TORONTO -- A Toronto homicide cold case detective has released a video appealing for further information pertaining to the robbery and killing of a 28-year-old man near High Park more than 30 years ago.

“It is time to be held to account for these actions,” Det.-Sgt. Stacy Gallant said in the video released to the public on Tuesday.

“Even if 31 years have passed, those responsible need to be held accountable for their actions.”

Richard Thomas Moore, who worked as a labourer and lived in the Parkdale area, was beaten and stabbed multiple times before his lifeless body was discovered by a cyclist on the morning of Dec. 3, 1988 on the grass off a roadway.

Moore was last seen the prior evening at the Edgewater Hotel, located in the area of Roncesvalles Avenue and Queen Street West.

At the time Moore’s body was discovered, investigators conducted a search of the area and found the victim’s empty wallet several hundred yards from where he was found.

“Robbery appears to have been the motive,” Gallant said. “A knife believed to be the murder weapon was also located. Recently, the knife was sent to the Centre for Forensic Scene for analysis to develop an offender DNA profile.”

According to Gallant, the German-made knife has a four-and-a-half inch long blade and a four-inch handle. A photo of the weapon has been re-released by police.

Gallant said “there are people out there who know who is responsible for this murder and need to come forward now.”

“If you know who is responsible, take that step and help bring this offender to justice.”

On Tuesday, CP24’s crime specialist Steve Ryan, who is a former homicide detective with the Toronto Police Service, defined a cold case as “any case where you have exhausted all the evidence and there are no new leads.”

He said the case then becomes dependent on new evidence to proceed.

“The evidence that is seized in that case is stored and because of the technologies with DNA testing and forensic sciences, you can take that evidence that could be 30 years old, whether that’s a wallet or a knife that you may not think has blood on it, submit it to the Centre of Forensic Sciences and hopefully you get what I call the ‘money call,’ which is a hit on the DNA data bank, which is all the unknown DNA crime scenes or known suspects with DNA in the DNA data bank.”

Ryan said Gallant’s appeal shows that police do not give up on their assigned cases.

Anyone with further information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).