For days the family of a Mississauga father and his two young sons waited for word of their whereabouts. For days they followed the news of a grisly find in a burned-out car near Barrie.

On Wednesday, police confirmed the connection they had deeply feared: The three bodies found in the wreckage are those of Samuel Masih, 36, and sons Tyrese Sutherland, 10, and Santosh, 4.

The charred remains were discovered early Friday morning on a dead-end country road a few hundred metres from a drive-in movie theatre northeast of Barrie.

The Ontario Provincial Police are not looking for suspects in the deaths.

“We’re satisfied that the person responsible for the other two deaths perished in the vehicle as well,” said Sgt. Peter Leon of the OPP.

“With respect to cause of death, that’s something the OPP normally doesn’t speak to,” Leon said. “We won’t be in a position to speak to that due to the ongoing nature of our investigation.”

Autopsies on the remains began Tuesday morning, but the release of the coroner’s findings was delayed until late Wednesday afternoon due to difficulty identifying the badly burned remains.

On Tuesday afternoon, OPP investigators were knocking on doors interviewing neighbours about the family’s history in the area and their recent behaviour, according to one resident who spoke with the police.

Several Mississauga neighbours told the Star the couple had been experiencing marital problems and were preparing for a divorce.

By Tuesday evening, family members and friends were arriving at a West Toronto home, bringing condolences and plates of food. Neither family nor friends at the home would speak with the Star about Masih or the two boys.

Police released only the name of the deceased father Wednesday. The names of the children were confirmed through neighbours and family friends.

Masih and his two sons were reported missing around 1:30 a.m. Friday. His wife, Brintha Shanmugalingam, told police she had last heard from him at 4 p.m. on Thursday, when he said he was taking the boys to a movie.

The burning vehicle was discovered on Holick Rd. around 5:40 a.m. Friday, just a few hundred metres from a drive-in move theatre. A passing motorist noticed the fire.

Police at the scene said the vehicle had been so thoroughly engulfed by the flames that they could not identify the make or model.

The family has lived on Riel Dr. in Mississauga for about five years, neighbours said. Shanmugalingam’s mother lived with them. They previously lived near the village of Trout Creek, about 50 km south of North Bay, on a property Masih still owns and has rented out for the past few years.

While living in Trout Creek, the couple adopted Tyrese, their eldest son. A man who lived next to them, Gary Toogood, said they periodically took in children in need of care. He described Masih as soft-spoken, stable and close to his family.

“I know that he was involved in social work, at least that was my understanding,” Toogood told the Star. “I know that they took care of the occasional child that was sort of neglected.”

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“From what I knew of the man, he was a kind, gentle soul.”

On Shanmugalingam’s Facebook account, since taken down, there were photo collages of the family. One showed a trip to a Universal Studios theme park, with the children in facepaint and posing with Dr. Seuss mascots. Another showed a birthday party, with Tyrese cutting the cake for his younger brother.

A classmate of Tyrese at the nearby Bishop Scalabrini Catholic School said Tyrese had recently complained his parents were getting a divorce and he would have to choose which parent to live with.

Ghufran Ahmed remembered his neighbours across the street as a “very regular” family who mostly kept to themselves — not uncommon in a neighbourhood where “everyone is in their own shell,” he said.

“You’d never say that something was out of place with them,” Ahmed said.

Rev. Shahid Kamal is the pastor at the Evangelical Asian Church Toronto, a church Masih had regularly attended when he first moved to Mississauga.

“He was a good man, a nice man, and all this — had a smile on his face,” Kamal told the Star. “When he was attending the church he was very regular and even he was setting up the sound system and these different activities.”

Kamal said the church will host funeral services for the three family members once the arrangements are made.

In one of Ahmed’s last memories of Masih, the father was fixing his son’s basketball hoop after it was damaged in this winter’s ice storm. Other times, Masih would be cutting the lawn while the children rode their bikes in the driveway.

The OPP are still asking for the public’s assistance in their investigation.

“We are appealing to the public, asking them if anybody observed any activity that may be out of nature, out of place, on either July 3 or 4, to certainly give the OPP a call,” Leon said, referring to the car found on Holick Rd.

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