Police post YouTube video to help find missing T.O. teens

by Kaitlin | March 20, 2007 at 11:01 am

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The three missing teens were friends with Phillip Ho Sing Sit, another Toronto teen who was murdered in 2005. This is the first time I've heard of police using YouTube to help track down missing persons...has anyone else heard of this or other ways law enforcement have used YouTube to aid in their police work?

It's also very interesting to me that posting this video has mobilized the YouTube community, and encouraged people to actively get involved with the search.

The three disappeared last August, less than a week after Sit's body was found in a forested area at King and Weston Rds. in York Region. The 17-year-old had last been seen on Sept. 24, 2005, near his home at Bathurst and College Sts. Police were told Sit had gone out to meet friends.

The three teens "were friends at the time of Mr. Sit's disappearance," said Det. Rhonda Corsi of the York Region police homicide bureau. "We haven't been able to confirm the nature of their relationship."

Corsi said the missing teens are possible witnesses, not suspects, adding that the probe hasn't produced any substantial leads in the past few months.

But Const. Scott Mills of the Crime Stoppers unit said new information has been revealed since police put up a video about the teens on the YouTube website in February.

"We had enough possible sightings to lead me to believe they are still alive, but nothing concrete," Mills said, adding sightings were made in Ontario but he wouldn't specify where.