Jeffrey Johnston’s always-on phone was off for a third straight day when Susan Forsyth made the early-morning drive to her son’s house in Oshawa, worry mounting with every unanswered call.

When she arrived on the frigid morning of Dec. 15 from her home in Newcastle, Forsyth quickly realized something was wrong: an eviction notice was plastered on the door of the pale yellow home where Johnston rented a room.

She immediately contacted Durham Regional Police to report her 31-year-old son, her only child, missing.

But Forsyth alleges that instead of launching an investigation, police did little to initiate a search, one she assumed would begin inside the home where her son had been living.

For more than 48 hours, she alleges she unsuccessfully pleaded with officers to check inside the home, but was met with claims that they could not go in — even after the next-door neighbour reported to police that he’d noticed blood inside Johnston’s room one day before he was reported missing.

Terrified and frustrated, Forsyth and Johnston’s father ultimately decided to break into the home themselves, through an open window. There, they found dark brown stains on the stairs and pink marks on Johnston’s mattress — what they feared, and now know, was blood.

Forsyth is thankful that’s all they saw.

On Sunday, Dec. 17 — two days after Johnston was reported missing to police — officers went inside the house and found his body. An autopsy determined he’d been fatally stabbed, making Johnston Durham Region’s ninth homicide of 2017.

According to court documents, Johnston was killed on Dec. 13 — meaning he had been dead for four days before he was found.

Paul Jaglal, Johnston’s roommate at the house, is charged with first-degree murder in Johnston’s death.

“I am so angry that I have had to live through this nightmare and that a lot of it could have been prevented,” Forsyth writes in a detailed account of her ordeal, which she provided to Durham Regional Police and the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), the provincial police complaints watchdog, which is now investigating.

Forsyth says the trauma of her son’s murder was compounded by what she alleges was inaction by police while the case was a missing person investigation.

Had officers gone into the home sooner, his body would have been found two days earlier and she wouldn’t have gone in herself, contaminating a crime scene, turning her into a witness and deepening her grief.

“I will be haunted by these thoughts, these visions,” she said of being inside the home.

She blames herself for not making police go in earlier — “I should have forced them to somehow.”

The Star sent a list of questions to Durham Regional Police about the case, but spokesperson Dave Selby said the service could not provide information due to the case being “active” and before the courts. That includes why officers did not initially go into the home, and whether they believe Johnston was killed inside or if his body was moved there.

Police also would not say where in the house the body was located. Forsyth said investigators told her it was in the basement, where she is glad neither she nor Johnston’s father ventured when they entered the home.

“As much as we would like to give you more information, this missing person file and the homicide investigation are intertwined, so we are not in a position to discuss details at this time,” Selby said in an email.

“As you know, this remains an active homicide investigation and we have devoted many resources to move it forward.”

Johnston’s death occurred just weeks after the homicide of Toronto woman Tess Richey, who was similarly reported missing days before her body was found. Richey’s mother, too, initiated her own search, and ultimately found her daughter’s body in an alleyway about 40 metres from her last known location.

Under fire for their handling of Richey’s disappearance, Toronto police announced they’d launched an internal professional standards investigation into officers’ actions in the case. Days later, the service launched a full review of how their officers conduct missing persons investigations, due in part to Richey’s case.

Last month, two Toronto police officers were charged with professional misconduct for allegedly failing to properly investigate Richey’s disappearance.

Durham police will not confirm whether an internal investigation even occurred into the initial handling of Johnston’s disappearance. Forsyth said investigators told her a professional standards probe was done and one officer was internally disciplined, but she was not told what the discipline entailed. Selby said he could not comment.

When asked on what basis Durham police could not confirm if an investigation even happened, Selby reiterated that was because the missing person case and homicide investigation “are intertwined.”

Forsyth has since lodged a complaint with the OIPRD, which hears public complaints about police, and says a spokesperson confirmed this week that an investigation has been launched into three officers. (An OIPRD spokesperson told the Star she could not comment on individual cases.)

Stressing that Durham’s homicide investigators have been diligent and professional, Forsyth nonetheless wants to know whether any changes will be made as a result of how the initial investigation into her son’s disappearance was handled.

“I was angry with them — I told them they’d let me down, as a resident of Durham,” Forsyth said in an interview, recalling the night she was told her son had been found.

