Newly unsealed documents reveal a secret police investigation inside Bruce McArthur’s apartment more than a month before his arrest, while also raising questions about how much information Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders knew when he publicly dismissed fears that a possible serial killer was targeting the city’s gay village.
The heavily redacted documents, unsealed Wednesday by a judge’s order, show that, by Nov. 27, police were already treating McArthur as a suspect in the murder of Andrew Kinsman and considered him a “person of interest” in the disappearance of four other missing men.
Whatever information investigators knew in November wasn’t made public on Dec. 8, when police held a news conference denying that the series of disappearances in the Church-Wellesley Village were related.
Saunders dismissed mounting concerns among Toronto’s LGBTQ community that a serial killer was preying on gay men, saying “we follow the evidence and the evidence is telling us that is not the case right now.”
By the time Saunders made that statement, police had already secretly searched McArthur’s home.
Three days before the press conference, investigators applied for a judge’s authorization to “covertly enter” McArthur’s apartment. Investigators entered McArthur’s apartment on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7 and secretly collected information off a USB drive, an external hard drive and a desktop computer.
The authorization permitted police investigators to enter the apartment for the purpose of “facilitating the covert copying of data from digital device(s)” and “to facilitate the covert searching, photographing, videotaping and/or marking, testing, seizure or returning of any documents, or physical objects or things (non-digital) relevant to the offence.”
By that point, McArthur was being surveilled by police on “almost a daily basis,” according to the documents. Weeks before, on Nov. 17, cadaver dogs searched an area behind a home where McArthur worked as a landscaper, but found nothing.
Toronto Police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray said the police force stands behind Saunders’ December remarks.
“The documents indicate the investigators’ theories but there was no evidence to support those theories,” the statement reads.
Dismembered remains of all eight missing men, who vanished between 2010 and 2017, were later found buried in planters at the home.
Saunders didn’t allude to the covert investigation on Dec. 8. Asked by reporters if people in the gay village were in danger, Saunders said: “The short answer to that is, I don’t think so.”
One month later, McArthur, 66, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kinsman and Selim Esen. Today, he faces eight counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of eight men, including Skandaraj Navaratnam, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kanagaratnam.
The charges have not been tested in court. McArthur is expected to appear court on Friday.
What police knew
The unsealed documents are made up of information to obtain (ITO) applications, which investigators file to seek warrants.
Several media organizations, including CTV News, petitioned the court to release the documents, which help illustrate what information police knew and when they knew it. The documents also shed light on the days before McArthur’s arrest and the intense search that followed.
McArthur was on police radar by Aug. 31, when his name appears in the documents in relation to police activity. The page is heavily redacted, making it unclear why police mentioned McArthur.
The timing means that McArthur’s name came up two weeks after police launched Project Prism, on Aug. 14, to investigate the disappearances of Kinsman and Esen. Project Prism also considered three other missing men previously investigated through Project Houston. (Houston began in 2012 and ended in 2014 with no arrests).
Project Prism began on a Monday. By Thursday, Aug. 17, investigators determined that “it is reasonable to believe the worst” about what happened to the five missing men.
By Sept. 5, police investigators considered McArthur a person of interest in Kinsman’s death. Police also noted striking physical and behavioral similarities between Kinsman and four other missing men.
Det. Const. Joel Manherz wrote in the documents that all of the men were middle-aged, shared physical appearances and spent a “good deal of time” at the same gay bar in the village – the Black Eagle. They all went missing “under mysterious circumstances,” he wrote.
Sometime between Sept. 5 and Nov. 8, McArthur went from a person of interest to a suspect, the documents show. On Nov. 27, Manherz filed an ITO that identified McArthur as a suspect in Kinsman’s death and a “person of interest” in the disappearances of four other men.
The documents also offer new details as to when police believe the men may have died. Police said Esen died on or around April 16, 2017, Kinsman died on or around June 26, 2017, Mahmudi died on or around August 15, 2015, Kayhan died on or around Oct. 18, 2012 and Dean Lisowick is said to have died between April 4, 2016 and March 15, 2017.
McArthur was arrested on Jan. 18. Following his arrest, homeowners across the Toronto region reached out to police.
The massive search for evidence stretched across about 100 homes, according to the documents.
With files from CTV’s John Vennavally-Rao and CTV Toronto
