Article content

Desperate for new leads to solve a homicide mystery, OPP planned to text about 7,500 people on Thursday whose phones were near a Nepean intersection 10 months ago.

Police want to know transient Frederick “John” Hatch, 65 — last seen at a dollar store at the intersection of West Hunt Club and Merivale roads on the afternoon of Dec. 16 — wound up dead about 450 kilometres away near Erin, Ont., where his partially-burned body was found in a ditch.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or OPP plan to text 7,500 cellphones in homicide probe raises privacy concerns Back to video

Police call it a “legal, useful and innovative investigative technique.”

But an expert on information law argues it raises troubling implications about the lack of advocacy for the privacy of ordinary people when police seek vast “tower dumps” and lack of oversight of what then happens to that information.

Det.-Supt. Dave Truax said Wednesday that detectives had exhausted every conventional tool.

“We believe this text message canvas will reach potential witnesses who may not be aware of this murder but can help us solve it,” he said, asking for help alerting people that the text is no hoax.