Toronto police clarify statement on person of interest in Sherman homicides

Toronto police are backtracking on news that a ‘person of interest’ has been identified in the 2017 deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman.

On Wednesday, police confirmed a story first reported by the Toronto Star that a person of interest had been identified but not arrested in the killings of the Canadian drug company billionaire and his wife.

However, in a brief statement issued Friday, the homicide squad stopped short of confirming a particular person of interest in the case.

“Numerous ‘persons of interest’ have been, and continue to be, investigated throughout the course of this three year investigation. The goal of any investigation is to identify persons who may have been involved in an offence or to exclude them as suspects,” said Det. Sgt. Brandon Price, the lead detective in the case.

“In the interest of protecting the integrity of this investigation, the Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad is not in a position to confirm if a suspect or suspects have been identified.”

The search for the killers of Barry and Honey Sherman has taken on global interest since their bodies were found in their Toronto mansion on Dec. 15, 2017, hanging by belts from a railing that surrounds their indoor pool.

The day after the bodies were found, some prominent news media outlets quoted unidentified police officials as saying the deaths appeared to be a murder-suicide. That upset the couple’s four adult children, who then hired their own team of investigators and a pathologist, who conducted second autopsies on the Shermans.

Police later said publicly they believed the Shermans were murdered.

Sherman, 75, was known for litigiousness and aggressive business practices as he developed Apotex, which had a global work force of about 11,000. In “Prescription Games,” a 2001 book about the industry, he mused that a rival might want to kill him.

Sherman faced legal action from cousins who said they had been cut out of the company over the years. A judge dismissed the claim just months before the couple was found dead.

The couple was among Canada’s most generous philanthropists, and their deaths shocked Canadian high society and the country’s Jewish community. They made numerous multimillion-dollar donations to hospitals, schools and charities and had buildings named in their honour. They hosted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a Liberal Party fundraiser in 2015.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report