William Douglas “Billy” Foster should have celebrated his 65th birthday on Thursday, September 10, 2026. Instead, the date passed less than three months after Billy was found critically injured in an alley in downtown Barrie, Ontario – a death police almost immediately described as suspicious.
On the morning of Thursday, June 18, 2026, shortly after 9:00am, Barrie Police were called to an alley beside an apartment building in the downtown area, near Worsley and Poyntz streets. A man had been discovered unconscious and was not breathing. Emergency personnel responded, and the man was transported to hospital, where he was pronounced as deceased a short time later.
Sep 10, 1961 — Jun 18, 2026
That man was 64-year-old William Douglas Foster.
There was something unusual about the scene. Billy had injuries that police initially said appeared to be consistent with a fall (allegedly from above). Under other circumstances, that might have pointed toward a tragic accident. But investigators weren’t prepared to make that determination.
Instead, police treated Billy’s death as suspicious.
Billy’s physical condition is an important part of understanding the questions surrounding his death. At the time, he had some significant health issues. He had a broken leg, was largely dependent on a mobility scooter, used an oxygen tank, and was a heavy-set man. Considering those physical challenges, it is difficult to imagine how he may have been able to get himself over a balcony entirely on his own. While that remains speculation rather than an established fact, his physical condition raises understandable questions about the circumstances of his fall and whether he would have had the ability to do so without assistance. It is also reasonable to believe that, if confronted by someone physically attempting to move or overpower him, he would have resisted. Currently, if any such struggle occurred is not something that has been publicly established.
The area where he had been found was secured while officers began trying to piece together what had happened before Billy ended up in the alley. Investigators canvassed the neighbourhood and sought surveillance footage that might have captured Billy’s movements or activity around the apartment building.
Then police learned something that potentially brought them closer to Billy’s final known movements.
Billy had reportedly been visiting someone who lived in the apartment building beside the alley.
That person immediately became someone investigators wanted to speak with – not necessarily because police believed they had done anything wrong, but because they might have been one of the last people to see Billy before he was found. They could potentially tell investigators when Billy arrived, how long he stayed, when he left and, most importantly, what condition he was in when they last saw him.
But police couldn’t find this person.
When Barrie Police publicly appealed for information on June 19, investigators said they had been unable to make contact with the person Billy had apparently been visiting.
Police did not identify that individual. They did not reveal Billy’s relationship with them, say which apartment they lived in, or explain what attempts had been made to reach them. Nor did police call the person a suspect or person of interest.
That distinction matters. There is no publicly available evidence suggesting the person Billy was visiting was responsible for his death. What police made clear was simply that they wanted to speak with them as they tried to understand what had happened.
Meanwhile, investigators were waiting for another potentially crucial piece of the puzzle.
A post-mortem examination was scheduled to take place on June 19 at the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto. Because Billy’s injuries appeared consistent with a fall, the examination had the potential to help investigators determine how those injuries occurred and whether his death could be explained by an accident.
But publicly, the trail seems to end there.
News coverage several days after Billy’s death continued to describe the investigation as a suspicious-death investigation. The unanswered question about the person Billy had reportedly been visiting also remained.
And then the public updates stopped.
There appears to have been no subsequent announcement from Barrie Police revealing the results of Billy’s post-mortem examination. Police have not publicly announced that his death was ruled an accident, nor can I find an announcement reclassifying it as a homicide. There has been no publicly reported arrest or charge connected to his death.
Perhaps most frustratingly, there appears to be no public update explaining whether investigators ever located and interviewed the person Billy had been visiting.
That leaves an important gap in Billy’s final known timeline.
At some point before he was discovered that Thursday morning, Billy had apparently gone to visit someone in an apartment building in downtown Barrie. Later, he was found unconscious and not breathing in the alley beside that building, suffering from injuries police believed could have resulted from a fall.
What happened between those two points remains unclear.
Did Billy leave the apartment on his own? Did anyone see him leave? Where exactly did the apparent fall occur? Did surveillance cameras capture any part of his movements? Was the person he had been visiting eventually found, and if so, were they able to explain Billy’s final hours?
And perhaps the biggest question of all: what did the post-mortem examination reveal?
For now, those answers have not been made public.
It is important not to turn those unanswered questions into accusations. In particular, the fact that police initially couldn’t contact the person Billy had been visiting does not mean that person was avoiding investigators or had anything to do with his death. There could be many innocent explanations, and police themselves did not publicly characterize the individual as a suspect.
What remains significant is that investigators apparently believed speaking with that person could help establish what happened before Billy was found.
Billy’s death also can not yet be described as an unsolved murder. Barrie Police publicly classified it and continue to refer to it as a suspicious death.
Billy’s 65th birthday would have been September 10, 2026.
Instead of marking another year of his life and celebrating with his children, grandchildren, family and friends. But instead, the date arrived with some very basic questions about his death still unanswered publicly. Nearly three months after he was found in that downtown Barrie alley, we still don’t publicly know what caused his death, whether investigators found the person he had gone to visit, or what happened during the final hours before Billy was discovered.
Somebody may know what happened inside, or around that apartment building that morning.
And until more information is released, the question remains:
What happened to Billy Foster?
If you have information on Billy’s case, please contact any of the following:
Barrie Police Service:
Telephone – Non-Emergency: 705-725-7025
Email: info@barriepolice.ca
Police Occurrence#: BA26038087
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: Barrie Police Service, BarrieToday, CityNews Toronto, South Simcoe Today, William Douglas Foster obituary, family member.
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