Death of Alloura Wells

Wells was the third of four children in a Toronto family, which struggled financially and relied on the income of her mother, Mary, who was employed as a manager at Tim Hortons and her father, Mike, as a labourer.[4] Wells was enrolled in a specialized drama program at Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts and came out to her family when she was 18, who were supportive.[4]

As a teenager, Wells would disappear for periods of time, often going downtown, where she was caught trying to sneak into bars in Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village.[4][5] She befriended drag performers and questioned them about dressing up and becoming "glam".[4]

Around 2012, Wells signed up for the Ontario Works income-support program and rented an apartment in Scarborough near her sister.[4] In February 2013, her mother died leading to the family to break apart, as her father and older brother became homeless and Wells was evicted. From the time of her eviction, she mainly lived in a tent in the Rosedale Ravine Lands Park.[4][6] Around 2015, Wells was once found sleeping on her sister's doorstep, disheveled and almost unrecognizable.[4]

Wells had many friends according to Monica Forrester, a transgender and sex-work activist, who described Wells as a "staple of the community".[5] According to Forrester, Wells had fallen on hard times, could not afford housing, and lived under a bridge. Wells had served short jail terms at the Vanier Centre for Women, which her father believed were for theft and breaking and entering.[4] Wells's father said that she had been engaged in sex work and had turned down offers to stay at his apartment.[7][4] Friends of Wells clarified that she would occasionally engage in survival sex work when necessary.[4] Wells and her father had last spoken in March 2017.[8]

Wells was in a romantic relationship with Augustinus Balesdent, the only boyfriend Wells had introduced to her father, however, he described their relationship as "tumultuous" and marked with use of intravenous drugs.[4]

Her Facebook account, under the name Alloura Hennessy, went dormant after 26 July 2017.[3][6] Of the last two posts, one expressed pride in her younger brother's military service and the other read: "Is wondering [what] happened to me life love loss its to much to handle right now."[4]

On 5 August 2017, a woman named Rebecca Price and a friend discovered a dead woman's body in Rosedale Ravine Lands Park in midtown Toronto.[5][6] She informed the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and an on-scene investigation was conducted by 53 Division investigators and the coroner.[1] The body was found beside a tent with drug paraphernalia;[9][4] there was no identification.[3] The body was fully dressed in women's clothing and was found with a blonde wig and a purse; there was no indication of foul play.[1] An autopsy was unable to determine a cause of death[10] or race, though the coroner determined that the woman was transgender.[4] The body had badly decomposed, with the time of death estimated at three to four weeks before its discovery.[1]

The TPS did not issue a news release when the body was found, which is standard procedure.[3] According to police spokesperson Meaghan Gray, there were no details that could be released and investigators worked to establish more information so that they could appeal to the public for assistance in an identification.[3]

The 519 community centre

Price spoke with a detective several times but realized little progress was being made. Learning that the woman was transgender from the detective, Price searched on the internet for transgender-advocacy organizations and contacted The 519 community centre in Church and Wellesley[5] on 17 August. On 25 August,[4] The 519 informed Price that staff would investigate[5] and follow up with police.[4] It was later revealed, however, that staff only reviewed police news releases and when they found no mention of an unidentified body, they did not contact the police or any other agency.[4]

In mid-August, TPS sent out a bulletin to other police services.[4] The Ontario Provincial Police alerted the TPS to a missing transgender person from Northern Ontario, but the age of that missing person did not correlate with the body discovered in Toronto. Another case from Alberta was closer in age, but was ruled out by DNA testing.[4]

At the beginning of August, Maggie's: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project (Maggie's), an advocacy group that Forrester worked with, was in touch with Wells's family.[4] They were concerned that she had stopped posting on Facebook. Forrester contacted the Vanier Centre for Women and learned they had a prisoner named Wheeler, which she thought was Wells's surname, and assumed that Wells was safe.[4]

In late October or early November, Forrester checked again with the Vanier Centre and learned that Wells had not been in prison that summer. Forrester informed Wells's father[4] and later his other daughter informed him that Wells was not in a drug rehabilitation centre.[8] Wells's father filed a missing-persons report with police on 6 November 2017, four months after she had disappeared.[7] He reported her missing to 51 Division, which covered Church and Wellesley.[4] On 8 November, TPS issued a news release of Wells's disappearance with two photographs of her.[3] Officers returned to the ravine on 9 and 10 November to search for Wells.[11]

Price learned of Wells's disappearance after Maggie's alerted the media, and both were shocked that neither TPS nor The 519 had contacted Maggie's or other social agencies working in the area.[5] Police saw similarities between the missing persons report and the body found in the ravine[3] and obtained a DNA sample from a family member for testing.[7]

On 11 November, Maggie's organized a search of the ravine[5] and along Bloor Street East where Wells was often seen.[3]

Wells's body was not easily identifiable[7] and required months of forensics work[2] with DNA testing by the Ontario Centre of Forensic Sciences.[7] The body was positively identified as Wells's on 23 November.[4][1]

Police sought to find Augustinus Balesdent, Wells's transient boyfriend,[9] who was believed to be the last person to see Wells in July and was identified as a person of interest.[12] Balesdent was a transient in his late 20s or early 30s at the time of Wells's death.[1]

After Price learned that the unidentified body she found would not receive a memorial service, she laid flowers at the site of the body's discovery.[5]

On 19 November, members of Trans Pride Toronto and Maggie's organized a vigil for the then-unidentified transgender woman[7] at Barbara Hall Park in Church and Wellesley. Following the vigil approximately 100 people[3] marched to TPS headquarters to demand accountability.[5]

A public memorial for Wells was held in the second week of December.[4]

On 12 December 2017, the Ontario legislature enacted into law that 20 November would be observed as an annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, requiring a minute of silence in the legislature. MPP Cheri DiNovo, who introduced the private member's bill in 2016, said that the legislation would be a memorial to Wells.[25]

On 27 February, Forrester created a GoFundMe page to raise money toward Wells's burial and tombstone.[26] The City of Toronto covered the cremation expense and surplus funds were planned to help finance a monthly support group to assist homeless transgender women.[26] By mid-March, the effort had raised over $100,000, some of which went toward expenses for members of Wells's family and Wells's funeral service.[27]

• Murder of Tess Richey
• 2010–2017 Toronto serial homicides