Friends of Andrew Kinsman, a Cabbagetown resident who’s been missing since June 26, 2017, are asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward to Toronto police.
Kinsman is a staff member at the Toronto HIV/AIDS Network and a long-time volunteer at the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation (PWA).
“I’ve never known Andrew to just pick up and disappear like this,” said Ted Healey, who has known Kinsman for over 20 years, at a press conference on July 6. “It’s very out of character that he wouldn’t tell his housemates and his neighbours that he was leaving.”
Kinsman was last seen on June 26 at 2pm around Parliament and Winchester streets. Police are treating the disappearance as suspicious. Kinsman is around six-foot-two with buzz-cut brown hair, a beard and glasses. He has an armband tattoo on his right bicep and vertical scars on his knees.
His friends and neighbours described Kinsman as a responsible man who wouldn’t shirk his responsibilities to his job or his cat.
Greg Dunn, who said that Kinsman is his best friend, recalled that anytime Kinsman would go out of town, the first thing he would do was find someone to take care of his cat.
Instead, when friends came into his apartment on June 28 looking for Kinsman, no food or water had been left for the cat.
The day before, Kinsman didn’t call his work to say he wouldn’t be coming in, another red flag for those who know him.
“He loves that job,” Healey said. “When we last spoke to him, he was speaking about getting a better position within PWA and the AIDS network, and to not tell them that he wasn’t getting in on Tuesday is not him at all.”
Police have been interviewing people who knew or spoke to Kinsman, and his friends have been organizing search parties in local parks and trails.
Detective Barry Radford said that police are interested in speaking to anyone who had contact with Kinsman anytime between June 23 and June 26, when he was last seen.
Healey said that he last spoke to Kinsman after the Toronto Pride parade on June 25, and that Kinsman was happy and upbeat at the time.
Kinsman doesn’t like to frequent bars, but does enjoy various cultural events in the city and spending time outdoors in campgrounds in Southern Ontario.
Radford said that Kinsman was active on dating apps, but didn’t specify which apps he used.
“If anybody knows about anything that Andrew said during any of these dating apps up until his disappearance on Monday, please come to the police,” Healey said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Toronto police at 416-808-5100 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477 or to leave a tip online.
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