‘Remains’ Found in Demolished Home Identified as Woman Missing for Decades

A decades-old mystery has taken a chilling turn after human remains discovered during the demolition of a Canadian home were identified as a woman who vanished sometime in the 1990s.

Police say the remains belong to Brenda Marie LeBlanc, a woman born in 1963 who had lived in the Niagara Falls and St. Catharines areas of Ontario before apparently disappearing without answers.

Now investigators believe she was the victim of a homicide.

The disturbing discovery was made in November 2023, when crews were demolishing a vacant property in Niagara Falls and came across human remains.

Investigators determined the remains belonged to an adult woman and appeared to have been at the property for many years — potentially dating all the way back to the mid-1990s.

But police still had no name.

That finally changed in 2025, when investigators turned to investigative genetic genealogy, the same increasingly powerful forensic technique that has helped authorities crack numerous cold cases across North America.

With assistance from the Toronto Police Service, the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service and Texas-based Othram Laboratories, authorities were able to identify the woman as LeBlanc.

The Niagara Regional Police Service publicly announced the identification on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

“Based on the investigation to date and the forensic examination of the remains, the NRPS is investigating Brenda’s death as a homicide,” police said.

The property where LeBlanc was found has its own complicated history.

According to investigators, the building operated as a multi-unit rental residence from the late 1970s until approximately 2018. It was later left vacant, and police said multiple people unlawfully entered the property after it was abandoned.

Exactly how LeBlanc ended up there remains one of the biggest unanswered questions.

Police said investigators have not determined what connection, if any, she had to the Stanley Avenue property.

“At this time, investigators have not established how Brenda came to be at the Stanley Avenue property, and her connection to the residence remains unknown,” authorities said.

LeBlanc was originally from New Brunswick but lived in both Niagara Falls and nearby St. Catharines during the 1990s, when she would have been in her 30s.

Investigators are now trying to reconstruct her life during that period — including where she stayed, who she spent time with and what may have happened before her death.

Authorities are asking anyone who knew LeBlanc or remembers anything about her whereabouts or activities during the mid-1990s to contact police.

Investigators stressed that the owners of the property have cooperated with the homicide investigation.

The case highlights how advances in forensic science and genetic genealogy are giving law enforcement new opportunities to identify victims whose names were lost for years — and potentially bring long-delayed answers to their families.

But identifying LeBlanc has only solved one part of the mystery.

Police must now determine who killed her, why she was killed and how her remains came to be hidden inside a property where they would remain undiscovered for decades.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Niagara Regional Police Service Homicide Unit Hotline at (289) 248-1058.