How could a serial killer prey on Toronto’s Gay Village for so long? A landmark report on Toronto police missing persons is set to be released – Toronto Star
Three years after the arrest of Bruce McArthur set off urgent questions about how the Gay Village serial killer went on a seven-year killing spree, an independent review into how Toronto police conduct missing persons investigations will reveal its much-anticipated findings.
Retired Ontario Court of Appeal justice Gloria Epstein will release her high-profile report Tuesday morning — an “extensive examination and investigation” launched amid public outrage about how a killer stalked Toronto’s Gay Village for years, even as the community raised the alarm about missing men.
McArthur, 69, was convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder in 2019, after pleading guilty to killing eight men between 2010 and 2017. Sentencing him to life in prison, Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon called McArthur a sexual predator whose crimes were “pure evil.”
The Independent Civilian Review Into Missing Person Investigations was struck in 2018, amid heated controversy over the McArthur case and other disappearances linked to the LGBTQ community. Climbing numbers of missing people — and a denial by then-Toronto police chief Mark Saunders that a serial killer was at work — prompted anger and distrust of police, and concerns their investigations were being tainted by systemic bias or discrimination.
“My hope is the review provides answers about what the LGBTQ2+ community has long understood: the police failed to effectively investigate disappearances of our community members, especially South Asian and Middle Eastern men,” said Shakir Rahim, former board vice-chair of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP), an organization that helped lead the charge for the review.
The product of more than two years’ work — including access to internal Toronto police documents, interviews with dozens of police officers and broad community consultation — the report will make detailed recommendations about how police can improve their missing persons investigations. The review is expected to explore civilianizing some aspects of missing persons probes.
“We need to think of alternatives to the police to investigate missing person cases,” Rahim said.
McArthur admitted to killing Andrew Kinsman, 49; Selim Esen, 44; Majeed Kayhan, 58; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Dean Lisowick, 47; Skandaraj (Skanda) Navaratnam, 40, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, and Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, 37.
Most of McArthur’s victims were of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent, and some were homeless, had a precarious immigration status in Canada or struggled with substance abuse. The report will also contain recommendations for “efficient, effective, discrimination-free investigations and better police relations with affected communities,” the civilian review said.
Central to the report will be a detailed account of police actions following the disappearances of men now known to be McArthur’s victims.
The review team got unfettered access to internal police documents on the McArthur-linked disappearances and will explain “what was done and what wasn’t done on these investigations,” Mark Sandler, lawyer for the review, told the Star late last year.
“We are going to explain what happened,” Sandler said.
Toronto police have defended their investigations into the missing men now known to be McArthur’s victims. The force’s “Project Prism” — an exhaustive probe into the 2017 disappearances of Esen and Kinsman — was ultimately what brought down McArthur.
During that sprawling investigation, detectives pinned McArthur to the deaths of Kinsman, Esen and six more men — including two who had never been reported missing — after discovering post-mortem images on his computer and the dismembered remains of victims on a Leaside property where McArthur worked as a landscaper. In court, McMahon commended police for saving the life of a man found tied up on McArthur’s bed on the day of his arrest.
But Toronto police had interviewed McArthur twice before, in the midst of his killing spree, a revelation that has spawned outrage.
“Lives could have been saved including Selim’s if there were proper investigation in time and place,” Ferhat Cinar, brother to Selim Esen, told the Star in a 2019 statement that urged an inquiry into “this neglect over many years.”
McArthur was interviewed during “Project Houston,” a special 2012-2014 probe into the disappearances of Navaratnam, Faizi and Kayhan, three men now known to be McArthur’s first victims. McArthur was brought in for a voluntary videotaped interview on Nov. 11, 2013, where McArthur offered up information that ultimately linked him to all three missing men.
But McArthur was released, and it’s not clear what further investigation was done. Project Houston ended, and McArthur went on to kill five more men.
Project Houston has been examined “in great detail,” Sandler previously told the Star.
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The Star filed a Freedom-of-Information request for the 2013 video but Toronto police Access and Privacy division said the disclosure of the video would be an “unjustified invasion” of McArthur’s privacy. The Star has appealed the decision to Ontario’s privacy commissioner. As part of their investigation, Epstein’s team would have had access to videotaped interviews and she may provide a summary in her report.
McArthur was also interviewed in 2016, after a man accused him of strangling him during a sexual encounter in the killer’s van. After the man says he escaped and dialed 911, McArthur turned himself in, where he told police he thought the man wanted it rough.
Following the interview, police ruled there were no grounds to lay charges, and McArthur was released unconditionally. Sgt. Paul Gauthier, the officer who conducted the investigation, faces professional misconduct charges in connection to the incident.
McArthur went on to kill two more men, Kinsman and Esen.
Epstein’s review is also examining other cases of missing persons connected to the Gay Village, including the death of Alloura Wells, a 27-year-old transgender woman, and the murder of Tess Richey, 22.
Richey was reported missing in November 2017 and her body was later found in a Toronto stairwell by her mother, Christine Hermeston, who has sued Toronto police for their handling of her daughter’s disappearance.
Kalen Schlatter was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury last year for strangling and sexually assaulting Richey in a Church Street alley in 2017.
Since Epstein began her work, the team has conducted more than 200 interviews including consultations with the LGBTQ and Indigenous community members and organizations representing refugees and people experiencing homelessness.
After McArthur’s arrest, Toronto police established a missing person unit, an initiative the review team is examining. In order to learn about varying approaches to missing persons investigations, Epstein has consulted with police services across Canada and internationally.
Epstein’s team has also consulted relevant past reports and interviewed past British Columbia judge Wally Oppal, who wrote a report on serial killer Robert Pickton.
The report is also expected to examine whether there remain communication problems between police services. The review team questioned officers from Peel region, where Faizi, McArthur’s second victim, was reported missing, and have examined the work of Ontario Justice Archie Campbell, who in 1996 found serial rapist and killer Paul Bernado had gone undetected due in part to siloed policing in Ontario.
The report will go public on the review’s website at 11 a.m. A press conference is scheduled for the same time.
