Body found in parked car outside of Toronto hospital went unnoticed for days, family says

How could a parked car with a dead man inside it go unnoticed for days just steps from the entrance to a Toronto hospital’s emergency room?

That’s what the family of Thomas Choy want answered after the 41-year-old’s body was found in the back seat of a vehicle parked outside of the Humber River Hospital ER last Wednesday.

Lang Choy, the deceased man’s sister, says investigators told her the vehicle her brother was found in was captured by security video arriving at the hospital sometime on Sunday, December 7.

The driver is seen exiting the car and entering the hospital, but her brother was never seen exiting the vehicle, which sat in the same spot for three full days before he was discovered dead inside.

Lang Choy says the car belonged to her other, older brother, but maintains that he was not the driver of the vehicle that day. That driver remains unidentified.

Another mystery, she says, is how no one noticed the parked vehicle with her brother inside for three days, despite its conspicuous location.

Choy remarked that the vehicle wasn’t even ticketed.

“It doesn’t make sense,” the grieving sibling told The Leader Spirit. “How could a hospital leave a car unattended for three whole days, not even one parking ticket, not even one person bothered to check to ask the car to move, or ask the owner of the car [to move it].”

“What if he was alive when he got there?” she added.

Thomas Choy. Photo provided by family.

The Leader Spirit reached out to Humber River Health, posing several questions surrounding their security patrols and parking policies. They declined to answer and directed those questions to police.

“This is a police matter, and we are unable to provide further comment,” Humber River Health responded. “Please direct any inquiries to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”

Lang Choy said the last contact Thomas had with his family was about a week before he arrived at the hospital, and everything appeared normal with him.

“He’s a good brother, he was always there when you needed him. He had a big heart,” she said.

Now she’s waiting for autopsy results to determine if he was dead prior to arriving at the hospital, or passed away sometime over the next several days while laying in the parked car.

“This doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “He could have been calling for help, who knows.”

The Coroner’s office confirms it is investigating the death, but couldn’t provide any further information due to the ongoing police probe.

Meanwhile, Toronto police would only confirm that on December 10, officers responded to an unknown trouble call in the Wilson Avenue and Keele Street area at around 6:36 p.m.

“A deceased person was located inside a vehicle, and the circumstances of the death are still under investigation,” a police spokesperson said. “If this turns out to be a criminal matter, we will release more information.”