Remains found in Canadian landfill belong to Indian-origin woman, confirms police

Ottawa: The remains found in a Canadian landfill in May belong to an Indian-origin woman who went missing last year, and her partner has been charged with second-degree murder, police said on Monday.

Shalini Singh, 40, was reported missing by her family on December 10, 2024, Hamilton Police said in a statement. A mental health care worker, Singh last spoke with her family on December 4 and was last seen entering her apartment in Hamilton city two days before that.

Investigations revealed that Singh was a victim of "foul play," and police found that she had been removed from her residence through the building's garbage disposal system.

After identifying the landfill where the garbage from the building is disposed, police located partial human remains there on May 21.  DNA testing at the Centre of Forensic Sciences confirmed last week that the remains recovered by police were Singh's, the statement said.

Based on these results and the evidence collected during the investigation, 42-year-old Jeffery Smith of Burlington was arrested last Friday. Smith, who was Singh's common-law partner at the time of her death, has been charged with second-degree murder and indignity to human remains, according to the statement.

A common-law partner is someone who has been living with a person for at least 12 consecutive months, according to the official site of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada.

Smith appeared in court on Saturday.

"The search of the landfill site is ongoing, and it has been estimated that the search of the target area will be completed by June 27," according to the statement.

Police urged people with any information that could assist with the investigation to contact them.