Toronto's Serial Killer | Bruce McArthur
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In late June 2017, Toronto police received a report of a missing man. Last seen at the annual Gay Bride Parade. Andrew Kinsman, 49 years old, had many close friends and was a prominent member of the Toronto Village community. But when one of those friends entered his apartment that fateful early summer morning, they noticed right away that something was wrong. For one thing,

Andrew's beloved cat had been left without food or water, something that friends said was immediately out of place for him. Andrew loved his cat and would never leave it without these basic necessities, friends told police. His prescription medication was still in the apartment and the only possession missing was Andrew's bag, which he carried everywhere with him. Andrew was last seen at the Pride Parade on the 26th.

Friends were concerned and they wanted answers as to what the police were doing to find Kinsman. They called authorities frequently asking for updates and new information, but received no word about Andrew's whereabouts. That very same day, his friends began searching for him, desperately combing the city, visiting his usual hangouts and calling everyone he knew. To an outside observer, some might think that they were being overly worried or too nosy. After all,

People do sometimes go away for a few days without telling their friends. And even the most dutiful pet owners have a lapse now and then. But for those who lived in the Church and Wellesley area at the time, and knew what was going on in the village, they had every reason to be worried, and every reason not to trust the police to take action. Over the past seven years, dating back to 2010, men had been going missing from the village,

Some even claimed there was a serial killer on the loose, stalking and preying on innocent victims within the community. Others countered, saying that was just the nature of the village. People came and went, often without a trace. Those facts were what drove Andrew's friends to search for him so desperately, not knowing if rumors of the murderer in the village were true. Sadly, as it would turn out, they were justified in their fears.

as the innocent kinsman had just become the most recent victim of Canada's most brutal and horrific multiple murderer. This is the story of the victims of Bruce MacArthur, the serial killer of Toronto's gay village. More than that, this is the story of the public uprising that brought a police force to its knees and a murderer to justice. Part 1: Rumors of a Villain Toronto is compared by some to New York City,

Recently surpassing Chicago in numbers, the Greater Toronto Area is home to nearly 6 million people and is the fourth largest city in North America. It has many different suburbs, communities, and distinct neighborhoods. With a skyscraper-laden downtown core, it has a Chinatown, a Little Italy, and The Village, known for its LGBTQ community. Founded in the area of town, intersected by Church and Wellesley Street at its center,

It comprises multiple city blocks where new and old buildings line the streets, many painted with colorful rainbow murals created by local artists. But between 2010 and 2017, things were far less cheerful than those images created by local artists would suggest. During those years, there was a dark cloud hanging over the community. It began in September 2010.

as the first missing signs began to go up in the neighborhoods around Church and Wellesley Street. Skanda Navaratnam's smiling, goateed face could be seen plastered on bus stops and phone poles, convenience store windows, and brick-fronted buildings. Most people didn't take notice. As folks tended to come and go from the village, some whispered that he had gone back home overseas or had just left town. Few people speculated foul play.

But then in late December 2010, another man went missing within just a few blocks of Skanda. Abdulbasir Faizi's smiling visage was soon appearing on missing posters as well. Some say that there were already whispers of something strange going on. Two men going missing in a matter of a few months, within a few blocks of each other. It was disturbing and too unusual to ignore. Some spoke of a killer on the loose already in those early days.

Perhaps these whispered rumors spooked the soon-to-be infamous murderer, making him think twice about striking again so soon, because he appeared to lay low for a while after that. Nearly two years passed before a third man went missing.

his picture joining the others, now faded and yellow, plastered on windows and telephone poles around the village. Journalists familiar with the case speculated that there was little pressure on police to investigate these men's disappearances since they were marginalized immigrants and also members of the gay community who had been at odds with authorities in years gone by.

memories of Stonewall Inn and other past traumas had some people skeptical that they would receive the same level of attention and care as if this sort of thing had happened in some other neighborhood, one known for its straight, white residents. Whatever the case may be, all three men remained missing, fueling a growing sense of unease and distrust within the village when it came to the police. The silence of the authorities continued for months,

and resentment bloomed and swelled within the village, like a poisonous mushroom sequestered in the darkness. As the outrage grew within the community, a growing sense that something was wrong began to prevail. Despite police assurances that they were investigating, the certainty was beginning to grow stronger that there was in fact a killer on the loose. It was around this time, in autumn 2012, that police received an unlikely tip. A call came in from Switzerland,

an informant who had helped authorities there to catch a perpetrator of a heinous crime, wanted to help Toronto police with their own investigation. The source was deemed credible and police listened intently to what they had to say, growing increasingly shocked and horrified by what they heard. The person spoke of an international online community, a virtual secret society called Zambian Meat, where cannibalism was discussed in great detail.

