The Toronto Police Services Board says it has retained an Ontario Appeal Court judge to lead an external review into how the police force handles cases of missing persons.

The board says in a statement that Justice Gloria Epstein will be retiring Sept. 1 and will then ``be devoting herself thereafter to the review.''

The announcement comes about three months after Mayor John Tory moved a motion to go ahead with the review, saying there were ``troubling questions'' in light of the killings for which landscaper Bruce McArthur has been charged.

While the review won't look at the investigation into McArthur, who has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, it will examine how missing persons cases connected to the investigation were handled.

The review also follows the death in November 2017 of 22-year-old Tess Richey, whose body was found by her mother in an outdoor stairwell.

Police were sent to her last-known location the day after she was reported missing, but it wasn't until her mother came to the city to search for her that her body was found.