For homicide victims’ families, the years drag slowly by.
And for the families of unsolved murders? Pure agony. Years and decades of not knowing who ended the life of their loved one, with birthdays, holidays and other milestones particularly poignant.
Such is the case with Glenn Lowe Jr. — gone 15 years next week.
On Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010, around 11:10 p.m., Toronto Police officers received a call for the sound of gunshots at 1562 Jane St. When cops arrived,, they located tenant Glenn Lowe, lying on the back porch bleeding profusely.
A witness told detectives she heard a knock at the back door and then a loud noise. When she went to investigate, she found Lowe covered in blood with a gunshot wound to his chest.
He was pronounced dead at 11:22 p.m. Glenn “Glenny” Lowe would be 30 years old forever. His case remains unsolved.
“We know there is someone out there who knows who did this,” cold case unit Det. Stefanie Andrews told the Toronto Sun. “We also know that relationships and circumstances change and we’re hoping that one of these people will find the courage to come forward.”
She added: “Even though it’s been 15 years, Glenn is not forgotten and we won’t stop until this case is resolved and justice delivered.”
From the start, detectives said that Glenn Lowe Jr. had been targeted for death.
In 2011, TPS homicide Det. Andrew Ecklund told reporters: “Glenn Lowe wasn’t a bad person. He was involved in a bad business.”
According to cops, when they entered the Jane St. residence they discovered 800 marijuana plants, however, nothing was stolen.
Lowe’s mom told the Sun’s Joe Warmington in 2016 that her son was helping some buddies run a marijuana grow-op. He had accepted an apprenticeship as a plumber in Owen Sound and had some expertise.
“He was helping them to have a more efficient irrigation system,” mom Dale Lowe said. “He was trying to find a way to water the plants without anybody having to be there.”
Cops suspected that a rival dope-peddling gang took umbrage and it cost Lowe his life.
“He never should have been involved in anything like that and when I found out I told him to get out,” his mother told the Sun, adding that the decision likely cost him his life.
It isn’t just the endless tears that haunt Lowe’s mother, it’s the silence from people who were supposed to be her son’s friends.
“Somebody does know what happened here,” Dale Lowe told Warmington. “Somebody knows who the killers were and the reason for this.”
She added: “They all know more than they are telling police. I think Glenn was killed because he was going to get out of this business and somebody did not like that.”
Andrews said that investigators spoke with several witnesses who offered vague descriptions of the triggerman fleeing the back of 1562 Jane St. and into a waiting car that drove south on Jane St. The killer is described as Black, around 5-foot-8 and 170 to 180 pounds.
The police investigation to date has not identified any suspects in the “senseless murder.”
Andrews added: “Glenn Lowe’s family deserve and are pleading for answers.”
A $50,000 reward remains in effect for evidence that leads to the arrest and conviction of his killer.
If you have any information regarding this case, please contact Homicide at 416-808-7400, or at [email protected]. Or you can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
@HunterTOSun