A regular on Toronto’s nightclub circuit, Evelyn Alfaro Mendez was last seen leaving home Sunday evening, headed for a downtown bar.
How the 34-year-old Mississauga mother ended up dead, shot behind the wheel of her SUV on a tranquil North York street that night is mystifying Toronto police, who called her death “suspicious.”
The engine of the SUV was idling and the headlights were on when her body was discovered.
“We don’t know how she ended up there,” homicide Det. Sgt. Terry Browne said yesterday. “We’re in the early stages of investigation.”
Alfaro Mendez, originally from El Salvador, had an eight-year-old son named Jose, relatives said.
She left her Mississauga home around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, said police, who are trying to determine how she spent the next two hours.
No gun was found in the SUV, but residents of Talwood Drive, near Lawrence Avenue East and Leslie Street, said they heard gunshots some time after 9:30 p.m.
Detectives are hoping an autopsy this morning will help illuminate what happened.