Not only that, but they had witnessed a conversation where someone believed to be in Toronto had spoken of killing a man and eating his brown flesh. Police started to think this online cannibal may have been referring to one of their missing men from the village, specifically Skanda Navaratnam. A large-scale investigation was launched by Toronto police called Project Houston, as in Houston, we have a problem.

Officers could be seen canvassing the streets as a third new missing poster was being plastered all over the city. This one with the face of Majid Hamid Kayhan, the third disappearance in less than two years. All three men were brown skinned with similar facial hair, aged between 42 and 58. If there was a killer on the loose, it would seem that he had a type. During the police investigations and interviews of Project Houston,

authority stumbled upon an email address. Silver Fox 51 at Hotmail was found written in the papers of two of the victims. And this led police to a man who frequented the gay village in Toronto. A silver haired, smiling grandfather with chubby cheeks and an affable nature. A man who worked as a mall Santa Claus sometimes during the Christmas season. An entrepreneur who owned his own business, which was quite successful. On November 11th, 2013,

police interviewed Bruce MacArthur. While unknowingly sitting across the desk from a multiple murderer, detectives asked him a series of questions. It's unclear how long the talk lasted, but in retrospect, it would appear that MacArthur knew how to speak to authorities without implicating himself. Investigators said he seemed credible and acted as if he wanted to help.

He owned his own landscaping company and admitted to knowing Skanda Navaratnam, saying he had hired him to do some work in the past. Not only that, but he had also hired Majid Kayhan in a similar fashion. Neither man had worked out, as he put it. Investigators wrote off the coincidence, treating MacArthur as a witness. "It's a small community," they would say later. "Everyone knows everyone." Sources inside the village working with police confirmed this mentality.

as detectives decided that Bruce MacArthur was not a suspect of any wrongdoing. They did not treat him as a criminal, but instead as a background witness. As one might guess, the murderer responsible for these heinous crimes did not help police, instead offering lies and excuses for why the two men had his email address and giving no credible leads. Red herrings and false leads plagued Project Houston as arrests were ultimately made in a child pornography ring

but no progress was made towards finding the missing men. Project Houston was ultimately a failure as far as the disappearances went. Police were no closer to solving the cases than they were before, and investigators and the people of Toronto's church and Wellesley area were left with the lingering suspicion that there was a serial killer in their midst operating within Toronto's gay village. And who knew when they would decide to strike again? Part two.

Three more victims, no new answers. In the months following Project Houston, the neighborhood settled into an eerie silence as the missing men's posters remained plastered everywhere, growing tattered from the wind and faded from the sun, an eerie reminder of the dangers lurking in the shadows of this once peaceful neighborhood. People were cautious and careful, concerned that there was a killer still on the loose. But as months turned to years,

people began to forget about their fear. The community returned reluctantly to normal and the missing men faded to a distant memory. As folks started feeling safe again, walking the streets at night alone, they began trusting strangers with less suspicion, going on blind dates with people they met online with growing frequency. No one can blame them for this. It's only human nature to want to connect and be around others. We are social animals and loneliness is not sustainable.

For some, it is worse than death. Then in August 2015, a new batch of missing posters began to go up around the church in Wellesley neighborhood. One by one, fresh faces joined Skanda Navaratnam and Majid Kayhan, keeping Abdulbasir Faizi Company on the flapping pages tacked to telephone poles and taped to bus stop shelter glass.

By April 2016, three more men had gone inexplicably missing from Toronto's gay village, bringing the total to six in as many years. Souraush Mahmoodi, Kirushna Kumarakana Garatnam, and Dean Lissowick all disappeared without a trace within a few blocks of each other. It was like deja vu, the same old story all over again, and it immediately set people on edge.

