The one-month-old daughter of popular Canadian sports anchor Dan O’Toole is safe. Both the local police department and O’Toole himself tweeted out the news just hours after he took to social media to first announce his child had gone missing. The news of her safety was met with a lot of relief from those following the case, but there are still a lot of questions as to what actually happened.
The general public was made aware of the situation in the form of a since deleted social media post from Dan O’Toole. The TSN host took to Instagram to post a picture of the five-week-old, along with a caption in which he said the little girl was missing, and while he assumed she was alive, he didn’t know for sure and had no idea where she was at. Here’s a portion below, courtesy of The New York Post…
“My baby Oakland. I’m praying that whoever has you, is holding you. That whoever has taken you from me, is protecting you. That (whoever) has you lets you come back into my arms. I love you Oakland. I can’t wait to one day hold you again. My heart is broken. I am broken. To be clear, Oakland is alive, we think. But we don’t know. I have a one month old child, and I don’t know where she is.”
The post immediately started generating a lot of attention, particularly in the sports journalism community. Many reached out with offers to help or follow-up questions. Several hours later, Travis Dhanraj, a reporter for Global News, tweeted out that the child had been found safely and was with her biological mother. That news was later confirmed by the Durham police in an also since deleted social media post, which can still been seen over at The Toronto Sun. O’Toole responded in a tweet that has also been deleted that this wasn’t a matter for the Durham police and he didn’t understand why he wasn’t called once the child was discovered. He also later laid into those who were criticizing him in a social media post that has also been deleted. Here’s a portion…
“A 5 week old baby. 5 weeks. A child that was supposed to be in my care. 5 weeks old. I’ve still haven’t seen a picture of her, let alone held her. Yet my character called into question? Attacked. Defamed. People ‘question’ the story? I have no words. I’m done.”
Exactly what happened here is obviously still unclear. Judging by the amount of deleted social media posts, it seems likely everyone involved would now prefer to handle this matter quietly. Thankfully the young child is apparently fine, and we wish everyone involved in this case some sort of healthy resolution, specifically one that most benefits the child.
