arrested in Toronto for several sexual assaults and murders. Coincidentally, Russell was about the same age as Margaret and had also spent time in Deep River as a child, the small town the McWilliams were from. And he'd graduated from the University of Scarborough in 1987. But despite those coincidences and the fact that he'd committed a series of similar crimes, he was never formally associated with Margaret's case or officially linked to her murder. Six years later, in April 2016, the police did a push for new information and released their own video message, which was broadcast on YouTube. In that publication,
29:32 Speaker 00 a detective sergeant who is in charge of Toronto Police Service's Code Case Unit, named Stacy Galant, announced that thanks to advances in modern forensic technology, TPS had retrieved a strong male DNA profile from some of Margaret's case evidence, which an article for the Global News later reported came from skin cells left behind on her sweater. But even in 2016, there were no matches for that profile in Canada's DNA database, which had only come into existence in 2000. Detective Sergeant Gallant asked anyone who might have known the offender back in 1987 to come forward. All detectives needed was a name. They already had his DNA, so from there, the process to do a direct comparison and
30:16 Speaker 00 aim for a potential prosecution was fairly straightforward. According to coverage by the Toronto Star, Gallant clarified that his agency did not think Margaret had been specifically targeted. He stated she more than likely was just a victim of a random attack. He said, quote, "It was more along the lines of the offender happened to be in the park as well and saw this as an opportunity because there was no one else around," or "that the suspect acted on those urges that just happened at the time," end quote. As far as who the one-time person of interest was who'd been seen leaving the park around 8:00 PM on the night of the crime, wearing that reddish-colored hat, Gallant still couldn't identify that man.
30:58 Speaker 00 As far as I can tell, to this day, no one knows who he is. That $100,000 reward for information that had once been offered had also expired by 2016. But Detective Sergeant Gallant wasn't giving up hope. He told the Toronto Star that unless the suspect had died or moved out of Canada in the years since the crime, he most likely was still living in a place that was familiar to him. For Gallant, it was almost inconceivable to think that the perpetrator had never committed another offense like what he did to Margaret. The only problem was, he hadn't been caught, so his DNA cannot be compared to the profile police had unless they could find out his name and get a direct source sample.
31:41 Speaker 00 Gallant told the newspaper in part, quote, "How do you instantly stop and never do anything again after you've done something this bad and you get away with it? But maybe, maybe he's just lying low and waiting it out," end quote. It was a realistic observation, one that detectives who came after Gallant would continue to ponder.
32:08 Speaker 02 My name's Jack Wagner, host of Other World, a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained. I have no idea how I got there.
32:17 Speaker 03 I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks like this. It felt like electric stars on fire.
32:22 Speaker 02 I started Other World to take a grounded approach to the paranormal, help people tell their own stories, and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but maybe one day we will. Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Other World now for free wherever you get your podcasts.
32:43 Speaker 00 Toronto Police Service's Detective Sergeant Steve Smith, who I've mentioned throughout this episode and who most recently was named the leader of the agency's cold case squad, stated in 2022 that over the years, his agency has done a lot of interviews with the media about Margaret's case. He clarified that in addition to the DNA profile the agency has that doesn't currently have a match in the national database, it also doesn't match any DNA samples that have been recovered from other crime scenes in country. So it's not someone whose DNA was submitted after the database was created in 2000, and it hasn't shown up as part of other crimes. Detective Sergeant Smith said that if authorities do ever get a hit for it, his agency's next step will be to chase down
33:27 Speaker 00 who that individual or individuals are and determine what exactly they were doing on August 27, 1987. His assessment of Margaret's murderer is that they were strong enough to overpower her and force her off the trail into thick brush. They also showed a level of determination that seemed calculated, and of course, brutal. He speculated to the host of 24 Shades of Blue podcast that he isn't sure if what happened to Margaret initially began as a sexual assault, but then turned into a murder, or if robbery and sexual assault were always the killer or killer's motive. The fact that Margaret's Walkman or headphones were never found makes Detective Sergeant Smith and others wonder if maybe the killer took it to resell
34:10 Speaker 00 or perhaps as a trophy. He believes that the killer was likely a large person who'd spent a significant amount of time in Warden Woods Park, one, living unhoused, or two, visiting on a daily basis to watch people who walked or ran the trail. Based on the latest news coverage I could find after 2023, it doesn't appear Toronto Police Service has said weather detectives are currently retesting old evidence again. Margaret's mother, Charlotte, told the host of 24 Shades of Blue that losing her daughter was like having her own life cut in half. She considered the murder a slash to her very existence, and even though she'd endured other losses during her lifetime, nothing compared to losing Margaret.
34:54 Speaker 00 She pleaded with anyone who might know who the perpetrator is to come forward. She believes Margaret's murderer could still be alive and likely still haunted by what he did back in August of 1987. Charlotte said that if there are any mothers, girlfriends, or significant others out there who think they might know the killer, to consider revealing what they know. Something I'm continually struck by whenever I'm covering stories like this is just the overwhelming number of cases there are of women being attacked while doing something as ordinary as running in a park. According to a 2021 survey by Runners World, 60% of the 2,000 women who were surveyed
35:36 Speaker 00 said they'd experienced being harassed while running, and 25% reported they'd endured sexual harassment on a regular basis while running. A 2024 UK study found that more than 2/3 of women they surveyed reported some kind of abuse while running. And in general, females stated they were fearful of running specifically on forest trails. When I hear statistics like this, I am deeply saddened. As an outdoor recreationist myself and a sister to a CrossFit queen and runner, it's so alarming. If you're listening and want to access more resources about this trend that can offer information about staying safe, Canada Running Series is a great place to start, as well
36:20 Speaker 00 as Running World's Runners Alliance. You can find a link to those websites and a few others in the show notes. If you have any information about the unsolved murder of Margaret McWilliam, please contact Toronto Police Service's homicide division at 416-808-7400, or email them at [email protected] . You can also anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477. Links to those contacts will also be listed in the show notes and on the blog post for this episode.
37:04 Speaker 00 Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can do a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, @parkpredators.
37:22 Speaker 00 So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?
37:29 Speaker 00 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks. The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
37:49 Speaker 05 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
37:57 Speaker 00 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
38:04 Speaker 06 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
38:07 Speaker 07 That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun. I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
38:17 Speaker 00 I'm Ava Kaufman. The Journey is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
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