Police are combing an Ontario river on Friday after a severed head and foot were found in and near the waterway this week.
“We have a foot and a head at this point. We’ll be looking for the entire victim,” acting Inspector Randy Cowan of the Peel Regional Police told reporters Thursday in a news conference near the Credit River in Mississauga.
Cowan said the head was that of a woman and the foot had painted toenails, leading authorities to suspect it was also from a woman. However, tests would be needed to conclude they were from the same victim, he said. The foot was found Wednesday and the head on Thursday.
“Common sense tells us this is most likely related,” he said.
A cause of death had not been determined, Cowan said.
“Without a cause of death we can't call it homicide, but certainly foul play — there's definitely something amiss," Cowan told reporters.
The inspector said the body parts were likely from an adult.
“The size of the remains would indicate it is not a child,” he said. Decomposition meant the race of the remains could not immediately be determined, he said.
The remains were found about a kilometer apart along the river, which runs near Hewick Meadows Park in the city of 700,000 west of Toronto not far from Lake Ontario. Cowan said they had likely been in the river for a short time, weeks on the high end.
Police were checking into missing persons cases from the immediate area and others upriver for leads into the case, Cowan said.
The area around where the body parts were found is a quiet residential one, according to a report from CNN affiliate CBC.
The Mississauga case is the second involving body parts to make big headlines in Canada this year.
In May, a human foot was mailed to the headquarters of the ruling Conservative Party in Ottawa. Remains, but not an entire body, were also found by a janitor behind a Montreal apartment building.
Luka Rocco Magnotta, a 29-year-old porn actor, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in that case in June. He pleaded not guilty.
Body parts linked to the Magnotta case were also mailed to schools in British Columbia, according to authorities.
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Just a wild hunch. Michigan, body parts, painted toenails a man and woman in the river. Now we have the woman's head and foot with painted toenails found in Ontario river. Sounds connected to me. The murderer sure gets around. I wonder were the rest of the bodies will be found.
To our Canadian friend who said "hey, at least we don't eat each other":
Luka ate his victim, too.
Not all Americans who post here are typical...
Is she going to be okay?
“Without a cause of death we can't call it homicide, but certainly foul play — there's definitely something amiss,"
You can't call it homicie? Do you think perhaps, she cut off her own foot, then her head? Or vice versa?
Maybe she's still alive, workting as an inspector.
They are "a head" of the game.
come on now, not let lose our heads over this!
Maybe someone getting ready for the new season of Dexter.
LOL! someone is coming a part...
Im not changing my name anymore. I'm using the same one now so I can get famous and be on JIFs important commenter list.
Sorry for the victim, but these posts are hilarious!
Is this another trend of a foot being found in a shoe? Perhaps the head was in a hat.
You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you cut your head off and you shake it all about.
Maybe the guy was full and couldn't eat anymore.
Cause of death may have been related to removal of the victim's head.
“Without a cause of death we can't call it homicide, but certainly foul play — there's definitely something amiss," Cowan told reporters.
Go go politically correctness. *snicker*
"something amiss" was the body, stupid