A striking Steelworker is devastated after finding a missing Toronto toddler dead on the frozen ground.
“He looked just peaceful in the snow,” said Dave Elines on Friday while choking back tears.
Elijah Marsh, 3, wandered out of his grandmother’s apartment building on Thursday morning wearing just a diaper, T-shirt and boots.
Elines said he and fellow striking Steelworkers left their picket line to search for Marsh after hearing about it on the radio.
They checked in with police before looking under front porches and cars on the North York street where the boy was last seen by a security camera wandering away around 4 a.m.
“Five or 10 houses in, that’s where he was,” said Elines.
Marsh was found without vital signs around 10 a.m. Thursday.
“My heart goes out to the family,” said Elines. “I can hardly even handle it, so I don’t know how they are handling it at all.”
Marsh’s death saddened people around the city and country. An online crowdfunding campaign drew more than 3,100 contributors who pledged more than $110,000 to cover the cost of Marsh’s funeral.
Meanwhile, a growing memorial for the boy was set up outside of the apartment building where his grandmother lives. Well-wishers placed flowers, cards and dozens of stuffed animals.
Some were shocked to hear that, one day after Marsh’s death, a four-year-old boy was found naked and crying outside in -15 C weather in another part of Toronto. That boy’s mother has been charged with child abandonment.
