Tracey Ann Bruney

Tracey Ann Bruney was a happy five-year-old girl who laughed all the time. In December 1974, the little girl with black curly hair had been brought to Toronto from her native Dominica to be reunited with her mother, Merle, and to meet her stepfather, Earl Chambers, and her new half-sister, Terri. Tracey, a Black child, had only been in Canada for five months, but she was settling in well. She seemed to enjoy her new life and her kindergarten class at St. Clare Catholic School. Her principal remembered her as a good student who got along very well with other kids and fitted right in.

On the morning of Wednesday, May 14, 1975, Tracey’s mother dropped her off at the schoolyard on Northcliffe Boulevard, just seconds before the 9:00 a.m. bell. But Tracey never made it to her classroom. When she didn’t return home for lunch, her mother went to the school to look for her, but no one had seen the little girl. A frantic search began. Hours later and about 16 kilometers away, the search came to a tragic end. Around 1:00 p.m., a 13-year-old boy playing in Marie Curtis Park saw a small body lying face down in the shallow water of Etobicoke Creek. Police and paramedics responded, but it was too late. The child was rushed to Queensway General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

An autopsy later confirmed the little girl was Tracey Ann Bruney. The cause of death was drowning, but the examination also revealed she had suffered a severe beating, with cuts and bruises to her head and neck. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Investigators from the Metro Toronto Police homicide squad believed she had been attacked and then thrown into the creek. The case was immediately treated as a homicide, shaking the city and becoming every parent's worst nightmare.

The investigation began, but police hit a wall from the very first day. Over the following weekend, a crucial piece of evidence surfaced. Tracey’s black vinyl lunch bag was discovered in a yard on Northcliffe Boulevard, not far from St. Clare school. Its location suggested that Tracey had been abducted shortly after her mother left her, forcefully pulled into a car near the schoolyard. Despite this clue, police had no suspects and few leads to follow. A $2,000 reward was offered for information, but it did not lead to a breakthrough.

For decades, Tracey's case grew cold, one of more than 550 unsolved murders on the books of the Toronto Police Service. Her mother’s heartbroken words from 1975 echoed through the years: "Why is it that children pay for everything? Why do we always turn on the radio and hear of children being kidnapped or killed?" The family was left with unanswerable questions and the unimaginable pain of their loss.

In recent years, the Toronto Police cold case unit has brought renewed attention to Tracey's murder. Investigators have confirmed that they possess DNA evidence related to the case, a scientific tool unavailable in 1975. They hope that advancements in technology, combined with the passage of time, might finally lead to a break. "Time is a friend in cold cases because people change," one detective noted, expressing hope that relationships may have shifted and someone's conscience might be moved to come forward. As of June 2026, Tracey Ann Bruney's murder remains unsolved. Police continue to seek any information that could bring justice for the little girl who never got to grow up. Anyone with information is asked to contact TPS Homicide at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).