They could be your neighbour, your co-worker or your friend. Maybe they've concocted a story. Maybe you know exactly what they've done.
The Toronto Police Fugitive Squad has released a rare list detailing their most wanted targets with hopes the public can steer them in the right direction.
"We looked at ten of the most serious crimes and ones where they have the potential to re-offend in Toronto and we want to remove that criminality from Toronto," Toronto Police Det. Sgt. Wayne Banks said in an interview Friday morning at the squad's covert Toronto office. "They come to Canada, they come to Toronto because it's easy for them to hide. They get into the communities, the communities hide them."
By Friday afternoon, the list of 10 had changed to a list of nine, thanks to investigative leads that could be jeopardized if the case is made public.
The Fugitive Squad usually does not publicize their targets until the arrests have been made, so as not to drive the fugitives further underground. The following list, however, presents some exceptional circumstances.
"They've very evasive," Banks said. "These are ones that we have exhausted everything that we can do to locate them, so now we have to turn to the public and ask for the public's help in identifying if these people are still in Toronto, to tell us where they are and then that way, we can affect an arrest and then remove them from Canada."
- Andre Neverson, 49, is accused of murdering his sister and his girlfriend in Brooklyn, New York in 2002. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Neverson has displayed "a violent criminal history with a pronounced pattern of violence towards women." The Trinidad and Tabago citizen speaks "several languages and is known to always carry a firearm." According to the Marshals, Neverson has been known to disguise his normally shaved head with wigs. He has friends in the Greater Toronto Area.
- Shadia Mahamad Muse, 28, is wanted by the FBI in the death of her newborn child, who was allegedly found in the trunk of her car. Information that Muse had family in Ottawa led police to confirm she had lived there, but when they went looking for her, investigators were told she had moved to Toronto. She is believed to be living in Toronto's west end.
- Peter Silvera, 38, is a former Jamaican police officer accused of murdering two people in 2004. He has family in Brampton and is believed to be hiding in the Toronto area under an assumed alias.
- Delroy McGowan, 41, was convicted in absentia in 2004 of drug-related charges in Chicago, for which he faces 60 years in prison.
- Abdinasir Abdi, 29, is wanted by police in St. Louis, Missouri for two rapes and sodomy. According to police, he has family living in Toronto's Somali community.
- Frederick McLean, 62, is an auto mechanic who has a love for vintage cars. He is wanted in San Diego, California on several counts of sexual assault on a child. There have been several possible sightings of McLean in Ontario since he went on the lam in 2005.
- Daniel William Hiers, 41, was dismissed from his job as a police officer in Charleston, South Carolina after allegations of sexual criminal conduct with a minor, after which he allegedly murdered his wife. Hiers speaks Spanish and Portuguese. He has been wanted since 2005.
- Vivian Adiza Yusuf, 43, is wanted by the FBI for a $1.6-million health care fraud in Texas. She is believed to have flown to Buffalo, then driven across the border to Toronto in 2011.
- Robert William Fisher, 52, is accused of murdering his wife and two children before blowing up the family home in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2001. According to police, Fisher is a physically fit, avid outdoorsman who is known to chew a lot of tobacco. He has a noticeable gold crown on his upper left bicuspid tooth and may walk with his chest pushed out due to a lower back injury. While Fisher has ties to New Mexico and Florida, several tips have placed him in Canada. He is believed to have several weapons, including a high-powered rifle.
Given how long the fugitives have been on the run, Banks suspects many of them are being harboured.
"They have to be protected somehow," Banks said. "There's got to be somebody that has given them an alias, has given them a job, has put them into some type of housing to where they don't need to use their real name and they've been able to avoid capture."
To those who may be harbouring a fugitive, Banks had this warning: "We will come after you, we will charge you and we will prosecute you."
Anyone with information about these cases is asked to contact the Fugitive Squad at 416-808-5930 or FugitiveSquad@torontopolice.on.ca. Anonymous tips can be made through Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or texting TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).