Police questioned a person of interest (pictured) at 31 Division after a man was shot several times before being tossed onto Highway 401 from a moving vehicle Tuesday. It's not yet clear if the woman is considered a suspect in the murder or merely has useful information.
The victim's body tumbled onto the busy eastbound collector lanes near Keele St. around 2:45pm. He was pronounced dead at the scene, but medical experts haven't yet determined if he was killed by gunshots, or after possibly being struck by oncoming traffic.
The end result was the same however, and his body lay covered by a blue tarp in the middle of the highway, where it remained for hours before finally being taken to the Coroner's office.
The deceased is known to police, but his identity hasn't been revealed.
"We are aware of who the deceased is, but I'm not going to make a comment on that until we speak to next of kin," said Det Mike Barsky at an evening press conference.
The suspect's car, possibly a champagne-coloured Lexus, was seen racing away from the scene after the body was dropped. Police believe that same vehicle was later found on fire at 2
Armel Court near Albion and Weston.
That's directly in front of the Humber Valley Golf Course, which was subsequently cleared while police combed the area. The K-9 unit was brought in and police set up a perimeter.
"Police arrived on scene, at which time they located a deceased party," explained P.C. Tony Vella. "He was lying on the roadway on the collectors lanes at the 401 at Keele. The Homicide Squad is monitoring the case, 31 Division officers are investigating it as well. We are working in co-operation with the O
ntario
Provincial Police in regards to this investigation.
"The body has been taken to the Coroner's building at this time, and again we're doing a methodical investigation and it's going to take several hours."
There are reports the person who owns the car is a woman, and it's believed she may be the same person authorities took in for questioning.
Cops were admittedly considering several possible theories, but now seem to believe that the man was shot inside the moving car before being pushed out onto the highway.
"They're doing their best at this time to figure out exactly what the sequence of events were, and they're doing a grid search and they're doing their best to find out exactly what has occurred," a guarded Vella adds.
A police press release issued late Tuesday night claims the victim 'appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds.'
As a result of the investigation, the O.P.P. completely closed all the eastbound collector lanes in the area causing frustrating congestion.
Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars blocked off the highway and traffic stuck behind the probe was slowly diverted. Drivers have been directed towards alternate routes like Lawrence, Wilson and Sheppard - and they quickly became plugged with traffic.
To make matters worse, unsuspecting commuters were coming off open ramps and driving straight into the jam, further complicating matters.
By Tuesday night at around 11pm, some of the lanes were opened to traffic and the rest were expected to be up and running sometime between 1-3am.
Police are currently interviewing several witnesses, and are asking anyone with further information to contact them at (
416) 808-3100.