‘I have hope,’ friend of Nicole Morin says after Toronto girl’s 1985 disappearance

Toronto police have renewed an appeal for a little girl who went missing from an Etobicoke apartment exactly 40 years ago Wednesday.

On July 30, 1985, a then eight-year-old Nicole Morin reportedly left her top-floor apartment on The West Mall in Etobicoke to meet a friend for a swim.

She was never seen again.

Nicole’s disappearance marked one of the largest and most extensive searches in Toronto police’s history. Now, police are offering a $50,000 reward for anyone with information about her disappearance.

“We’re here to remember Nicole, to support those who continue to carry this loss and to make a renewed appeal for any information,” Det. Sgt. Steve Smith told reporters Wednesday.

“This case is not closed. It has never been forgotten and it only takes one piece of new information to make that difference.”

Melissa Elaschuk, who was friends with Nicole, said “she was my best friend.”

Elaschuk said the two lived in the same apartment building and would walk to school together every day. Nicole’s mother also used to babysit Elaschuk’s younger brother.

The day Nicole went missing, Elaschuk, who was seven at the time, said she was away and that Nicole was meeting another friend that day.

“This was literally a regular occurrence for us and it very easily could have been me,” Elaschuk said.

She said at the time, being only a child, she didn’t fully grasp what had happened. She said she thought she couldn’t see her friend anymore, and her parents were very fearful.

Elaschuk she grew up to be a police officer, serving for 21 years and said Nicole disappearance has impacted her not only professionally, but as a mother herself.

“The biggest feeling I have right now is hope,” Elaschuk said.

“I have hope that she will be found, that somebody will finally come forward. There is no doubt in my mind that somebody knows something.”

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