 Margarita Shumakova, 18 (DURHAM REGIONAL POLICE)
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TORONTO - Investigators are "furiously and frantically" collecting surveillance video in an effort to trace the final steps of a young murder victim.
Margarita Shumakova, 18, was last seen at a downtown Toronto nightclub over the Canada Day weekend. Her body was discovered a week later in a wooded area 80 km away near Uxbridge, Ont.
Durham Police investigators said Tuesday that Shumakova, who lived with her mom in North York, a community in the north end of the city, spent the final weekend of her life clubbing in the city's Entertainment District.
"We know she spent the Friday and Saturday at clubs, but she went home in between there," said Det. Terry Haight.
A friend remembers seeing Shumakova around 1 a.m. on July 3, outside City Nightclub, he explained.
"She was in the parking lot," Haight said. "As far as we know, she never made it into the club."
Shumakova's mother, a native of Kazakhstan, reported her missing to Toronto Police after five days had passed without any word from her daughter.
Haight said the distraught woman wasn't sure how long she was suppose to wait.
"And she had called a bunch of her daughter's friends and they weren't overly concerned," he said.
A property owner contacted police last Friday night after stumbling upon the partially decomposed body of a young woman just inside the treeline south of Uxbridge.
Investigators used dental records to determine it was Shumakova and then had to break the news to her mom, who doesn't speak much English.
Police have now finished gathering evidence from the scene, a patch of forest surrounded by farmland along a gravel road.
They are now focusing their attention on determining what happened to Shumakova after she was last seen. At this point, they don't know where or when she was slain.
"But we have some leads we're working on," Haight said.
Shumakova immigrated to Canada with her mom seven years ago, he said. The rest of her family remains in Kazakhstan.
The teen attended school in Scarborough, Ont., and it's believed she was fluent in English.
"She wasn't into the drug lifestyle," Haight said of Durham's second murder victim of the year.
He's anxious to talk to anybody who saw Shumakova over the Canada Day weekend, or during the week that followed.
chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca
