OPP offers $50K reward to identify baby girl found dead in Ontario river

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has shared a 3D facial approximation and offered up a $50,000 reward in hopes of identifying a baby girl who was found dead in the Grand River near Haldimand County almost two years ago.

The child’s remains were found on May 17, 2022, by two people fishing on a boat near Dunnville, Ont.

The OPP said the baby girl is believed to have been between the ages of 10-and-a-half months and three years old, and investigative genetic genealogy has determined that the child is of half Chinese or neighbouring countries along the southern Chinese border and North African ethnicity.

“We need the community’s help in this disturbing and tragic case involving a young child,” said OPP Det. Insp. Shawn Glassford. “We hope that the 3D facial approximation will spark someone’s memory and that they come forward. Together, we can give this child her name back.”

The OPP produced a new video, The Grand River Baby: Unsolved, that goes behind the scenes of the investigation and provides additional details about the case.

“It’s a small town. A small, close-knit town. Not a lot of people have children up here,” said Sean Clifford, one Dunnville, Ont. community member. “In a quiet town like this, you don’t usually hear stuff like this happening.”

Det. Insp. Glassford said the child’s death has had a significant impact on the town of Dunnville, Ont.

“All my years of being on the OPP… and travelling the province, I know that deaths and homicides affect communities,” he said. “This seems different.”

Anyone who may know or recognize this child or knows of a family who may have left town suddenly or moved away under circumstances that could now be considered suspicious is asked to contact the OPP.

“It’s hard to imagine someone could do something like this,” Clifford said.

VIDEO