Unsolved murder of 12-year-old in 1959 is Toronto police’s oldest cold case
Posted November 22, 2021 10:41 am.
Last Updated November 22, 2021 10:46 am.
This week on Tracking a Killer: The Cold Case Files, CityNews reporters Fil Martino and Madison Fitzpatrick take a look at the oldest case Toronto police have on file.
Patricia Lupton was just 12 years old when police found her off the roadway on McCowan Road, south of Ellesmere in the Scarborough area of Toronto on March 9, 1959. She was suffering from injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Over 60 years later, no one has been arrested in connection with her death.
Detective Steve Smith with the Toronto police Cold Case Unit said Patricia received a call at her home about a babysitting job from a man who identified himself as Johnson.
“She was invited to come down to the local store and meet him,” Detective Smith said. “He was going to take her to babysit his kids, and then he was going to bring her back to the store that night.”
But when she didn’t come home, her family called police.
Detective Smith says with no strong leads, the investigation went cold. “There was no one that was able to definitely say that they were a witness in this case, and that they could say, ‘Yes, I saw young Patricia with this male’.”
Police say a case like the Patricia Lupton case will be difficult to solve after 60 years, but they also say they never fully close a case, not even one as old as this.
