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A Toronto psychiatrist suffering from depression who had been missing from his home for nine days was found dead in the basement of his apartment building.

A tip from Dr. Michael Wainberg's family led Toronto police Wednesday evening to the psychiatrist's body in a storage area in the Howland Avenue apartment building where he lived with his wife. His identity was not released until yesterday.

Detective Constable Graham Atkinson of 14 Division said the family remembered they had not checked that area of the building and called police.

The cause of the 37-year-old doctor's death was not immediately known. An autopsy has been performed and toxicology tests have been ordered, but police said they do not know when results will be available.

Det. Constable Atkinson said the family was with police when Dr. Wainberg's body was found.

"They were upset," Det. Constable Atkinson said.

Led by his wife, high-school teacher Beverley Hebb Wainberg, Dr. Wainberg's family had organized a large search party to comb the Annex neighbourhood where he had been thought to have been wandering.

Dr. Wainberg was reported to have been treating his depression with medication but had left the apartment on May 14 with no identification, medication or glasses.

Before running his own private practice, in which he treated many homeless people, Dr. Wainberg worked from 1995 to 1998 at the former Queen Street Mental Health Centre, now a part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

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