The Mysterious 1985 Disappearance Of Nicole Morin

In the interests of safety, many parents hesitate to let their kids out of their sight in public for even a short period of time. But even the most protective parents would probably feel comfortable letting their kids walk around their own apartment building. Unfortunately, familiarity isn't a guarantee of safety, something exemplified by the case of Nicole Morin.

Morin was 8 years old when she went missing from her Toronto apartment building in July of 1985, according to the Toronto Star, while she was on her way from her penthouse apartment building to meet her friend in the lobby to go swimming. Cops were baffled by her disappearance and found minimal physical evidence to help them solve the crime, per the Toronto Sun. They weren't even sure whether Morin had run away or was a victim of foul play, according to City News Everywhere.

However, that may soon change as the Toronto Police Department is putting fresh eyes on Morin's case, with homicide detectives now involved in the investigation. By searching parks and investigating new suspects, they hope to finally close this decades-old case.

When Morin disappeared, she was 8 years old, per Canada's Missing. Although investigators know that she disappeared sometime between leaving her apartment and heading down to meet her friend in the lobby, they're not sure precisely where she might have disappeared from. The fact that a child could vanish from such a small space seemed baffling, according to Toronto.com.

Sadly, The Toronto Sun reported there was a case of horrible timing in the disappearance: though Morin's building was not equipped with cameras, they were due to be installed the very day after her disappearance. Without the cameras or any physical evidence, police struggled to get a case going and suspects identified.

Though there were few leads, the case of Morin's disappearance was never closed, according to The Toronto Star, and that left a ripe opportunity for new developments in the case when, in 2020, a woman reported that she had seen Morin in a nearby park on the day of her disappearance.

The new tip led police to put more attention on the park, per the Toronto Sun. The woman who reported the sighting was only 12 years old at the time of Morin's disappearance, which may be why she waited to share what she saw for so long. She said that the man Morin was with had molested her before.

Investigators were obviously very interested in this lead. Subsequently, cadaver dogs were brought to the park, both of which independently indicated that there may be remains in a specific area of the park. Now, only an excavation will show if the dogs were correct — if they were, do the remains belong to Morin or someone else.

Other potential leads have also popped up, including suspicions that a man named Calvin Hoover, who was deemed responsible for a similar disappearance around the same time, might have had a hand in Morin's death (via the Toronto Star). Unfortunately, police won't be getting any answers from Hoover himself, who died in 2015.

Morin's case may be one of the most confusing missing person cases in Canada, but it's not the only one being reinvestigated. According to City News Everywhere, multiple old cases are being looked at again by investigators who are hoping that new technologies can crack long-cold cases.