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.If you know anything about the murder of Margaret McWilliam on August 27th, 1987, please contact the Toronto Police Service homicide division at 416-808-7400, or at [email protected]. You can also submit information anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 416−222−TIPS (8477); or via the internet at www.222tips.com. For safety tips and resources, please visit:Canada Running Series WebsiteRunning World Running Alliance261 Fearless OrganizationCards Against Harassment Organization View source material and photos for this episode at: parkpredators.com/the-jog Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @parkpredators | @audiochuckTwitter: @ParkPredators | @audiochuckFacebook: /ParkPredators | /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck
Chapter 1: Who was Margaret McWilliam and what happened to her?
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 McWilliams? 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 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 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.
So,
Around 10 a.m. on Friday, August 28, 1987, a woman named Marion Colburn, who was the manager of an older adult's 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, 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 had them do a welfare check.
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Chapter 2: Where did the crime take place and what is significant about Warden Woods Park?
It's unclear from the source material if this individual was ever found and questioned, 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 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 Polytechnical 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.
Charlotte told Toronto Police Service's 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 hardworking 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.'"
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 Wilkes 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.
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