Lizzie Tomlinson

Child in Playground is Openly Abducted; Found Dead Days Later

This excerpt was emailed to me from a reader in Canada. It comes from the Websleuths online forum:

On Saturday May 24th, 1980, polite, shy 6-year-old Lizzie Tomlinson was playing with friends in a parkette known by neighbourhood kids as “Stinky’s Park” on the southeast corner of Shuter and Sumach Sts in the east of Toronto’s downtown region. At approximately 3:30 p.m., a man later described by numerous witnesses as between 25-35 years old, about 5 ft 7, 160-180 lbs, tanned, blue eyed, with long dark brown hair, a beard, possibly left-handed, and wearing a tan tank top, blue jeans, and brown running shoes, lured her away from the park. An intensive search was immediately launched, but it wasn’t until Monday morning that Lizzie’s defiled body was found in a forlorn industrial area, in some bushes near railway tracks at Bayview Ave. (West Don Roadway) and Front St., roughly a kilometre from where she was taken. It is believed she and her killer walked the entire distance together. She had been beaten and strangled, and was partially covered by weeds and two long boards. The pathologist examining her recorded injuries that included multiple scratches and cuts, a broken jaw, a fist-inflicted injury on her neck, and other bruises on her face and thighs. Horrifically, the killer had shoved the stalk of a weed up into her vagina and through her stomach and upper body until it came to rest near her right shoulder. She lived for at least an hour, and possibly for a few hours, after the insertion of the stalk, but was likely unconscious. Since she had been partially buried, police believed the killer had spent quite a bit of time at the scene.

During the investigation that followed, witnesses came forward with a flurry of sightings. Some kids said they had been approached by a man fitting the suspect’s description, and offering ice cream, in the month prior to the abduction. Other witnesses saw Lizzie and her killer walking hand-in-hand east on Shuter St. and south on River St. A man working outside a factory on Bayview Ave., only a few hundred feet from the scene of the murder, saw Lizzie and her killer walking south along a footpath that runs between Bayview Ave. and Don River, but he thought nothing of it at the time and resumed his work. However, another witness, a taxi driver, said he had picked up a man and a little girl fitting the descriptions of Lizzie and her killer at Sumach St. and Wascana Ave., and had driven them to Bayview Ave. and King St., very close to the murder scene. His statement contradicts those of several other people, so he was quite possibly mistaken.

Hapless bearded men were randomly corralled left and right in the days and weeks after the murder, and the general public was whipped into a fury over reinstating capital punishment.

Because he fit the same description, police speculated the perpetrator may have been the same man responsible for the rape of a waitress one year earlier and just three blocks from the park where Lizzie was taken.

On June 5th, 1980, Lizzie’s 26-year-old cousin Gregory Guerin was arrested and charged with her murder. Guerin was cleared and discharged in late December at his preliminary hearing. No one else was ever arrested for the murder of Lizzie Tomlinson.

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This is a horrific and heartbreaking case. You can read a lot more about it and the aftermath, as well as what has come to light since, here on the unsolvedcanada forum. This child was actually impaled! And she lived for an hour afterwards. I don't think it gets much more evil than that. It's horrid and ugly and I can't stand the thought that this man is running around, possibly doing this again and again. The most shocking thing, I think, for me, was that so many witnesses gave such a clear, concise and consistent description of the abductor and the search began moments after the child was taken and, yet, still he was not caught! Although I am a strong believer in destiny and karma and that our lives are part of a greater lesson, I have a hard time when life demonstrates over and over again how powerless we are. It does not seem as if we have even the tiniest smidgen of strength in the face of circumstances and that very few of us ever influence the destiny of anyone, including ourselves! This child, for all intents and purposes, should have been saved. But, instead, she was led off easily and made to suffer in this heartbreaking manner. It's mindblowing.

When I tackled this case, I had a few hours window and a lot of information. I am not sure what more I can offer in the search for the killer; they already have a fantastically clear description of this man! But perhaps in reading the chart, we will discover something more about him, something personal and helpful. That is all I can hope for here. In reading the chart, I had a conflict in how to read Lizzie's houses. She was only 6 years old and her parents are the active searchers so I thought perhaps I'd use the fifth house. However, in reality, she was alone and on her own, making her own decisions and was the one who chose to go with this man. She was not instructed to do so by anyone and her parents were not present to either intervene or abet. So I had to weigh things carefully. I ended up reading the charts both ways, looking for some sense. This is what and how I finally did it.




In reading the first chart, which was for the time the man was first seen in her company, I tried reading both the first and fifth houses. The first house proved to be most insightful. Notice in this chart that Libra is rising and Aries is falling. Venus, the first house ruler, is in the ninth house with the planets Mercury and the Sun nearby. This tells me that Lizzie, ruled by Venus, was outside near a wooded area where there was sports equipment or other outdoor gear like swingsets or bbq grills. I don't know much about Stinky's Park but I think it might be equipped for outdoor activities. Anyways, Mercury is nearby but in another sign, showing other children present but not related to her. And the Sun, also nearby in Gemini but not conjoined to Mercury, tells me there was a man on the perimeter of the park but he was not "with" any of the other children. The Sun is disposed of by Mercury, which tells me that his purpose for being there centered around the children. He was attracted to the kids.

