TORONTO -- A nine-year-old Toronto girl, whose sexually abused body was found in a rooming house refrigerator, was lured from a west-end park by a man who offered to buy tickets to support a school function, police believe.
Police have issued a nation-wide warrant for the arrest of a 39-year-old man using the name Michael Burns, whom they described as being white, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-9, 150 pounds and muscular with gray-streaked dark hair, a tanned complexion, decayed teeth and a sloppy appearance.
Police said Wednesday they think Sharin Morningstar Keenan was lured from Jan Sibelius Park, just 100 meters from the rooming house where her body was found, by a man who promised to buy tickets to support her school.
Sharin had earlier canvassed the neighborhood with her mother but had not sold any tickets.
Her clothed body was found late Tuesday in a still-running refrigerator in a vacant room of the rooming house, nine days after she vanished.
An autopsy Wednesday showed the murderer used his hands to strangle the girl, a police spokesman said. 'There is evidence to indicate she had been sexually molested.'
Regional coroner Dr. James Young said it was impossible to tell how long Sharin had been dead or how long she had been in the refrigerator.
Teams of detectives spent more than 20 hours in the room where the body was found, searching for evidence.
Police are convinced Burns is an alias and fingerprint experts have been examining the room, looking for clues to his real identity.
The suspect was last seen wearing a black, waist-length nylon windbreaker, gray pants and a white, star-patterned dress shirt.
A resident of the area told police he had seen the 80-pound, brown-haired youngster the day she disappeared, talking to a man in Jan Sibelius Park and later leaving with him.
The rooming house was one of hundreds visited by investigators during the initial stages of the search, police said.
Hundreds of policemen and volunteers searched for the Grade 4 pupil and 10,000 photos were circulated across the city.
After identifying the body, Sharin's father, Brendan Caron, said 'my worst fears have come true.'
Caron said he opposed capital punishment but said anyone convicted in the case 'should never be free to walk the streets again. If people were locked up for the rest of their lives, that would be deterrent enough.'
A funeral will be held Friday at a Toronto Buddhist church.