The phenomenon of missing men in the village was recurring, but it was not spoken about commonly in the media. It seemed to be a quiet plague of kidnappings, or worse. The serial killer was back, and murdering indiscriminately once again, as some in the neighborhood feared. Police did not appear to be concerned, and instead, many looked at the authorities as being indifferent to the situation.

as if these men's lives were of no value and there was no point in trying to find them. Aside from their connections to the gay village, these last three victims had many differences with only a few similarities. Sourash Mahmoodi lived with family and had gone to bed one night then simply disappeared the following morning. He was reported missing but there was no clear indication of where he could have gone. Investigators believed he had woken up and gone to work

Then something had happened to him, but what that was, they didn't know. The second man, Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, was a refugee claimant who was going to be deported. He worked and sent money back home to family overseas in Sri Lanka, until the authorities came after him and he was forced underground. He was last seen alive January 9th, 2016.

Dean Lisowick, the third victim in this new string of disappearances, was a person experiencing homelessness and also a sex worker. He sometimes lived on the streets or in homeless shelters and didn't seem to match the profile of the other missing men so far, who were brown-skinned with trimmed facial hair. Authorities may have claimed this was further proof that the disappearances were not related, but outside experts in serial homicides had a different view.

It appeared that perhaps the murderer was widening his scope and the disappearances were coming closer and closer together as if he were becoming more desperate to kill as time went on. He no longer cared about finding his ideal victim. He would settle for anyone coming into his grasp if the opportunity presented itself. A few things tied all six victims together. They were vulnerable, marginalized, and they frequented the village or spent time there.

The question for residents of the Church and Wellesley neighborhood remained the same. What, if anything, were the police doing to stop this madness from continuing? And when were these tragedies going to finally come to an end? Then on April 30th, 2017, another man went missing, Selim Esin, a 44-year-old man from Turkey. He reportedly struggled with mental health issues and substance abuse.

but beyond that, was known for his fun-loving and joyous nature. This brought the new total to seven men who had vanished from the village without a trace, never to be seen again. Despite Toronto being Canada's largest city, this sort of crime spike was unprecedented in such a small area. Still, it didn't seem that police were doing much to solve the case, and no progress was made in solving the mystery. Where were these missing men going? Were they alive or dead?

and who was taking them, and for what purpose? These questions nagged at village residents as June's Pride celebrations began, culminating in the annual Pride parade on the 26th. A strong member of the community, Andrew Kinsman was seen at these celebrations. He was known as a gentle giant, standing six feet, two inches tall, an affable, kind man who was beloved by his friends.

He had a friendly smile, with glasses, a neatly trimmed beard, and short-cropped light brown hair. Andrew worked at the Toronto HIV/AIDS Network and as an apartment building superintendent. As such, he had responsibilities which he was required to perform daily. As time went by and these tasks were not done, Andrew's absence was noted upon by residents and friends who investigated his apartment to find him missing.

The desperate search for him was immediately on, as the community no longer trusted police to do the job. They believed that if they wanted to find Kinsman, dead or alive, they would have to do it themselves. Luckily, the killer was getting sloppy. This most recent victim was not a marginalized, vulnerable immigrant up for deportation. He was not a homeless man or a lonely man. Andrew Kinsman was a pillar of the village community.

He had many friends and people around him who cared about his safety, and they were about to raise hell. Part 3: A Friend in Need When Andrew Kinsman disappeared and still did not resurface after days and weeks went by, there was a huge public outcry, and news outlets were suddenly all over the story, reporting on this eighth missing man. Victim advocates point out that Kinsman was white,

while the other victims had all been brown immigrants, aside from one homeless man. They pointed out how this is often the way in these sorts of events, and no one in the public or the media seems to care until a white person goes missing. Whatever the reason was, heavy pressure was suddenly being put on police to find out what was going on, as the pictures of so many men's faces appeared on the nightly news and in print, terrifying Toronto residents.

Murders are rare in the Greater Toronto Area. There are roughly 100 per year, and serial killers are completely unheard of in these parts. Citizens were on edge, locking their doors and barring their windows at night. Everyone wanted to know how this could be going on for so long, and what authorities were doing to catch the person responsible. In response, police began a new operation. This was essentially a relaunch of Project Houston.

But to set it apart and prevent any negative associations, Toronto police called this new investigation Project Prism. It would be dedicated to finding out what had happened to the three most recent victims, primarily Andrew Kinsman, who authorities believed gave them the best shot at an outcome.