The news came after Forsyth’s two-day search that involved calling hospitals, obtaining Johnston’s cellphone history, and urgent followups with friends and acquaintances — anyone who might have had information about her son’s whereabouts.

Trained in human resources, Johnston was working odd jobs at the time of his death, Forsyth said. While they didn’t always “see eye to eye,” Forsyth admits, she and her son were typically in touch at least daily because Johnston’s 9-year-old son, Alex, lives with her. It was out of character for Johnston not to be in contact for more than a day, and by the third day Forsyth knew her son was not just ignoring her calls.

According to her written account, Forsyth arrived at her son’s home before 9 a.m. on Dec. 15 and called police upon seeing the eviction notice. A police cruiser came by but officers told her the landlord would have walked through the place already, and they wouldn’t go in, Forsyth said.

She began contacting Johnston’s cellphone provider and his friends, then approached a man who lived in the other half of the semi-detached home, a neighbour who knew Johnston. She alleges that the man told her he had been inside the home the previous day — before the landlord put the eviction sign up — and noticed blood inside Johnston’s room and on his shoes.

He didn’t alert police at that time because he “didn’t want to get involved,” Forsyth said. But she convinced him to now tell officers what he saw.

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But when police arrived a second time and were told about the blood, Forsyth claims one of the responding officers said that still did not warrant going into the house.

Forsyth later called the landlord and learned Johnston had been subletting from Jaglal, the man now alleged to have killed him. When Forsyth passed along this information to police, she claims she was told to contact Jaglal directly, something she is glad she never did.

It’s not clear whether police attempted to contact the landlord to gain access to the home on the first or second day Johnston was reported missing. Selby said he could not provide this information.

While stressing that every missing person’s case is unique, former Toronto police homicide detective Mark Mendelson said it’s reasonable to expect police would have quickly begun the process of attempting to enter the home by contacting the owner of the property and seeking permission.

Because he had been evicted, there wouldn’t have been any concern about Johnston’s privacy expectations, Mendelson said, since the home had been returned to the owner.

If police weren’t already trying to gain access to the home once Forsyth reported him missing, they should reasonably have begun attempting to go inside after hearing the neighbour’s account about seeing blood, Mendelson said.

“What more do you need to know? The flags should have gone up, their investigative curiosity should have been piqued and they should be asking questions of the owner,” Mendelson said.

Desperate for information, Forsyth and Johnston’s father ultimately entered the home themselves on Saturday, Dec. 16, and found Johnston’s room still filled with some of his belongings. There were brownish-red marks on the floor and the stairs — what they feared was blood, but also thought could be some kind of paint.

“I picked up a pair of running shoes that had red marks all over the bottom and on the sides, then we found a third shoe. It was not making sense,” she writes in her account.

They began rummaging through his things, and ultimately took a few items, including her son’s winter coat, which she was alarmed he didn’t have. They left soon after.

“I am shaking … I was uneasy. Wanted to get out of that house,” she wrote. “We were all alone in the search.”

Throughout that day and into the next, Forsyth said she kept calling police for updates and asking if they could go into the house. But she received no information until the early evening of Dec. 17, when she got a call to come in to the police station.

On the drive back from a hockey event with Alex, she dropped him off at a relative’s house before heading to the station. En route, she passed the street where her son lived and saw there were now police vehicles and a forensic truck outside, with yellow tape around the perimeter.

“I went numb,” she said.

When she arrived at the station, Forsyth was informed a body had been found in the house, but wasn’t immediately told it was Johnston. She later identified him by a distinctive tattoo of a spade on his wrist.

She never saw her son’s body, saying the funeral home advised her family not to see him. They believe this was due to his state of decomposition.

She was later contacted by investigators, who wanted the winter jacket she had taken from Johnston’s room, but she had given it to the Salvation Army the previous day.

Forsyth is now a witness in her son’s murder case, meaning she will take part in the trial and will not be permitted to sit in on testimony, something she felt could help bring closure.

Forsyth is experiencing flashbacks to being inside the home where her son was found, and feels anger and sadness that she felt she had to go in. While struggling with her own emotions, she is trying to help Alex, who has been told about the circumstances of his father’s death. He is doing well considering the situation, though Forsyth fears he may be in denial.

Johnston was cremated. For now, she is keeping his remains in her home alongside flowers and pictures.

“I need him with me,” she said.

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

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