Neighbours heard woman's screams before she froze to death: Toronto Police

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Neighbours heard the screams of a Toronto woman with dementia who died after wandering away from her home in the middle of the coldest night of the year - but one man said he had no idea anything was wrong.

The body of the 66-year-old woman was discovered on a sidewalk around 5:30 a.m. Monday by a woman delivering newspapers. The woman was just a block away from her home near McNicoll Avenue and Brimley Road, in the city's northeast.

Police canvassing neighbours learned that people in two houses near where the woman was found on Kennaley Crescent had heard screaming around 2 a.m. One had even looked outside and noticed someone stumbling around.

But no one intervened or called police.

"It's a circumstance where we should have been notified to attend. That's what we do. Could it have saved a life? I don't know. I would think so," said Sergeant David Dubé. "As a community, we have an obligation to look after each other. That's what it's about."

Police also found "clawing" marks on the screen door of a house and a car near where the woman was found, Sgt. Dubé said.

George Cheang, who lives on Kennaley Crescent, said he was awoken in the middle of the night by sounds of screaming on the street but assumed they were just the sounds of neighbours arguing or returning home from a party. He said the screams were loud enough to stir him out of sleep, but not enough to get him out of bed.

Mr. Cheang said he would have acted differently if he had he known what was happening or if the situation were to repeat itself.

"The way I see it is, it happened on my street. It could have happened on your street," said the 22-year-old who has lived with his parents in the neighbourhood since they moved from Macau, China, 10 years ago.

"This is a first-time experience, but hopefully it's the last time."

Mr. Cheang said the neighbourhood is a safe one, with a mix of working-class families from a variety of different backgrounds. Most neighbours on the quiet street of largely attached brick homes are fairly friendly with one another, he said. "We do say hi, we help each other out."

The woman was discovered at the end of Arthur St. Bernard's driveway at 9 Kennaley Cres. He said he hadn't heard any screaming overnight, adding that he would have done something if he had.

"I've lived here for 25 years and I've seen quite a few things happen along here, but nothing like this," Mr. St. Bernard said, adding that in the past, he's seen a mugging and someone break into a car in the area.

Other residents who awoke to sirens and police lights Monday morning also expressed surprise that this had happened in their neighbourhood.

Lucy Abdelmaseeh, who lives about half a block down from where the woman was found, said she didn't hear anything. Though she believes she would have called police if she heard the screaming, she said her neighbours possibly didn't intervene out of fear for their own safety.

"You don't know who's going to be there when you open the door," she said.

Cheryl, who also lives down the street from and who did not want to give her last name, said she was outraged when she heard that the woman had sought help but was ignored.

"I think it's crazy, you see something or hear something, why wouldn't you call police?"

And though the residents don't know which houses were involved, she said the incident had her and others second-guessing those around her own backyard. "It may change some individual's feelings towards others."

Others believed that, though the incident is unfortunate, at least it was not a criminal act.

"This was an accident," said Jimmy Chen, who lives two houses down from where the woman was found, speaking in Cantonese. "Accidents you can't avoid."

Paramedics tried to revive the woman, but had trouble because her body was so cold. She was pronounced dead in hospital at 7:05 a.m. Hypothermia is the suspected cause of death, Sgt. Dubé said, but an autopsy will be performed.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was dressed in winter clothes but had removed her jacket and glasses.

The woman's husband noticed she wasn't in bed around 2 a.m., but assumed she had gone downstairs to sleep on the sofa, Sgt. Dubé said. When the husband awoke again an hour later, he realized she had disappeared and began driving around the neighbourhood to look for her. He finally called police around 4:45 a.m.

Domenico Capotorto, 60, lives two houses over from the couple. He said that the 66-year-old woman has lived in the house with her husband for the past 15 years or so, and that she didn't appear to speak English.

"She was a nice lady. I would see her walking in front of the house and say hi, but that was it," he said.

He said he wasn't aware of ever seeing the woman looking lost or confused, but that he'd heard she had gotten lost last year and that police had had to get involved. Eventually, he said, she was found wandering at a nearby shopping mall.

Temperatures dipped as low as -20 overnight with a wind chill of -28, making Monday the coldest day so far this winter.