After multiple media outlets reported that Toronto police interviewed and released alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur years before he was arrested, a spokesperson for the force has confirmed they’re conducting an internal investigation into the matter.
Spokesperson Meaghan Gray confirmed that the Toronto police professional standards unit had launched the investigation on Monday.
“The Chief has always said, if we come across issues that need addressing we would not wait, we would act as soon as practical. Information was brought forward by our investigators that was concerning. That information was referred to professional standards and, as early as yesterday, an investigation was started,” Gray wrote in an email to CTV News on Wednesday.
Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga, the lead investigator on the case, confirmed to CTV Toronto that he had requested the internal probe after he came across some information while reviewing the work of previous Toronto police investigations into missing men from the city’s gay village.
“I found something that was brought to my attention by some of the investigators on the [Project] Prism team where I think the actions of the Toronto Police Service need to be further investigated as to what they did or what they didn’t do. So, I commit that to paper, I provide it to the professional standards unit and it’s for them to investigate it,” he told CTV Toronto on Wednesday.
Idsinga wouldn’t specify whether it was related to the reports of an earlier police interview with McArthur.
A source has told CTV News that McArthur was interviewed by police years before his arrest in January, as part of the investigation into the missing persons case of Skandaraj Navaratnam. Navaratnam is one of the men McArthur is accused of killing.
The source said that McArthur was not considered a suspect at the time and was interviewed by police simply because he knew Navaratnam.
However, that interview is not what prompted Idsinga to file a report with the Toronto police professional standards unit, the source said. There was some other type of contact that McArthur had with police that prompted the report, the source said.
The Toronto Star reported that McArthur had been brought in for questioning by the Toronto police for an incident unrelated to the disappearances of men from the village in 2014. The newspaper cited anonymous sources familiar with the case.
The Globe and Mail wrote that McArthur was interviewed by the Toronto police in 2013 in connection to the investigation into the disappearances of three men from the village. Detectives had linked McArthur to two of the three missing men through his dating apps, according to an anonymous source.
The police refused to release further details relating to the investigation in order to ensure a “fair disciplinary process” and to protect evidence in the homicide case.
“We know this information will be disappointing to some members of the community,” the statement said.
Gray said the police are open to a public inquiry into the different investigations concerning McArthur and that Chief Mark Saunders has already taken steps to “consider what areas can be reviewed right now.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory echoed this sentiment by stating that he was supporting an internal police review already underway.
“I know that the public has many questions related to this case, and I have questions, too. That is why I support open and transparent reviews of how our police service handles missing person cases generally and how these specific investigations were conducted,” Tory said in a statement.
He also said he would move a motion through the Toronto Police Services Board to support Saunders’ request for an external review of police practices in missing person’s investigations. Additionally, Tory said he would ask the province to consider holding a public inquiry after the conclusion of any criminal proceedings.
McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed landscaper, was arrested in January and has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder. Some of his alleged victims were men who went missing from Toronto’s Church-Wellesley neighbourhood from as early as 2010.
Police have said they have recovered the remains of a seventh person from planters at a Toronto property where McArthur stored landscaping equipment. Earlier this week, police released a photo of a dead man they believe to be a victim of McArthur’s in the hopes the public would come forward with tips. Idsinga said he’s never seen such an outpouring of tips and information following the release of the image.
With files from CTV Toronto and CP24
