Death of Alloura Wells
The case, along with a series of deaths of missing people in Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village, prompted the TPS to create a dedicated missing-persons unit.
Wells was the third of four children in a Toronto family, which struggled financially and relied on the income of her mother, Mary, who was employed as a manager at Tim Hortons and her father, Mike, as a labourer.
[4] As a teenager, Wells would disappear for periods of time, often going downtown, where she was caught trying to sneak into bars in Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village.
[4] In February 2013, her mother died leading to the family to break apart, as her father and older brother became homeless and Wells was evicted.
Wells had served short jail terms at the Vanier Centre for Women, which her father believed were for theft and breaking and entering.
[3][6] Of the last two posts, one expressed pride in her younger brother's military service and the other read: "Is wondering [what] happened to me life love loss its to much to handle right now.
[3] According to police spokesperson Meaghan Gray, there were no details that could be released and investigators worked to establish more information so that they could appeal to the public for assistance in an identification.
Learning that the woman was transgender from the detective, Price searched on the internet for transgender-advocacy organizations and contacted The 519 community centre in Church and Wellesley[5] on 17 August.
[5] Police saw similarities between the missing persons report and the body found in the ravine[3] and obtained a DNA sample from a family member for testing.
[1] The TPS receives over 4,000 missing-persons reports each year,[13] but it faces staffing shortages of frontline officers, which an anonymous staff sergeant described as "dangerously low".
[13][14] Mark Mendelson, a former TPS homicide detective, stated that the circumstances surrounding a disappearance determine the priority of a missing persons case.
[8] At that time,[a] TPS had issued a news release,[3] conducted two searches of the ravine,[11] and initiated testing to determine if the body was Wells's.
[17] TPS Chief Mark Saunders apologized to Wells's father and ordered the professional standards unit to conduct an internal review[2] of how the missing-persons report was handled.
[21] Wells's death also brought criticism to The 519 community centre, Toronto's leading LGBT advocacy agency, which failed to follow-through with Price's report of a transgender body being discovered.
The petition alleged that under Lawless's direction, The 519 had been systematically "pushing out the most marginalized people in the community" and turning the centre into an exclusive club for wealthy donors in the increasingly gentrified neighbourhood.
They cited The 519's mishandling of the report of Wells's body and redevelopment plans for More Moss Park that would displace low-income and homeless people.
The petitioners also alleged that The 519 had contributed to tensions by discouraging sex workers and the homeless from the area, and that The 519 had a "ban list largely made up of mentally ill or developmentally disabled racialized people".
[5] On 19 November, members of Trans Pride Toronto and Maggie's organized a vigil for the then-unidentified transgender woman[7] at Barbara Hall Park in Church and Wellesley.
[26] The City of Toronto covered the cremation expense and surplus funds were planned to help finance a monthly support group to assist homeless transgender women.
