'Sheer hell for us': Family of missing woman Shalini Singh speak as Hamilton police search landfill

One of the last times anyone heard from Shalini Singh is when she called her mother on Dec. 4. 

Anita Singh spoke to CBC Hamilton from her Burlington, Ont., home on Tuesday afternoon, tears streaming down her face, her husband and Shalini's father, Dalip, sitting next to her. The family was interviewed as a police search in a landfill continued.

"She just kept saying, 'I love you, mom, I love you mom, I love you, mom.' And I said, 'What's the matter with you, Shalini? Are you all right?'" Anita said. "And she hung up all of a sudden." 

In the days following, Anita and Dalip said they frantically tried to get in touch with her — calling her and her boyfriend's phones and going to their apartment in downtown Hamilton. On Dec. 10, they went to the police station and reported her and her boyfriend missing. 

Hamilton police tracked Singh's boyfriend down shortly after — at a family member's home in the Halton region, said acting Det. Sgt. Daryl Reid at a news conference on Tuesday.

The boyfriend is not co-operating with the investigation, but Reid wouldn't say if he's a suspect or person of interest. Police are also not releasing his name at this time.

"All I can say is we're just looking into his possible involvement," Reid said.

Based on concerning information gathered at the beginning of the police investigation, the homicide unit took over early on, Reid said. 

This week, after exhausting other lines of investigation, officers began combing through the Glanbrook landfill for Singh, Reid said. 

"It's sheer torture, sheer hell for us," said Dalip. "Every time the phone rings, I keep hoping maybe she's going to call." 

Search could take 6 weeks, police say

Police have reviewed "hundreds of hours" of video footage from Singh's downtown apartment building, Reid said. 

"There is no video that we have located at this time that shows Shalini leaving her building after Dec. 4," he said. "We are investigating the possibility that Shalini was killed in her apartment and removed from the building through the building's garbage disposal system."

Detectives traced the building's garbage to the Kenora Waste Transfer Station, which police searched on Dec. 15, Reid said. Nothing was located there, as the garbage from the apartment building had already been moved to the Glanbrook landfill. 

They began the search there on Monday and will continue up to six weeks as they look for human remains and other evidence in an area about 800 square metres.

"This is to my knowledge the first time Hamilton police have looked in a landfill of this size to try to locate a person," Reid said.

"They're gonna be opening every bag and searching through everything that is located in that target zone. And the goal of this is to locate Shalini."

Friend calls Singh 'an amazing person'

Singh is described by family and friends as intelligent, cheerful and kind — the type of person who is eager to help anyone who needs it. 

She was working as a mental health crisis worker in the Halton region for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), according to her LinkedIn profile. In a statement to CBC Hamilton, Halton CMHA CEO Rashaad Vahed said Singh's absence has deeply impacted her colleagues.

"Our team and clients are missing the kindness and empathy she demonstrated in working with those facing mental health and addiction challenges," said Vahed. 

"Over the past months, we've continued to hope — for her family and for us — that we would have the comfort of her being located."

Singh was also a board director of Suicide Prevention Community Council of Hamilton, a non-profit advocacy group, volunteered in the community and did standup comedy. 

"She never stopped smiling," Anita, her mother, said. "She was so happy and she was so loving." 

At a vigil earlier this month in Singh's honour, her friend, Amanda Bobbitt, described her as "quirky" with an "exceptional sense of humour."

"She is all around an amazing person," Bobbitt said. "You want to keep hoping [she's safe] but as time goes past, it's getting harder to do." 

Singh is described as five feet four inches tall and 120 pounds. She has brown eyes and shoulder-length black hair. 

Anyone with information about Singh's whereabouts is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers. 

If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. If you're affected by family or intimate partner violence, you can look for help through crisis lines and local support services. ​​