London police investigating suspicious death at homeless encampment

London Police Service (LPS) forensics officers are focused on a wooded area, after a man’s body was found behind Mildred Barons Park in east London, Ont.

"Members of the London Police Service Major Crime Section are investigating a suspicious death that occurred in the city's east end,” said Insp. Sean Sussex of the LPS.

First responders were called to Kathleen Avenue at 6 p.m. Friday for a “check welfare investigation” and located a deceased man in the park at the end of the dead-end street off Dundas Street.

LPS said Major Crimes is working with the Chief Coroner’s Office to determine what happened.

CTV News spoke with a neighbour who lives on Kathleen Avenue, who wished not to be identified. He said a homeless encampment moved into the woods about three months ago.

A London Police Service Forensics investigator searches a wooded area behind Mildred Barons Park on Kathleen Avenue in London, Ont. where a man's body was found on Sept. 20, 2024. Police are calling it a “suspicious death”. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV London)

“The last few years, kids would come down here to play baseball and it was a nice dead-end street” said the resident.

“Now that the encampment moved down here, everybody was afraid to come down here because they don't know if their dog would pick up drugs or what they're going to get into.”

The neighbour added what started as a couple living in a tent behind the park, has grown to an encampment of 10 to 12 people.
He said they wander up and down his street at all hours.

“I stopped walking her (his dog) about three months ago because it started getting way too high traffic and a lot of sketchy people coming in and out of the neighbourhood.”

London Police are investigating a suspicious death at a homeless encampment behind Mildred Barons Park on Kathleen Avenue in London, Ont. on Sept. 21, 2024. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV News London)

Police have blocked off a small area at the north end of the park next to the train tracks and have put their drone in the air as part of the investigation.

“Major Crimes is continuing with the investigation,” said Sussex.

“They're asking that anyone with information please come forward and contact the London Police Service.”