Margarita Shumakova

Margarita Shumakova was an 18-year-old student working to build her future. Born in Kazakhstan, she lived with her mother in a Toronto apartment building near York Mills Road and the Don Valley Parkway. Neighbours remembered her as a quiet young woman who, along with her mother, never caused any trouble. Margarita was upgrading her high school credits at the Scarborough Centre for Alternative Studies. She was known to have good English and had lived in the area with her mother for several years before they moved about a year prior to her death.

The Canada Day long weekend of 2011 began with celebration, but for Margarita, it would be her last. In the early hours of Sunday, July 3, 2011, she was seen outside the City Nightclub at 296 Richmond St. W. in Toronto's Entertainment District. At around 1 a.m., clad in a black dress, Margarita was spotted for the final time. She had arrived at the club with a small group of friends, as she did not own a car. When she failed to return home, her family reported her missing to the Toronto Police Service.

Five days later, on the evening of Friday, July 8, a resident out for a walk made a devastating discovery along a quiet, isolated stretch of Concession Road 8 in the rural community of Uxbridge, about 80 kilometres northeast of Toronto. The body found was soon tentatively identified as Margarita Shumakova, a confirmation later solidified by dental records. The discovery shifted the case from a missing person investigation in Toronto to a homicide investigation under the jurisdiction of the Durham Regional Police. It was the second homicide in Durham Region that year.

An autopsy was completed, but investigators made the decision to withhold the cause of death from the public. The Durham Regional Police, working in conjunction with Toronto police, began to piece together Margarita's final days, appealing to the public for any information about her whereabouts on July 2nd and 3rd. The investigation led them to focus on whether she had met her killer at the nightclub.

Within that same summer, the investigation identified a suspect. Durham police issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant for 35-year-old Babak Ghanad, who was of no fixed address, charging him with first-degree murder in connection with Margarita's death. However, investigators soon came to believe that Ghanad had fled Canada shortly after the killing.

Years have passed, but the case remains an active and unsolved homicide. Babak Ghanad has never been apprehended and is still wanted on the outstanding murder warrant. Police continue to believe he is outside of the country. Margarita's mother, who was too distraught to speak with reporters at the time and did not speak English well, was left to grieve the violent end to her daughter's young life.

The investigation into the murder of Margarita Shumakova is ongoing. Anyone with information about her activities during the 2011 Canada Day weekend, or the current whereabouts of Babak Ghanad, is urged to contact the Durham Regional Police Homicide Unit at 1-888-579-1520. Anonymous tips can be provided to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).