

Codi Wilson, CP24.com





Police are trying to identify remains found in Durham region after a torso was spotted in the water near the Oshawa Harbour on Monday night.

Police were called to Simcoe Street South and Harbour Road in Oshawa at around 8:30 p.m. Monday after fishermen -- including an 11-year-old boy and his grandfather -- reported finding the torso of a female in the water.

The 11-year-old boy, David Kuczepa, described the situation as “just freaky” while speaking to CTV News Toronto.

“Now I don’t even want to fish at the Oshawa Pier,” Kuczepa said.

Officers secured the scene and the human remains were recovered.

“What we are working on is trying to identify who this person is,” Const. George Tudos told CP24 at the scene. “We are waiting for the results of a post-mortem and in the meantime, what we are doing is searching the beach area, both on water and on land.”

Police added that the public safety unit and the marine unit will be assisting homicide detectives in the investigation by canvassing the area and conducting a grid search to look for more evidence.

Investigators are also using an unmanned aerial vehicle to search the area.

An autopsy will be conducted to help investigators determine the cause of death.

Former Toronto police homicide detective and CP24 crime specialist Steve Ryan said these types of cases are typically “very difficult” for investigators.

“At the end of the day, they’re going to wind up reaching out to other police in the interest of all their missing people’s reports,” Ryan told CTV News Toronto.

“So then the daunting task is to take all these missing persons reports, get DNA from the family members all those people, one at a time have them swab their cheek, send that off to the center for forensic sciences and that’ll be compared to the DNA on the body.”