'Project Litoria': A deep dive into the Toronto police investigation that saw a now-acquitted mother charged with murder
CTV
On Jan. 19, Toronto mother Cindy Ali was acquitted of the first-degree murder charge first laid on her in connection with her daughter's death in 2012. Here's an in-depth look at the Toronto police investigation into Ali and her family.
Amanda Ali apologized to the court, stopping to collect herself before reading the eulogy she’d written and delivered at her younger sister’s funeral more than 10 years prior.
“From Cynara’s 16 years, we have beautiful memories that we will cherish forever,” Amanda, now in her mid-30s, read from the witness box at her mother’s retrial at Toronto’s Superior Court of Justice in December.
Her father, Allan Ali, and sister Carissa Ali stared on as Amanda testified in defence of her mother for a second time in her life.
“We will remember both her laughter and her tears. She has been an inspiration for us,’ Amanda read.
Cynara died in February 2011 at the age of 16. After more than a year of investigation by the Toronto Police Service (TPS), her mother, Cindy Ali, was charged with first-degree murder.
Cindy has always maintained, to police and in court, that Cynara died following a home invasion at the family’s Scarborough, Ont. townhouse.
When the case went to trial, nearly five years after Cynara died, the Crown alleged Cindy smothered her daughter, who lived with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, after the girl had become too heavy a burden to bear. According to the prosecution’s theory, Cindy staged her home, either before or after the alleged murder, to appear as if a break-in had occurred.
