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Five months after abduction, Cecilia's body is found
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-29 10:35 A mysterious abduction that baffled police and
terrified parents in Canada's biggest city came to a grim end Sunday when police
confirmed that remains found earlier this weekend in nearby Mississauga were
those of missing nine-year-old Cecilia Zhang.
The body of Cecilia
Zhang was identified by police on Sunday. [file
photo] | A hiker in Mississauga, west of Toronto,
stumbled upon human remains in a heavily wooded area near a church parking lot
on Saturday, police said.
By Sunday - just two days before Cecilia would have celebrated her 10th
birthday - forensic experts confirmed the body was hers. The dire news came just
five months after the girl was snatched from her parents' home in northeast
Toronto.
"I really cannot say what kind of monster they are to do such a thing to
Cecilia," a visibly shaken Jack Jia, the Zhang family friend who has frequently
spoken on behalf of the girl's distraught parents since her Oct. 20 abduction,
said outside the family's red-brick home.
"She's such a nice, nice, nice girl. She had never intended to hurt anybody."
Flowers were piling up Sunday evening on the doorstep of the home as news
began to spread in her neighbourhood that the gifted Grade 4 pupil has been
found dead.
Investigators, who have been publicly insisting for months that they believed
Cecilia was still alive, released few details about the case Sunday, simply
saying that they were in the midst of a homicide investigation.
"I'm not in a position to release any information whatsoever of an
evidentiary nature," said Acting Insp. Rick De Facendis at an afternoon news
conference held near the spot where the remains were found.
De Facendis said the area was not heavily travelled, and the hiker stumbled
on the child's remains purely by chance.
Cecilia's parents, Raymond Zhang and Sherry Xu, had been planning a birthday
party with friends, neighbours and teachers to honour their missing daughter
when the girl's remains were discovered.
De Facendis said Toronto police arrived on the Zhang doorstep early Sunday
morning and broke the news to her parents.
A neighbour and friend who would only identify himself as Mr. Yuan said he
kept a picture of Cecilia in his car in the hopes that she would return home
safe and sound.
Police confirmed
March 28, 2004, that the human remains found in a wooded ravine west of
Toronto are those of nine-year-old Cecilia Zhang. Police believe Zhang was
abducted by an intruder as she slept in her family's Toronto home October
19, 2003. Zhang's parents Sherry Xu (L) and Raymond Zhang (R) are overcome
by emotion while pleading for the safe return of their abducted daughter
at a press conference in Toronto, October 24, 2003.
[Reuters] | "We never lose the hope, but now it is broken, the hope," Yuan said before
dissolving into tears.
"Cecilia is like my daughter."
Cecilia was discovered missing last fall when her mother went into her
bedroom to wake her for school.
A broken screen window at the rear of the top floor of the two-storey home
suggested an abduction.
Shortly after her mother called police, an Amber Alert was issued, flashing
news of the child's disappearance to millions of motorists on area highways.
Police then began an intense search of the northeast Toronto neighbourhood
where Cecilia lived with her parents and her 75-year-old grandfather.
At first, Cecilia's parents were so distraught that they would only issue
statements through police pleading for the safe return of their daughter.
They made their first public appearance Oct. 24 in a heart-wrenching news
conference.
Since then, Cecilia's parents, backed by members of the Chinese community,
started a website and were involved in numerous other efforts to keep Cecilia's
abduction in the public eye.
Volunteers distributed Police confirmed March 28, 2004,
that the human remains found in a wooded ravine west of Toronto are those of
nine-year-old Cecilia Zhang. Police believe Zhang was abducted by an intruder as
she slept in her family's Toronto home October 19, 2003. Zhang's parents Sherry
Xu (L) and Raymond Zhang (R) are overcome by emotion while pleading for the safe
return of their abducted daughter at a press conference in Toronto, October 24, 2003.thousands of flyers and posters bearing Cecilia's
picture. They were distributed throughout Toronto subways and buses, on taxis,
and in shopping centres and other public areas.
Police soon ruled out that the abduction was the random act of a predator,
and said that the possibility Cecilia was kidnapped for profit was one of the
"themes" they were exploring.
They later spent two days in the Brampton area, northwest of Toronto,
canvassing patrons of a Tim Hortons doughnut shop and a rural general store,
where calls were made from two pay phones to Cecilia's home before she was
reported missing.
Her body was found almost directly south of that area, about a 20 minutes'
drive away.
When part of reward money put up by the community was retracted, her parents
offered their home in exchange for their daughter's safe return.
The case garnered international attention, landing Toronto police on the
felon-hunting show America's Most Wanted.
Chinese authorities were also consulted.
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