On Sept. 16, 2021, the Toronto Police Service was called to the area near 30 Carl Hall Road. A construction crew installing a fence had found a human skull in thick brush near the new fence line. Police, under the supervision of the Office of the Chief Coroner, cut back the brush to reveal the skeletal remains of a person.
The death investigation by the Office of the Chief Coroner/Ontario Forensic Pathology Service and Toronto Police Service determined that the death was not suspicious. The examination indicated that the unknown man had likely been deceased for several years prior to discovery.
Attempts to identify him through conventional investigative techniques proved unsuccessful.
In 2022, this case was selected for investigation using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). A DNA profile of the unidentified man was obtained and uploaded to public-facing databases on Dec. 21, 2022.
The man’s DNA matches indicated that he was Indigenous, with distant relatives across Ontario and the Great Lakes region. DNA comparisons were conducted with relatives of other missing Indigenous men, but the man remained unidentified.
Investigators determined that the man could be Willard Duval. Willard Duval was last seen in May 2017 and reported missing in February 2018.
After several months of collaboration between Toronto Police Service investigators and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, medical imaging records confirmed that Willard Duval was the previously unidentified man.
Investigators tracked down Willard’s niece and informed her of his passing. Willard’s remains were buried with his brother on April 25, 2026.
This investigation was made possible through a grant provided by the Ontario Solicitor General, and the collaborative efforts of the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the Office of the Chief Coroner, the Toronto Police Service, Othram, and the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
This is the eleventh person identified from the Toronto Police Service’s humanitarian initiative"‘Project 31."
Project 31 began in the summer of 2022. It was so-named for the 31 open Toronto Police Service cases involving long-term unidentified deceased people for whom DNA material is readily available.
The goal of Project 31 is to identify all 31 people through the vigorous use of DNA-based investigative techniques, including investigative genetic genealogy.
Republished courtesy of Toronto Police Service