Owner of home linked to Toronto woman’s disappearance flees the country
Posted November 24, 2025 7:32 am.
Last Updated November 24, 2025 9:47 am.
Less than a month after Irma Galastica, a 32-year-old Toronto mother, disappeared, the home where she was last seen in Burlington was raided by Halton police.
Police, who had been directed to the home at 629 Old York Road by a friend of Galastica’s, found no trace of her. They did, however, uncover a drug lab.
Halton officers were camped out at the sprawling house for days, involving the RCMP and the Fire Marshall’s Office. They drained several ponds at the property and extensive forensics were conducted.
Halton police have repeatedly declined to go into detail on the drug lab found on the property or Galastica’s case, citing the ongoing investigations. Neighbours say police were on scene for several days and set up a command centre at a nearby cemetery.
The home’s registered owner, Eric J. Carpenter’s father, Richard Clayson agreed to an interview and shared concerns about his son.
“When the cops showed up at my place, they said, ‘We’re not here about that and we don’t care, we don’t. That’s why we’re here, because of a missing person. I asked who it was, they didn’t tell me the name … they said Eric is a person of interest.”
“Some guy from the homicide squad told me the last thing they knew was they used his passport to track him to Mexico City. If he’s alive, then why the hell is he running?” asked Clayson.
Several sources have told CityNews that Carpenter left for Mexico City a week after Galastica disappeared and days before she was reported missing.
Nobody appears to have seen him since, but Clayson has heard from Carpenter at least once, saying October 2024 was the last time he spoke to him
“I haven’t heard a thing out of him, and with everything going on, I would have thought he may have reached out. The fact that he hasn’t, I mean at Mexico City is, he and I were there a very long time ago, that can be one hell of a dangerous place to be. So, I have friends that are from there, and they won’t even go there,” said Clayson.
“If he’s there, where did he get his money? How did he have any money? I thought the police seized everything.”
Court documents reveal that Carpenter was facing considerable financial hardship and was on the verge of losing several of his properties.
CityNews investigates: Where is Irma Galastica?
Four-part series:
Two months before Galastica disappeared, Carpenter was served a statement of claim from the mortgage holder, demanding he pay an overdue balance of over $700,000 and sell his home at 629 Old York, immediately
Carpenter didn’t file a defense. He didn’t appear in court and by the time the judgement was rendered against him in September 2024, he was already thought to be in Mexico.
Carpenter also owns two other rental properties.
Tenants at one of the addresses received a letter from a law firm back in March, saying that Carpenter was in default of his mortgage that they were to pay the bank directly moving forward
The last communication one of the tenants, Nora, had with Carpenter was in November 2024 when he appeared desperate for funds, writing in his email, “Do you have anything you can send today as an email money transfer?”
“So I sent $3,000 to him and then I saw the news things like literally two days after I sent him $3,000 so I was like I should have never sent that. And then I never heard from him again.”
And now that home too is on the verge of foreclosure.
“I don’t think he really cares about the house … Because whatever he’s running from is obviously worse than losing the houses.” commented Nora.
However, there are no signs of Carpenter being on the verge of losing a home in East Hamilton where he has tenants living in two separate apartments. One of the tenants claimed to have only recently moved into the basement and says she didn’t know Carpenter. The other tenant would only say, “I told everything I had to, to the police,” before closing the door.
Title searches show Carpenter has two mortgages on the property and there are no foreclosure filings going through the courts, suggesting these bills are being paid.
With Carpenter’s accounts frozen, it’s not clear who is paying the mortgage or how Carpenter is presumably funding a life outside of Canada. He left Canada owing over a million dollars to creditors and, according to associates of organized crimes groups that CityNews spoke with, outlaw motorcycle clubs.
CityNews reached out to several of his former colleagues—identified through lawsuits filed against Carpenter and Carpenter’s social media—none of whom admitted to having ongoing relationships with him or having spoken with him over the past year.
We tracked his numbered companies, which had virtual office addresses or used a storage facility as an address- and which now all appear defunct.
CityNews has repeatedly reached out to Carpenter via phone, email, social media and through his colleagues, family and friends. He has not responded to any of our communications.
A bench warrant was issued for Carpenter on October 31, 2024, stemming from two charges relating to driving under the influence in 2022.
If you have any information about Irma Galastica or Eric Carpenter, please contact Halton Police or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-444-TIPS(8477) to report anonymously.