The village citizens made their own attempts to stay safe, organizing community meetings, creating Facebook groups dedicated to the search effort, and setting up hotlines where people could report leads that citizens would not entrust to police. They began to look to each other for support and protection, as the buddy system and other efforts were used to feel safer walking the streets at night for a parent

One could imagine no worse time to have a child go missing in the neighborhood of Church and Wellesley. But that was sadly the case for the Ritchie family, as they discovered their daughter had disappeared one late November day. Then, on November 29th, 2017, Tess Ritchie was found dead in an alleyway, four days after she had been reported missing to police.

but she was not found by authorities. Instead, she was found there by her own mother, further damning the police in the eyes of the public. Just one day later, police announced the body of Allura Wells had also been discovered, adding another to the growing stack of murder investigations accumulating on desks of homicide detectives at the Toronto Police Service. Surprising everyone, the Toronto Police Chief held a press conference and firmly stated that they did not believe the cases were linked.

and said they had no evidence of a serial killer, despite the close proximity of all nine people going missing. This baffled many in the community, who could not comprehend any other reason for so many disappearances in such a short period of time. And it further fueled distrust of authorities within the village. Part 4. Project Prism.

Police continued to investigate any leads, especially in the Kinsman case, where it did appear that foul play had occurred. Andrew had left his cat behind, as well as all of his belongings and his prescription medication. He was considered a stable, reliable person who was employed and maintained numerous roles and responsibilities. He was not the type to disappear without a trace, and police had caught his vanishing within the first crucial 72 hours.

A few pieces of evidence were obtained which helped police take concrete actions to follow up on his disappearance. Something which jumped out right away was a wall calendar with the name "Bruce" written on the date of the 26th, along with the time 2 to 3 o'clock. It looked like a clear indication that Andrew was meeting with someone named Bruce at that time. Whoever this man was, he could have been the last person to see Andrew alive and Toronto police wanted to speak with him.

Perhaps the name Bruce MacArthur was already popping up in some investigators' minds, or perhaps not yet. Bruce is a common name after all. But another clue presented itself on a video surveillance camera mounted on a nearby building. Grainy footage showed someone, perhaps Kinsman, leaving the apartment building and getting into a red Dodge van. The quality of the video did not allow investigators to see the identity of the two men,

but it was a lead nonetheless, and they intended to follow it and see where it led. After consulting with the Chrysler dealership, police narrowed the model and year of minivan down even further to 2003 to 2005, resulting in approximately 6,000 vehicles matching the description within the Toronto area. Only five of these belonged to someone named Bruce, and one just so happened to belong to Bruce MacArthur.

a man who had admitted to employing two of the first three victims. The team went to interview MacArthur again, asking about his van and wanting to look at it. Alarm bells began ringing even louder as he told them he had sold the van some time ago. Police would track the red Dodge to a scrapyard where a mysterious liquid looking a lot like blood was noted on the rear bumper. This was swabbed and sent to the lab for DNA analysis. At this point in time,

The man who had once served police as a witness became a suspect, as circumstantial evidence pointed to Bruce MacArthur as having a link with five of the victims. As small as the community was, it wasn't that small, and police were beginning to think they had found their killer. Now it was up to them to prove it. Detectives looked further into MacArthur's past. They saw that not only had he been in trouble with police in the past couple of years,

but that he had been investigated for a violent act allegedly committed in the very same van they were now testing for DNA evidence. Not only that, but the event in question was believed by the victim to have been an attempted murder. Police had been called to what they referred to as a domestic assault a couple years prior, as MacArthur's then-boyfriend called 911, saying he had been strangled in the back of the large white-haired man's van.

The John Doe, who preferred to stay anonymous, said he believed MacArthur was trying to kill him, saying that he had sneered at him with a contemptuous mix of disgust and hatred as he choked him with his bare hands for more than four minutes. While he was contemplating whether he would die, the man said his life flashed before his eyes. MacArthur actually turned himself in, getting ahead of the matter. He told police a different story,

alleging that he thought his boyfriend was aroused by those sorts of acts. He said at the time that the whole thing was a huge misunderstanding. "McArthur was simply into rough sex," he said, "and he thought his boyfriend wanted it that way too." Police appear to have believed his story, as no pictures were ever taken of the victim's injuries and no follow-up was ever done. The man simply gave a statement to the police and nothing was ever done about it, at least according to him. If true,

This would seem to indicate that MacArthur had a way of speaking to police. Either that, or the LGBTQ community really was just as belittled and ignored by authorities as they believed. Whatever the case, that event would not come back to haunt MacArthur for two more years until the police came knocking on his door once again, asking for the keys to that very same van where the assault occurred.

