Lori Marilyn Pinkus was just 21 years old when she moved from Ottawa to Toronto in 1991. She had only been living in the city for a matter of months when, during the early morning hours of September 8, her life came to a violent end. More than three decades later, Toronto Police still do not know the name of the person who killed her. What makes Lori’s case particularly frustrating is that investigators believe they have something that could ultimately identify him: his DNA.
By September 1991, Lori was living in Toronto’s west end and was allegedly engaged in survival sex work in the area around Bloor Street West and Lansdowne Avenue. This part of Lori’s life has inevitably become intertwined with discussions about her murder, but it is important not to allow it to define her. She was a young woman who had recently arrived in a new city, and somewhere during the final hours of her life, she crossed paths with someone who would kill her.
On the night of September 7 and into the early hours of September 8, Lori spent some time having a drink with friends at a local bar. Toronto Police say she was last seen leaving the bar during the early morning hours. Where Lori went next, who she encountered and exactly what happened to her between leaving that bar and the discovery of her body remain unanswered questions.
Several hours later, at approximately 9:55am, the caretaker of Brockton High School at 90 Croatia Street made a horrifying discovery outside the school. Lori was found partially unclothed and suffering from severe injuries. Emergency personnel attempted to save her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators determined that Lori had been assaulted and strangled.
Police now had to reconstruct the missing hours between Lori leaving the bar and being found at the school. Had she met someone after leaving? Had someone followed her? Did she willingly leave with the person who ultimately killed her? Was the killer a customer, an acquaintance, or someone connected to another part of her life? And had Lori been attacked at the school, or had she been brought there afterward?
Investigators examined the scene, collected forensic evidence and began looking closely at the people who may have crossed paths with Lori. Numerous persons of interest were developed during the original investigation, but Toronto Police say those individuals were eventually eliminated. No one was charged, and as the years passed, Lori’s murder became another of Toronto’s unresolved cold cases.
But the evidence collected in 1991 did not disappear.
Advances in forensic science eventually allowed investigators to revisit evidence from Lori’s case using technology that had not been available when she was killed. In 2018, Toronto Police revealed a potentially crucial development: investigators had obtained a male DNA profile that they believe belongs to Lori’s killer.
Suddenly, police possessed something they had spent decades searching for – a biological signature of the person they believed murdered Lori.
What they didn’t have was his name.
Investigators renewed their appeal to the public. If someone could identify a man who had been with Lori that night, remembered someone connected to her, or provided information leading police to the right person, investigators could potentially compare that individual with the DNA evidence.
There are other pieces of Lori’s history that have occasionally raised questions. Secondary accounts have reported that Lori had experienced violence before moving to Toronto, including a previous stabbing in Ottawa for which two men were reportedly charged. However, there is no publicly established evidence connecting that earlier attack with Lori’s murder in Toronto. Without evidence tying the two incidents together, it remains part of Lori’s history rather than an established lead in her homicide.
Her killer could have been someone she met that night, someone she already knew, or someone whose connection to her has never been uncovered.
Someone, however, likely knew something.
Perhaps someone saw Lori after she left the bar. Maybe someone remembers a man who suddenly behaved differently following September 8, 1991. Someone may have heard a comment or confession that didn’t seem important at the time. Someone who became suddenly obsessed with Lori’s case – looking repeatedly for updates on the news or in the newspaper. A person who knew the killer may never have realized that a seemingly insignificant memory could be connected to Lori’s murder.
More than three decades later, that information could still matter because investigators have something they didn’t have when Lori was killed. They have DNA.
Lori was only 21. Whatever difficulties she may have been experiencing and whatever circumstances surrounded the final months of her life, none of them diminish what happened to her. Someone assaulted and strangled a young woman and then walked away, leaving her family without answers for decades.
But this is not necessarily a case in which the killer left nothing behind.
Investigators believe he left part of himself.
After all these years, Toronto Police may already possess the evidence capable of identifying the man who killed Lori Marilyn Pinkus.
What they still need is the name.
If you have information on Lori’s case, please contact any of the following:
Toronto Police Service:
Telephone: 416-808-7400
Email: homicide@torontopolice.on.ca
Case reference: Homicide #61/1991
Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/submit-a-tip/submit-a-tip
Crime Stoppers provides anonymous tipping
Sources: Toronto Police Service Homicide and Missing Persons Unit, Toronto Police Service Cold Case Homicide Appeal, CityNews Toronto, Global News, and historical reporting and archival material concerning the murder of Lori Marilyn Pinkus.
🕯️ Subscribe to Someone Saw Something. I dig through the details, ask the unanswered questions, and occasionally fall down research rabbit holes so you don’t have to. 🧡
Someone Saw Something 
Leave a comment