The Boston Police Unsolved Homicide Squad, with assistance from FBI Boston’s Violent Crimes Task Force, has identified a decades-old homicide victim utilizing investigative genetic genealogy.

On December 4, 1991, Boston Police Officers located an unknown male with a stab wound in the Boston Harbor, near Thompson Island. An autopsy performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at the time ruled his death a homicide.

For thirty-three years, the victim’s identity was unknown, but investigators recently identified him as Toussaint Gonsalves.

Mr. Gonsalves was born on October 2, 1970. At the time of his death, he was described as 5’11,” approximately 225 lbs., with short cropped brown hair and brown eyes.  He was wearing a heavy grey multi-colored knit sweater and a blue, white and green rugby shirt, black pants over red running shorts, and two pairs of black socks and black high-top sneakers.  He had three scars on his left hand and his eyebrow appeared to have been shaved.

Mr. Gonsalves’ identification is a direct result of the FBI’s use of investigative genetic genealogy, a unique method used to generate new leads in unsolved homicides, sex assaults, and other violent crimes. It combines the use of DNA analysis with traditional genealogical research and historical records to generate investigative leads. Investigators only obtain what any other customer using a publicly accessible genealogical service would receive from using it.

Since his identification, investigators have learned Mr. Gonsalves attended the former Boston High School and may have been living in Newton or Dorchester at the time of his murder.  He also may have been employed working in a kitchen.

The Boston Police Department’s Unsolved Homicide Unit is actively investigating this case.

Anyone with information about this individual is urged to contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470.

Community members wishing to assist anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or by texting “TIP” to CRIME (27463).

The Boston Police Department assures the public that all anonymous tips will be handled with strict confidentiality.

Gonsalves’ information, including a depiction created by the FBI Laboratory of what he may have looked like has been entered into the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) database, which serves law enforcement agencies across the United States by providing a free repository for behavioral and investigative information related to homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons, and unidentified human remains cases.

Details on his case can be found on Gonsalves’ Alert, located on the ViCAP public website: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap.

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