A Toronto police officer closes the entrance to a laneway beside Clendenan Ave., after the body of a woman was found rolled in a carpet in the area on Feb. 01, 2012.
Homicide detectives are probing the death of a woman after a Toronto resident discovered her body wrapped in a carpet, left in a laneway in the Junction.
Constable Wendy Drummond said police arrived shortly after noon Wednesday to Clendenan Avenue, behind a house, near Dundas Street West.
The homicide squad took over the investigation a few hours after the call, according to homicide Detective Sergeant Peter Trimble. A forensic truck, several cruisers and a noticeable officer presence remained in the neighbourhood into the evening.
"We don't want to touch anything before forensics has a chance to do their job properly," he said at the scene. "What I am requesting, is that if there's anyone in this area... Who has seen anything suspicious, be it cars or people in the last 24 hours, to give the homicide squad a call."
He said an age estimate wouldn't be available until forensic investigators finished at the scene. He did the say the woman's body had been subject to trauma.
John Rutledge, who lives with his wife in the neighbourhood, said he made the discovery shortly before noon when he took his dog for a walk in the alley behind his house. The rug was wrapped with duct tape, he said, and his dog drew his attention to it.
"It just didn't look right," Mr. Rutledge said. He peered inside and saw a jacket stuffed at one end and a hand at the other, he said. He went home and immediately called 911.
His wife said she walked the same way on her way to work, at about 8:20 a.m., and didn't see the carpet or anything else out of place.
Police were knocking on doors on Quebec Avenue, just west of where the police presence seemed to be focused, asking neighbours if they had heard anything strange earlier in the day.
"We were just going shopping and when we got there the car was taped in," said David King, who said he has lived on Quebec Avenue for about 50 years. He said the police seem focused on an alley directly behind his home.
He didn't see anything suspicious in the morning and he got the impression the body was dumped in the area, he said. "I was surprised," he said, calling the area quiet and a great place to live.
Det. Sgt. Trimble said it was too early in the investigation to speculate on whether there was a connection to the warning from police earlier Wednesday about a man wanted for sexual assault in the same area.
Last November, police responded to a sexual assault call near Dundas Street West and Keele Street, not far from the city's local police station. A female sex worker had been picked up by a man in a car who claimed to be an undercover police officer. He made sexual demands, saying the woman would otherwise be taken to jail. He later released her, police said.
On Wednesday, police said the man picked up another woman last Friday only a short drive away. Police said the woman managed to escape.