MPP calls for inquest into child's death

The government critic for child welfare says an inquest must be called into the death of Neveah, whose remains were found in a Toronto dumpster, and that the death of every child who has been involved in care should automatically trigger that public scrutiny.

- JENNIFER PAGLIARO AND WENDY GILLIS

Four-year-old Neveah was buried at Thornton Cemetery in Oshawa last November. Her remains were found in a dumpster in Rosedale in May 2022 and forensic testing found she died that year. Hamilton NDP MPP Monique Taylor has called for an inquest into her death.

“It’s unacceptable that nobody knew this child was missing,” said Hamilton Mountain NDP MPP Monique Taylor, who has been the critic for children, community and social services since 2011.

“There’s no ‘I’m sorry’s. There’s no ‘We made a mistake.’ It’s completely unacceptable and can never happen again.”

As reported by the Star this weekend, four-year-old Neveah spent the majority of her life in Children’s Aid Society care, first in York Region, then in Toronto. She was taken into protective custody at birth after toxicology reports found marijuana in her system. In March 2021, a CAS request and subsequent court order placed her back with her birth mother, who had a lengthy history with the child protection system.

By the end of that year, police said Neveah was already dead, her tiny, decomposing body left the following spring wrapped in blankets inside a construction dumpster outside a home in Rosedale.

Investigators, who spent 14 months trying to identify the girl who was never reported missing, resorted to a resource-intensive technique involving genetic genealogy that combines advanced DNA technology with ancestry research on public genetic genealogy sites, similar to Ancestry.​com. By June 2023, they had determined Neveah’s name (The Star is not using Neveah’s full name because a court publication ban prevents identifying members of her family).