Man in weekend DVP death father & husband of Thorncliffe Park homicide victims

Toronto police homicide investigators have confirmed that the man who died on the Don Valley Parkway on Saturday is the husband and father of the three people found murdered in a Thorncliffe Park apartment.

Police identified him as Yusuf Osman Abdille, 50, of Toronto. Police are investigating if he has any connection to the three homicides.

The bodies of Zahra Mohamoud Abdille, 43, Faris Abdille, 13, and Zain Abdille, 8, were found in an apartment at 85 Thorncliffe Park Dr., near Don Mills and Overlea Boulevard, shortly before 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Police have not said how Abdille and her two sons died, but they have been deemed homicides.

CityNews has learned Abdille fled with her two boys to a shelter in the summer of 2013, alleging her husband abused her.

“When she arrived here, she experienced the same thing that all women experience when they come in through those doors — fear,” said Dr. Roz Roach, CEO of Dr. Roz’s Healing Centre.

Abdille and the children apparently stayed at the shelter for three weeks.

“What I can speak to is that the abuse was abuse, it had been going on for a while and that’s why she ended up having to flee.”

After the three weeks in 2013, Abdille returned to the apartment on Thorncliffe Park Drive.

“Her last contact was the beginning of this year when she came in to pick up her mail and…she presented that all was fine,” Dr. Roach said.

Coincidentally at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, members of the group Action Research and Change called on the government to ensure recommendations to stop domestic violence be implemented.

The group wants to get the annual list of women and children murdered down to zero and want appropriately funded and accessible women’s shelters to be available across Ontario.

Women’s issues critic and NDP MPP Sarah Campbell agreed the government needs to improve access to emergency shelters.

“Despite this being a recommendation for a number of years by the coroner, we have yet to see that investment,” she said. “That’s something the government can move on quite quickly.

“When women are experiencing violence in their home, they need to have options, and we need to make sure that those options are available to people.”

Dr. Roach is also calling for more affordable housing for women who are trying to break free.

“Just imagine what it could be like for a woman — then just imagine what its like for a woman and her children,” she said.

Dr. Roach said Abdille didn’t qualify for legal aid and couldn’t afford a lawyer in an attempt to secure custody of her children.

Legal Aid Ontario does have a program to offer increased help for domestic violence victims.

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