'We just want closure,' says missing man's family who fears he won't be found alive

Family and friends of Andrew Kinsman say they have lost hope they will find the missing man alive and are instead pleading with whoever may have taken him to anonymously tell police where his body might be.

Greg Downer, who is the founder of the Facebook group TO Missing Rainbow Community Members, posted a grim message Tuesday night.

"To the person who took Andrew Kinsman, I implore you to please anonymously report where he can be found so that his family and friends can hopefully find closure," Downer wrote.

In an interview with CBC Toronto, Downer admitted his message was full of assumptions, including that Kinsman was abducted and murdered, however he pointed out Kinsman went missing on June 26 and investigators have uncovered very few clues since his disappearance.

"My hope is that person still has a part of them that can recognize the pain they have caused others ... I was hoping that if we appealed to that person as a person, somehow they might find the ability to come forward to anonymously report something to police," Downer added. 

Homicide detectives working "closely" on disappearance case

Downer said he came to the conclusion they would not find Kinsman alive a couple weeks ago, after an unsuccessful search on the abandoned train tracks along the Don Valley Trail, but had put off posting the update until this week.

"I think the logical side of my brain kind of suspected what the outcome was going to be," said Downer. "That was the last glimmer of hope for me in terms of finding him."

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The case is still a missing persons case, however Toronto Police homicide detectives are working closely with 51 division investigators and have been for a "considerable amount of time," according to Toronto Police Service director of communications, Mark Pugash.

"There's no evidence to take it to the threshold to have homicide take the investigation over, but police are considering that as a possibility," Pugash explained, adding that police haven't linked the Kinsman case to previous cases of missing gay men, but investigators are "looking at it very closely."

'Every day you think about it, we just want closure,' sister says

Kinsman's sister Patricia Kinsman, 65, also took to social media this week to plead with the presumed killer to return her brother's body.

"It's been ten weeks now and I think most of us have lost hope, I know I have," Patricia said. "We just want him found and brought home; we want to have him rest in peace. Every day you think about it, we just want closure."

Patricia also said investigators told her Andrew's cell phone was turned off the day he disappeared on June 26.

"I didn't think that was a good sign right from the start," she said.

The Cabbagetown Festival takes place this weekend in Kinsman's neighbourhood — family and friends hope getting Kinsman's name and face in the media again might generate some new clues in the investigation.