Police offer $50K reward in 2009 beating death

Toronto police announced on Monday a $50,000 reward in the case of a Tamil man who was beaten to death exactly two years ago.

On the evening of July 11, 2009, Kristian Thanapalan and five friends were playing a volleyball drinking game by the baseball diamond of Glamorgan Park, near Kennedy Road and Highway 401.

After the lights went out at 11 p.m., Thanapalan, 22, and his friends exchanged words with another group who had been playing cricket in the same area, according to police.

The cricket players reportedly drove away, and Thanapalan and his friends continued playing in the parking lot.

But about an hour later, as many as 10 males approached from Antrim Crescent to the west. Police say as Thanapalan and his friends walked toward them, a second, larger group armed with bottles and bats attacked from another direction.

Thanapalan was hit in the back of the head and fell on the road. He was taken to Sunnybrook hospital where he died a short time later.

His family, who lived with him in Maple, are looking for a sense of closure, and are appealing to witnesses for help.

“Every day when we go to sleep and every day when we wake up in the morning, it’s always his memory,” said the victim’s father, Thanapalan Tharmalingam.

“Come forward and speak up and we can get the justice. It will be some relief.”

Though police did get anonymous tips about who was responsible, they want those witnesses to now come forward and testify in court.

“I need someone to say this is the person that did this.  It would nice if we had more than one person, because there’s a number of people that know what happened that night,” said Det. Doug Dunstan.

The reward expires July 10, 2012.

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