Man charged with 1st-degree murder in 1998 killing of pregnant woman in Toronto

Toronto police have charged a 50-year-old man with first-degree murder in a cold case homicide from 1998. 

Donna Oglive, 24, was found dead around 7 a.m. in a parking lot at 130 Carlton St. in March 1998, Toronto police said. She had been strangled, Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith said at a news conference on Friday.

Oglive had a child and was pregnant at the time she was killed, police said. She was from British Columbia and had only been in Toronto for five weeks. 

The man, who is from Gander, Newfoundland, was arrested at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday just after midnight, according to a police news release on Friday. He is being held in custody, Smith said. 

Police have been investigating the case since 1998, the news release said. 

Investigators developed a male DNA profile from evidence at the scene but no match was found. In 2022, police used investigative genetic genealogy that led them to the accused’s family, Smith said. 

“We were able to collect a DNA sample and prove that [the accused] was the person responsible for the death of Ms. Oglive,” he said. 

Smith said the homicide may have happened during a “sex trade transaction.”