Anne Wade

In the quiet, early morning hours of Thursday, October 19, 1995, a fire tore through a residence on Hamilton Mountain in Ontario. The blaze, which was reported at 2:00 a.m., fully engulfed Unit P at 25 Bryna Avenue, a street in a residential neighborhood. While two tenants living in the unit managed to escape the flames, the homeowner, a woman named Anne Wade, was found deceased inside. Her death marked the beginning of a mystery that has now spanned decades.

Emergency services, including the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police and the Hamilton Fire Department, responded to the intense fire. After the flames were extinguished, an investigation into the cause of the blaze began. The Ontario Fire Marshal’s office examined the scene and came to a grim conclusion: the fire was not an accident. It had been deliberately set. With the determination of arson, Anne Wade’s death was officially classified as a homicide, launching a complex investigation for which answers remain elusive.

Investigators from what is now the Hamilton Police Service were faced with a perplexing case from the outset. According to police, Anne Wade was not known to have any involvement with law enforcement, and there was no obvious reason why someone would target her. She lived a quiet life, and detectives could find no apparent motive for her murder. The lack of a clear motive or any immediate suspects made the investigation incredibly challenging, leaving both the police and the community searching for an explanation for the violent act.

The case of Anne Wade’s murder has remained open for more than a quarter of a century. It is catalogued under Hamilton Police Service Case Number 95185990. Over the years, detectives have revisited the evidence, hoping for a breakthrough that might lead to the person or persons responsible for setting the fatal fire. Despite the passage of time, the case remains an active and unsolved homicide, a persistent and troubling question in the city's history.

Few public details are available about Anne Wade's personal life, her work, or her family, leaving a portrait of the victim largely incomplete. The public record focuses on the brutal and unresolved nature of her death, a life cut short by a deliberate act of violence that seems to have come without warning or explanation. The two tenants who escaped the fire were the last known people to be in the vicinity of Anne Wade before her death, but the trail for investigators appeared to go cold.

As of October 2024, the Hamilton Police Service continues to list Anne Wade’s case on its roster of unsolved homicides. The investigation remains open, awaiting the one piece of information that could provide a resolution. Police believe that someone in the community may hold the key to understanding what happened on that October night in 1995. Anyone with information about the fire at 25 Bryna Avenue or the death of Anne Wade is asked to contact the Hamilton Police Service Homicide Unit. Detective Sergeant Dave Oleniuk can be reached at 905-546-3829.