The Digital Afterlife

The ongoing legal battle to decide who owns our data after we die

- Brian J. Barth

Dovi Henry, a poet and University of Toronto French major, had been missing for more than two months when his body washed up at an Ontario Place marina in July 2014. Naked except for a pair of threadbare socks, the corpse had de­ composed to the point that race and sex were not immediately apparent. The coroner’s office was unable to determine the cause of death.

For roughly the next two years, the un­ identified remains lay in repose at a Toronto morgue while Dovi’s mother, Maureen Henry, did all the things one does when their child goes missing: notified the police, contacted his friends, combed the streets, grieved. There were small leads — one friend thought Dovi might have gone to Germany — but nothing panned out.

In April 2016, Henry googled “un­ claimed black male remains.” The search turned up the website of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Missing Persons and Unidentified Bodies Unit — and a list­ ing that seemed like a possible match. She called the oPP, and after examining Dovi’s dental records, a forensic dentist confirmed it.