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It's been eight days since a series of massive explosions lit the dark morning sky and shook a Downsview neighbourhood to its core. But it could be months before the body found in the scorched remains is identified.
As evacuated residents return to survey the damage, talk of class-action lawsuits and cleanup costs have filled the air. But one of the largest mysteries lingering since the explosion at the Sunrise Propane facility has yet to be resolved.
Parminder Saini, 24, a Sunrise employee, has been missing since the explosion forced the evacuation of thousands, and meanwhile his family in India endures an excruciating wait for answers.
The mechanical engineering student from India was an employee at the Murray Rd. facility and a lawyer for the company confirmed a day after the incident that his whereabouts were unknown.
Though all signs point to Saini being the unidentified victim, police remain tight-lipped about the identification process, saying only that the investigation is ongoing.
"The suspected family has been in contact with investigators but at this point we cannot offer a definitive identity," said Const. Wendy Drummond of Toronto Police.
According to previous published reports, Saini had been in Canada seven months on a student visa. He was continuing his education at Sheridan College in Brampton.
Back in India, Saini's family is frantically gathering all the necessary documents to obtain passports, Saini's brother Bikramjit said in a brief phone interview today.
"We are hoping to get a passport soon and then apply for a visa at the Canadian embassy in Delhi."
He said officials from the Indian embassy in Toronto were in touch with the family and have promised to expedite the procedure to get them a passport. Although they haven't been called by the Canadian embassy, the family has talked to the Canadian police twice in the past couple of days.
Harinder Takhar, Ontario Minister of small business and entrepreneurship, said he had earlier called the Toronto police chief and requested him to keep the communication open with the family and allay some of their fears about the identification of the body. Takhar said he has also been in touch with the WSIB to work out the procedure to return the body to the family and to arrange for compensation.
However, before the body can be released it needs to be officially identified. Toronto's deputy chief coroner of inquests, Dr. Bonita Porter, said there are a number of different ways to identify a body, most of which depend on the state of the remains.
"The most common is visually. Though in some cases that's not possible, of all the cases we do, most of the bodies are identified visually by people who know them," she said from her Toronto office.
Official records like fingerprints and dental records are commonly used when a victim's identity cannot be visually determined. In lieu of certified records, Porter said things like tattoos and scars help but even circumstantial evidence like possessions found on the victim can be used to solve the mystery.
"During a post mortem, you do an internal exam and sometimes there are some unique circumstances with certain types of surgery. And then there's the DNA, which everybody thinks is the first thing but it's not.
"DNA takes time... its not as fast as it is on television. It depends on the urgency of the case and certainly the workload at the Centre for Forensic Sciences, which is where our DNA samples are done. It takes weeks to months," she said. "This is a common misconception of television... CSI is not reality."
