Missing Toronto mother last seen at Burlington home later investigated as drug lab
Posted November 24, 2025 7:31 am.
Last Updated November 27, 2025 10:54 am.
Irma Galastica’s disappearance in 2024 didn’t garner much attention. There were no police media briefings or wall-to-wall coverage of her last known activities, no publicized search and no appeals from police for help in locating persons of interest in her case.
However, the 32-year-old Toronto mother left several breadcrumbs for the police to follow in the lead up to her disappearance.
As CityNews reported, Galastica’s last known location was at a home in rural Burlington following a night out in Hamilton.
CityNews investigates: Where is Irma Galastica?
Four-part series:
An unpublished video found in Galastica’s Snapchat account showed a quick pan of a room in the home, establishing that there were three people there and confirming she had been inside the home.
She was with a woman, who CityNews has identified, but whom we are calling “Jane” to protect the police investigation, and a man. “Jane” has declined to speak with CityNews.
Galastica’s friend Shemica Duncan had passwords for several accounts. She shared with CityNews what was going through her head when she found the video.
“She was trying to warn us about this man because she grew suspicious that something was going to happen. She definitely felt like something was going to happen,” said Duncan.
On Oct. 21, Duncan was charged with several offences, including human trafficking. These charges are outstanding and there is no indication that these charges are related to Galastica’s disappearance at this time.
The video is time stamped at 1:56 p.m. on August 31, 2024.
“One thing I know about Irma, she is very brave. She doesn’t get scared. She’s usually one to protect me, any of her loved ones, anybody, even a stranger on the street, she will protect,” shared Duncan.
“So, for her to take that video and to reach out … That just, that says so much that something definitely went wrong that afternoon.”
Their fears were confirmed once family learned that an aborted 911 call had been made from Galastica’s phone.
“She did make a 911 call, but not long enough. And you know normally when you call police 911, they’ll always call back. They called back. There was no line available, but they did receive a call. So that’s alarming … That was information shared by the investigators,” said Galastica’s cousin Ana Sotelo.
One of the details captured in her covert video was a unique whiteboard with writing and drawings on it.
CityNews ran a land title search and discovered the home on Old York Road had been sold in May of 2025. While combing through real estate listings, photos were found that matched the whiteboard in the video to the whiteboard in a listing for home, complete with the same drawings, suggesting Galastica was at this home the afternoon before she disappeared, for a least part of the day.
Around the same time the video was taken, Galastica sent her friend a very cryptic message, reading, “Hey, I’m in Hamilton, in case I don’t make it back.”
She wasn’t in Hamilton at that point; she was in Burlington. But, about two hours later, Galastica, or at least her phone, was in rural Hamilton.
That’s when a pin was sent to that same friend of the location. It was the last communication ever received from Galastica or her phone.
The phone’s location was now being shared, but over the course of several days, it never moved from the corner of Miles Road and Dickenson, about a 30-minute drive from the home on Old York Road in Burlington.
Armed with what Duncan found through Galastica’s snapchat, police descended on the house in September 2024.
Halton officers were camped out at the sprawling house for days, involving the RCMP and the Fire Marshall’s Office. They had uncovered a sizable drug lab on the property.
However, no arrests were ever made, no sign of Galastica and no sign of the home’s registered owner, Eric J. Carpenter.
Carpenter has been identified by police as a person of interest in the disappearance of Galastica, but he has not been named a suspect.
When asked if she believes that Galastica had been murdered, her cousin Maria Sotelo said from the beginning, that’s what it has felt like.
“I feel like as a family [member], like your gut just tells you something and once you’re looking for someone so much and there’s just no trace of them, it’s like, what else could have happened?”
The search for Galastica has now become a search for Carpenter as well.
If you have any information about Irma Galastica, please contact Halton Police or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-444-TIPS(8477) to report anonymously.