Mercury, we must note, is also under the Sun's beams, meaning that these children were in grave danger. The chart co ruler, the Moon, is in the first house, disposed of by Venus, also a chart ruler. Lizzie was "where she wanted to be" thus far; she went there because she wanted to and was not, at any time earlier, coerced or forced. But we must also note that the Moon is square Venus, showing poor judgment and clouded vision. She had the totally wrong impression of events that occurred and probably trusted this man. The Moon is trine the Sun, showing this to be a fact and also showing just how easy it was for him to seduce her. Notice also that Neptune in the second house is opposed to Mercury in the ninth, showing that he was just looking for a child, any child, in fact, and did not target her. He tried his seduction on other kids first.. he just lucky with her. He was offering a lie, an illusion, a promise of candy or other forbidden treats. Something her parents would not let her have but she wanted dearly. He promised her that.




Of all the aspects, the only omen I see is Saturn, the fourth house ruler, lingering in the twelfth. Neptune is square to Saturn, indicating in a sort of vague way, that her death was a part of the seduction. This indicates, although not really strongly, that he was planning to kill a child from the get go. Pluto in the first trine Mercury shows that he felt that killing a child would be easy; he could "get violent" with little resistance. And she was perfect because she was the "smallest" and the "weakest" of the bunch. Venus is sinister to a sextile with Mars, the seventh house ruler, which seems to say that she followed him. He may have seemed to have led her, but I think he had her follow him, to assume greater control over the outcome. Once again, I note that Mars, his ruler, is disposed of by Mercury, the symbol for children. He was there to get a kid, period. No ifs ands or buts about it. A key aspect that much be mentioned is the waning square between the Moon and Venus while these planets are in mutual reception. Although the square is dexter and losing power the mutual reception cannot be ignored. Taken alone, this single aspect will cause things to come to pass. Add to this that both the Moon and Venus begin the afternoon as Lizzie's ruling planets.

The chart for 4 pm shows the Moon moving into the twelfth house. Pluto crosses the Ascendant between 4:30 pm and 5 pm. Mars, the seventh house ruler, remains in the eleventh house showing that this man is still playing a "friend" with Lizzie. Mars is conjoined Jupiter and they are both disposed of by Mercury, which continues to show that this man is very confident around kids. He knows how to make them laugh and to relax and trust him. I think he attacked her between 4:30 and 5 pm, following the Moon and Pluto. Not too long afterwards, the chart ruler, Venus, moves into the eighth with Mercury and the Sun. I think he attacked her and killed her pretty quickly, even though she didn't die for awhile.




By 6 pm, the chart shows Scorpio rising with Pluto in the twelfth. The seventh house ruler, now Venus, is in the eighth, showing murder in the commission of a sexual act. I realize this is all known fact but I can't resist seeing if the charts can support the facts. Notice also that Mars, the chart co ruler, is in the tenth house, which tells us that this all happened "out in the open". They were not in a home somewhere or tucked away in the backseat of a car. This child was killed by this man out in an open area, perhaps near a highway or a public area. She may very well have been killed where she was found, near those railroad tracks. This may be why the chart ruler from the beginning, Venus, never left the ninth house until after she was attacked. The ninth house is the travel house and rules stuff like railroads.




The charts from 5:30 forward, until after 7 pm, show the seventh house ruler, Venus, in the eighth house. Doesn't this support the theory that he spent quite some time with her, both sexually and also after she was dead or dieing? This whole horror seems to have gone on for quite some time, after starting very shortly after he nabbed her. Sad. But I will chin up and take a shot at gleaning something more about this man, in the hopes that it might help find him. I doubt if it will and I'm sure my detractors will kick my butt for this one, too, but here goes. He is ruled by Mars in Virgo. That is the planet that rules the seventh cusp at the time of her abduction. It defines the man she met and left with. In traditional Astrology this describes someone who is fairly muscular and is in fine physical shape. Health conscious and discriminating. Neat, clean and well trimmed. Of medium height, dark to reddish brown hair and thin lips. Also, someone with a broad, high forehead, high cheekbones and large nostrils. This is a well proportioned, disciplined person who watches his diet and probably exercises. Not a hunter type or an athlete but someone who may lift weights or walk a lot. He might be a teacher, a custodian, a school crossing guard, a gym instructor or a team coach but of sports like football or tennis, Mercury type sports. With his proclivity with children and ability to get along with them so easily, it is likely he works with children in some capacity. This is especially true since the forensic chart is showing his ruler, Mars, as being disposed of by Mercury, the traditional ruler of children.

Now, I want to clarify a few things. When I say the abductor is ruled by Mars in Virgo, I am not claiming this person to be a Sun Sign Virgo or to even have Mars in Virgo in the natal chart. This is merely the symbolic measure given by the chart of that instant. Because the forensic chart captures a moment in time and gives a symbolic portrayal of what occurred, these aspects, placements and other data is merely that: symbolic. So, in that regard, those who are trying to find this man should be looking for one who symbolically represents the energies of the planet Mars, the sign Virgo and the totality of Mars in Virgo.

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