Bruce McArthur now facing 5 first-degree murder charges; police discover dismembered human remains in Leaside
Posted January 29, 2018 10:55 am.
Last Updated January 30, 2018 6:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Accused serial killer Bruce McArthur has been charged with three more counts of first-degree murder and investigators believe there are still more victims, Toronto police said at a news conference Monday morning.
McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed landscaper, was arrested on Jan. 18 and previously charged with two counts of first-degree murder in relation to the disappearance of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen.
“The city of Toronto has never seen anything like this”
Police say they recovered the remains of three individuals from a home on Mallory Crescent, a property in Leaside used by McArthur to store landscaping equipment, but the remains have not been identified and it’s unclear if they’re connected to the five victims.
“Right now, where we’ve recovered the bodies, are from large planters and they’ve been hidden in the bottom of these planters, so we’ve seized quite a few planters from around the city,” Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga said in a news conference this morning.
“They can’t be identified because they are skeletal remains and they have been dismembered so we have to wait for DNA tests… before we can identify those remains.”
McArthur worked at approximately 30 properties in Toronto and police have searched the majority of them.
There are at least two sites that police intend to excavate where more remains may be buried, but Idsinga did not say where those properties are located.
“I have no idea how many more [victims] there are going to be.”
Idsinga also said police have interviewed McArthur but would not get into specifics about how those interviews went.
Police have looked into the possibility he had an accomplice but there is no evidence to suggest he acted with somebody else.
“It’s… an alleged serial killer, and he’s taken some steps to cover his tracks, and we have to uncover these victims and identify these victims and hopefully get some good news, or some closing news, to these families,” Idsinga said.
Police identified McArthur as a potential person of interest in the disappearance of Andrew Kinsman in September 2017. “Further steps were taken between September and January 2018 to investigate Mr. McArthur. Public safety was always our top priority,” Idsinga said.
“We don’t know how many more victims there are going to be, but it certainly encompasses more than the gay community, it encompasses the city of Toronto.”