After finding out he had sold the van and tracking it down to a scrapyard, police questioned the men who purchased it. The person who bought the car from the serial killer said he acted normal and nothing seemed off about him. The only thing that was odd was that he quickly agreed on the man's lowball bid of $125 for the van, less than $100 in American money. Bruce didn't even try to haggle or ask for more.

It was as if he was just happy to get rid of the vehicle, despite its real value. Police took the vehicle and began laboratory testing to determine if the DNA found inside belonged to the victims. This would take time though, months if not longer. Authorities were under no illusions that these tests would be quick, as they had been through these hoops before. It wasn't like CSI Miami or Criminal Minds.

these answers wouldn't be seen for a long, long while. In the meantime, authorities working within Project Prism began surveillance on Bruce MacArthur. They spoke to past associates and re-interviewed the man who claimed Bruce had strangled him in the back of his van. They learned a lot about MacArthur and began to feel stronger in their certainty that he was the killer they had been hunting for. For one thing, he owned his own landscaping company.

giving him access to plenty of properties with sprawling estates where he could have hidden the bodies. Not only that, but a landscaper doing some digging wouldn't look suspicious to anyone. He had the perfect cover for getting rid of the remains. As police followed MacArthur's every move and watched him closely, in late 2017, they began to dig into his past to find out what sort of a man he was and whether he really could be capable of these sorts of acts. To all who knew him,

Bruce seemed like a normal guy. He had previously been married, having kids and even grandkids, before coming out and beginning to frequent Toronto's gay village. Friends described him as easygoing and kind, and described going out for pizza with him and watching the Golden Girls together. Clients said he was professional and honest, helping with charitable projects. It seemed that for the most part, Bruce was just what he claimed to be, a kind, warm grandfather.

not fitting the bill of a serial killer. But he had fooled police before with his friendly smile and mall Santa Claus story. This time they intended to dig deeper into the very depths of his darkest acts. Part Five: What Makes a Killer? Bruce MacArthur grew up as the son of an abusive alcoholic father. He would lock his sister in her bedroom to spare her the worst of the violence, likely incurring his father's wrath in her place.

Police who knew him well speculated that he had seen some very dark things in his childhood and in his past. But what those things were, he wouldn't say. MacArthur grew up in the 50s and 60s, in a time when being gay was not only looked down upon, but reviled and demonized, even outlawed in most parts of the world.

There was likely an element of self-loathing and self-hatred as he grew up in a family where his identity needed to be repressed at all costs. Instead of being himself, he put on an act, pretending to be a normal straight guy, believing that the alternative would turn him into an outcast from society as well as his family and friends. Bruce met his wife in high school and they married quickly, going on to have two children together, then grandchildren.

The whole family got along well and the MacArthur family lived in a nice house in a good neighborhood. To all outside observers, Bruce MacArthur was a perfect husband and father, and a loving grandfather as well. But he had a secret which would not be revealed to anyone until later in life, when he was outed as gay to his family and friends. For those who don't know, being outed means that someone else tells your family that you are gay, without your consent.

As was the case with Bruce, this decision was not his choice, but rather something which was done without his consent, apparently by someone within the village community. Details are sparse, but it could be that a former lover, or someone who Bruce was still in a relationship with, decided he shouldn't be keeping his identity a secret anymore. After trying to hide his sexuality for most of his life, MacArthur was now confronted with the reality of who he was.

After being outed as gay against his wishes, he could no longer live a double life, instead being forced to admit the truth to his wife, even while he was still living with her. A hatred for the community started to build within MacArthur that would eventually consume him. He became resentful towards gay and bisexual people, despite being one himself, feeling betrayed by the community for causing him to lose his straight identity. MacArthur's marriage soon ended,

and his entire existence began crumbling around him. Some speculate that serial killers crave control, and that when he lost this control over his own double life and secret identity, he snapped, and he decided to take out this murderous rage on the very community which had once embraced him. He viewed the people in the village now as repulsive and disgusting,

a reflection of his own self-loathing and his internal struggle with his sexual identity. And he decided to take out that rage in his sex life. MacArthur began to seek out dates online with men who were into rough sex, giving him an excuse to take out his violent impulses while disguising it as BDSM, just like he did with John Doe in the back of his van.

