Five creepiest Burlington mysteries

At 4 p.m. on April 27, 1967, 10-year-old Marianne Schuett left Kilbride Public School. Her house was about 400 yards away.

She never made it home.

Halton police still list Schuett as missing. The last reported sighting placed her near the school driveway, talking to an unknown man sitting inside a dark compact car. Extensive searches followed. Nearly six decades later, there is still no public answer for what happened next.

That is the first of five Burlington mysteries that remain difficult to shake. Four involve real people and open police questions. The fifth is local folklore. Where evidence stops, this story stops with it.

1. Marianne Schuett disappeared within 400 yards of home

Police say the man seen with Schuett was believed to be about 40, with a thin face and glasses. The vehicle was described as a small European model, dark blue or black, with chrome across the back.

Land and air searches failed to find her. Halton police say they believe she was abducted by the man in the car, but no one has been publicly identified as responsible and Schuett has never been located.

The distance is what makes the case so unsettling. She was not crossing a city or travelling alone for hours. She left school with only a short walk between her and home.

2. John Antic was heard at dinner, then vanished

John Antic was 76 when he disappeared on November 5, 2012. Halton police say the Burlington resident was believed to have eaten at a Niagara Falls restaurant that day. After that, there is no confirmed public sighting.

An archived RCMP missing-person record adds a stranger detail. It says Antic's wife received a call around 7:30 p.m. from a woman speaking on his behalf. She could hear Antic in the background saying he was eating dinner at a Niagara Falls restaurant. The record says his presence at the restaurant was confirmed.

He had left Burlington earlier that day. He was familiar with public transit and was believed to be on foot. The archived record says there was no subsequent contact with his family or banking institutions.

Halton police still list the case among its missing-person files.

3. Irma Galastica's last known stop was a Burlington house

Irma Galastica left Toronto on August 30, 2024, travelled to Hamilton and later attended an after-hours club. Halton police say she left the club with a group around 4:45 a.m. and took a rideshare to 629 Old York Rd. in Burlington.

Police say she was last seen at that property during the afternoon of August 31. She has not been seen or heard from since.

When police later searched the Old York Road property, they discovered a clandestine drug lab. Halton police have said the drug investigation was separate and is not necessarily connected to Galastica's disappearance. That distinction matters. Finding the lab did not explain where she went.

In April 2026, the Halton Police Board approved a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance, or credible information confirming her current location. Investigators have said foul play is a possibility.

4. Kimlyn Tolgyes was found in Kerncliff Park. Her killing is still unsolved.

On August 29, 2002, the body of 19-year-old Kimlyn Judy Tolgyes was found in Kerncliff Park on Kerns Road. Halton police say a post-mortem determined that she died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

Tolgyes had been living in downtown Hamilton and was last seen alive late August 23 or early August 24 near Main and Grant streets in Hamilton.

More than two decades later, Halton police still list her death as an unsolved homicide. The public case page does not identify a killer.

5. The soldier on Burlington's cenotaph is said to climb down at night

This one is not a police case. It is a Burlington ghost story.

The cenotaph beside City Hall is topped by a seven-foot bronze soldier. The memorial was dedicated in 1922 and originally stood near the downtown waterfront before being moved beside City Hall in 1962.

Local folklore says the statue comes down from its pedestal on nights with a full moon. Other versions include moving hands or eyes, marching footsteps and the sound of a bugle around Veteran Square.

There is no evidence that the statue walks. What can be verified is the memorial itself and the history attached to it. The supernatural part survives because people have kept repeating it.

One Burlington mystery we can actually explain

King Road's so-called magnetic hill feels as if it pulls a car uphill when the vehicle is put in neutral. It has generated ghost stories and UFO stories for decades.

The road is not magnetic. The effect is an optical illusion. The surrounding landscape makes the true slope difficult to read, so downhill can look uphill from inside a car.

That makes it different from the four open cases above. The strange feeling has an answer. The disappearances and homicide still do not.

If you have information about Marianne Schuett, John Antic, Irma Galastica or Kimlyn Tolgyes, Halton Regional Police can be reached at 905-825-4777. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.