WARMINGTON: Cops hunt alleged killer after his ex-wife murdered
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The manhunt for murder suspect Rakeshbhai Patel is on!
And if you live in northwest Toronto, Peel Regional Police detectives say you may be able to help.
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“This is the concentrated area of the search right now,” said a Peel police source, who has been searching for the 36-year-old suspect in the murder of his 28-year-old ex-wife, Heeral Patel.
Police issued a Canada-wide warrant for first-degree-murder for Rakeshbhai Patel, who, according to investigators, has gone off the grid since his former wife disappeared from the Islington-Steeles Aves. area on Jan. 11.
The search for Patel ramped up Jan. 13 when his former spouse’s remains were found in a Brampton park by someone walking a dog.
“It was determined that the death was suspicious and our homicide and missing persons bureau took carriage of the investigation,” police said in a statement issued Thursday.
It has now been determined to be Peel’s first murder of 2020.
And the sole focus right now is on finding the dead woman’s estranged husband. As Toronto Sun crime reporter Chris Doucette posted Thursday, “investigators are encouraging him to contact a lawyer and arrange to turn himself in.”
Despite looking into potential hiding spots in Brampton and Toronto, officers have so far not been able to locate the labourer who they believe had been working in a factory.
“If he is out there in hiding, we urge him to again turn himself into any police division anywhere,” said a police detective.
Investigators are also hoping a description of a missing car — a 2009 silver, four-door Honda Civic, with the licence plate CDMP042 — will help jog peoples’ memories.
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“The suspect is missing and so is the car,” said an officer. “Maybe somebody in the Finch and Weston Rd. area has seen the car recently or in the previous few days. If they have, call Peel police or Toronto Police right away.”
Autopsy results have not been made public and police have not commented on cause of Heeral Patel’s death. But one person close to the probe said the working theory has centred on possible strangulation.
Whatever happened, it’s a very sad and ugly reality.
“She was just trying to free herself of the ex-husband and he was not approving of that,” said a source.
But potential motives can be explored later. For now, officers are working hard to get him before the courts. They’re ruling nothing out.
But if you are helping him, police highlight the severity of the case and warn of the potential danger that you could be facing.
Police urge anyone with information to call police at 905-453-2121, ext. 3205, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Investigators are striving for justice for slain Heeral Patel. They say it starts with the arrest of her ex-husband.
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