Who knows how many other times he had done similar things, stopping short of killing men and instead leaving them tortured and traumatized. But at some point, he began going far beyond rough sex. The dates he had been setting up online with village men using the moniker Silver Fox 51 were about to turn into something far worse. In 2010, Bruce MacArthur began to ramp up his twisted impulses, following through on a growing urge to kill.

And once he had started, he quickly developed a taste for it. Part 6: Tailing a Killer The police began surveillance of Bruce MacArthur as their primary suspect in the disappearance of Andrew Kinsman, understanding that he could be responsible for far more than just that. But the problem was they still didn't have a body. They didn't have a crime scene or murder weapon. In fact, all they had was another missing person.

Andrew Kinsman, who had vanished without a trace. There was nothing which would convince a jury in a court of law. Everything so far was circumstantial, until finally, police found something solid. The DNA from the back of the van owned by MacArthur matched Andrew Kinsman's DNA. It turned out to be blood, but only a small amount, the size of the head of a pencil. Still, it was damning as far as police were concerned.

Police narrowed their focus solely on MacArthur at that point, believing he was their primary suspect. However, they still didn't have enough evidence to charge him with anything. That might sound bizarre, but there was still no proof a crime had been committed. All authorities could do was continue to follow him and surveil his every move. Stealth was crucial though, so as not to tip off the serial killer. They needed him to think he was immune and outwitting police at every turn.

and they wanted him to keep believing he was just as smart as he thought he was, incapable of being caught. After figuring out his routine, police entered his apartment in order to search it and clone his computer. They turned it upside down looking for evidence and clues, but during their search, they received a call that MacArthur was coming home from work unexpectedly.

Despite their efforts to track his patterns, the man was breaking from his routine and coming home early. With police rushing to return everything to normal, the technical expert responsible for cloning the serial killer's computer began to sweat, realizing that he would not be able to finish in time. All he could do was watch the status bar as it slowly trickled across the screen, heading towards completion.

After getting the entire apartment back to the way it was when they entered, the police rushed out of there with only seconds to spare, getting barely 50% of MacArthur's hard drive cloned. The mission had been a partial success, but only by inches. Nothing in this investigation was going to come easy, it seemed. Now it was up to the team to comb through the files within Bruce MacArthur's computer. It didn't take them long to find results.

they stumbled upon folder after folder of pictures with men's names attached to them. One of these folders was filled with pictures of Andrew Kinsman, the two of them out in the park and enjoying time together in better days. An officer working within Project Prism used software to search the hard drive for photos and to recover those which had been deleted. These ghost files were no longer in the recycle bin,

but existed on the hard drive as unwritten blocks of code, so they were still recoverable. One deleted image was a poster showing pictures of the missing men from the days of Project Houston. Investigators continued pulling up more deleted files and found one in particular which made their stomachs drop. It was a picture of a dead man lying on Bruce's bed, and not just any dead man. It was Selim Esin, one of the missing men from the village.

He had disappeared just before Andrew Kinsman, and now police could tie MacArthur to his murder. This was the first direct evidence of Essend's death, and the first evidence of MacArthur's involvement in any crime. Further searching revealed pictures of Andrew Kinsman, deceased as well. And not only that, but all of the missing men from the village began to reveal themselves one by one in the ghost files of MacArthur's computer.

like dead spirits rising up in a furious protest from the graveyard of his hard disk. Until pretty soon, police knew where every single one of their missing men had gone. They had all been killed by Bruce MacArthur. As it turned out, his own desire to capture these trophies and souvenirs of their deaths was his undoing. As without this evidence, police would have had nothing to go on.

Each photo was taken in his bedroom. The dead men positioned and posed on his bed like perverted dolls for his amusement. He dressed them in fur coats, propping a cigar in one man's mouth like some sort of twisted joke. Then he photographed the men and posed them again in different positions. These pictures have never been released to the public, and one can only imagine the horrors they contained. Police were now certain that there was a serial killer roaming the streets of Toronto.

and who knew when he would strike again. Part six, a killer caught in the act. Investigators who were tailing MacArthur were told to keep a close eye on him 24/7 until a warrant could be obtained. Again, from an outside perspective, the police seemed ineffectual and slow even after this pile of evidence was discovered linking MacArthur to the dead men. Perhaps it was simply red tape and a slow judicial process.

