Toronto woman guilty of hiding parents’ corpses in home dies before sentencing

Crown attorney Andrea McPhedran confirmed Tuesday that Lorraine Wiseman, who was set to be sentenced Wednesday, had died.

A Toronto woman who was due in court Wednesday for a sentencing hearing after she was found guilty of storing her dead parents’ bodies in her home has died, Crown attorney Andrea McPhedran said. McPhedran confirmed to Global News in an email Tuesday that Lorraine Wiseman had died. “Ms. Wiseman’s matter was brought forward to June 19th, and the charges stayed on that date as Ms. Wiseman is now unfortunately deceased,” McPhedran said.

Wiseman pleaded guilty to two counts of offering an indignity to a body on Feb.19. Get daily National news Police arrived at Wiseman’s Scarborough home, where she lived with her elderly parents, Ruby and Neil Wiseman, for a wellness check on May 2, 2025. Wiseman told police her parents were out at a “centre.”

Police canvassed the neighbourhood before returning to the home, where they found Ruby Wiseman’s decaying body in a storage bin in the living room. After a search of the home, Neil Wiseman’s body was found in the freezer. Wiseman told police both her parents died of natural causes.

She said her mother died in 2022 and her father in 2023. She said she panicked at the time of their deaths and wanted to keep them close to her. Wiseman, 56, had always lived with her parents.

Autopsies were performed on both bodies after they were discovered in the home. Both causes of death were undetermined. Wiseman faced a sentence of up to five years in prison.

She was out on bail at the time of her death. – With files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald