TORONTO — Ontario’s chief coroner said it will take days for his office to officially identify the 10 people who died in Toronto on Monday after the driver of a white van rampaged through the city’s main thoroughfare.
But in some cases, employers and relatives of the victims have come forward to confirm their deaths.
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The chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, said his office relies only on dental records, fingerprints or DNA testing for official identification in cases like this. That it is a slow process, he said.
“Frankly it takes time to get records,” he told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. “It takes time to meet families.”
Complicating the process, it appears that the families of some victims may live overseas.
Based on the available information, here’s what we know so far about the people who died in the attack:
— Anne Marie D’Amico
D’Amico, 30, worked at the Canadian head office of Invesco, an investment management company based in Atlanta. Peter Intraligi, president of Invesco Canada, confirmed her death in an emailed statement as did Tennis Canada, the national governing body for the sport, for which she volunteered.
Since the age of 12, D’Amico had also volunteered at the Rogers Cup, a professional tennis tournament played in Montreal and Toronto. Her family described her in a statement sent to Canadian news outlets as the “definition of altruism.”
“She wouldn’t stop until she went the extra mile for others,” the family said. “She genuinely wanted to care for all those around her even if it meant sacrificing a portion of herself in return for others’ happiness. She only had kindness in her.”
Gavin Ziv, the vice president of professional events at Tennis Canada, said in a statement that D’Amico “lived for working at Rogers Cup and seeing her fellow volunteers each summer.”
Her parents, brother and grandmothers were also volunteers at the tournament.
“Her passion for Rogers Cup was contagious, and we are honored to let the world know what an amazing person she was and the great things she did for others,” he said.
Ziv told CBC Radio on Wednesday that D’Amico started out with the tournament as a ball girl. At the time of her death, she was managing a group of about 200 volunteers.
— Dorothy Sewell
Sewell, 80, was also a sports fan, her grandson Elwood Delaney told the CBC.
“She loved her Maple Leafs; she loved her Blue Jays,” Delaney said referring to Toronto’s hockey and baseball teams. “I don’t think she ever missed a Blue Jays game.”
Delaney said Sewell, who had worked at Sears Canada, died while going to the bank. News of her death, he said, had produced a mix of “pure anger and then sadness” in him.
— Munair Najjar
Jordan’s state-run news agency reported on Tuesday that Munair Najjar, a Jordanian citizen, had been killed in the attack, and that the Jordanian Foreign Ministry was coordinating the repatriation of the body. He had been in Toronto on a family visit, the agency said.
Several Canadian news outlets reported that Najjar was visiting children and grandchildren in Toronto at the time of his death.
— Renuka Amarasinghe
Amarasinghe, 48, a native of Sri Lanka, had worked as a nutrition staff member at a number of schools in Toronto over the past three years. The Toronto District School Board announced her death in a statement. She had just completed her first day at a new school at the time of her death, the school board said.
The youth council at the Toronto Mahavihara Buddhist Meditation Centre, where she was a member, said in an online post that Amarasinghe was the single mother of a 7-year-old son, Dioyon. The group has set up a GoFundMe campaign for the boy, which by late Wednesday afternoon, had raised more than 61,000 Canadian dollars (about $47,500). The child, the group said, has no other family in Canada.
— Chul Min Kang
Kang, who was known as Eddie, worked as a chef at the downtown location of Copacabana, a small chain of Brazilian steakhouses.
A native of South Korea, Kang was identified to several Canadian news outlets by the restaurant’s management.
“He has a passion for food,” Armando Sandoval, a co-worker told Global News, a Canadian television network. “I feel too many things, I’m still in shock.”