But regardless of the reason for the holdup in arresting MacArthur, a man's life was about to be on the line. Detectives received a call from the surveillance team stating that MacArthur had picked up a man and was bringing him home to his apartment. Silver Fox 51 had met another match online, and he was bringing him home for a photo session in his bedroom. There was now a race to beat MacArthur there before another man lost his life in the most gruesome and horrifying fashion imaginable.

After MacArthur parked in an isolated spot, he brought the man up to his apartment. The decision was made to arrest him immediately. He lived on the 19th floor and police politely knocked before being allowed to enter as Bruce let them in, perhaps still thinking himself immune and invulnerable. Police arrested MacArthur on the spot. Inside his bedroom, they found a man naked and tied to the bed, utterly and completely terrified.

MacArthur had placed a bag over his head and told him they were going to try something different. Police arrived just before he likely would have killed the man. MacArthur was arrested and his apartment was scoured for evidence, now without the concern of him returning at any moment, like there had been previously. This time, police found more concrete evidence of Bruce's involvement. Belongings from the victims were uncovered one after another.

Skanda Navaratnam's bracelet and Selim Esen's notebook were discovered, like trophies he had kept to remember their deaths. But the authorities were still missing one very crucial thing: the bodies. Detectives grilled MacArthur for nearly 10 hours, asking him where they would find the remains of his victims. He was cordial, even pleasant with them, but would not acknowledge any of what they said he had done.

So police turned to friends and clients of Bruce, who painted the same picture he had always put out into the world. He was a friendly, fun-loving, gay grandpa. A quirky bear of a man who was easygoing and got along with everyone. None of them could have imagined what the police were saying could be true. They defended Bruce, as police told them not to waste their sympathy. They had a pile of evidence, they told witnesses. And one by one, those around MacArthur began to turn on him.

One client who allowed MacArthur to store equipment on her property in exchange for lawn services told police they could search her estate for any clues. They began immediately, bringing corpse-sniffing dogs along to try and locate the missing bodies. The dogs hid on a large concrete planter, now a huge block of frozen ice in the winter months. The only choice was to X-ray the soil in order to see what could be hidden inside.

When the image came back from the lab, police recognized the distinctive shape of a rib cage and knew for certain that was where one of the bodies was hidden. Like something out of a horror movie, police found more and more of these planters filled with human remains. Like organic fertilizer that MacArthur had been using to keep the greenery blooming, there were 15 of them scattered throughout the property, tastefully decorating the estate.

The owner of the house had been watering the plants within them without a second thought, perhaps marveling at how well her flowers were doing and wondering what their mysterious landscaper's secret could be. Surely not this though. No one would have ever guessed something like this, not even in their wildest nightmares.

Andrew Kinsman, Skanda Naratnam, and Seraush Mamoudi were all identified using forensic analysis. Their bodies chopped up and frozen inside the soil of the planters. Hundreds of other properties were searched in the subsequent investigation, removing planters from every home where Bruce MacArthur had worked. Every homeowner and business who had employed the man now had to wonder whether there were bodies buried in their own backyards.

had he turned the corpses into mulch and spread them all across the city. After weeks of going through the planters and using forensic analysis, police found seven of the missing men's remains at the original estate where the search began. Nearly every single one of the missing men from the village were there. They had all been killed by a serial killer, despite police assurances that there was no proof of such a man existing. Only Majid Kayhan was not yet identified.

It wasn't until six months later in the summer months when police were able to begin excavating the property of the homeowner where MacArthur had stored his tools that they found another body, this one belonging to the eighth missing man, Majid Kahan. He had been buried on the same property as where the other men were found, hidden in large concrete planters. To avoid a very publicized trial, MacArthur pled guilty to all eight counts of murder and was sent to prison for life.

He denied the opportunity to speak in court and went silently to jail. For all who saw him in court, he appeared to be broken and disheveled. A shell of the man he once was, the silver-haired grandfather who was responsible for seven years of panic and fear which gripped the Toronto village was now where he belonged, locked behind bars for the remainder of his days.

Following the trial, public scrutiny continued against police for their slow action. An independent investigation concluded that the victims were often given less attention or priority than the cases deserved. According to a retired judge who studied the case in depth, she said that police perceptions impeded their work at times, indicating that prejudices and stereotypes likely hampered the investigation.

For police and for everyone, this should be a lesson not to judge a book by its cover and to treat every victim seriously because you never know who people really are unless you dig deep.