Canada - Barry, 75, & Honey Sherman, 70, found dead, Toronto, 15 Dec 2017 #1

[Elley Mae]

The couple bought the house in 1985 for $390,000, property records show. It was being sold under a numbered Ontario corporation with Barry Sherman listed as the sole director.

Friends say the couple was having a new home built closer to downtown Toronto.

Asked why the couple chose to list in winter — considered to be a poor time to enter the real estate market — the Sherman’s real estate agent Judi Gottlieb declined to comment.

http://nationalpost.com/news/toront...after-bodies-found-in-couples-toronto-mansion

Photo at link of Honey on nov 29th.

 

[Elley Mae]

Bott said homicide detectives will conduct a full investigation and all avenues will be explored.

That said, police did not immediately find a suicide note and a search of the massive house, which will include reviewing of the home’s video surveillance system, was just beginning.

http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/much-loved-billionaire-couple-found-dead-in-north-york-mansion

It was a horrific day for the couple’s grown children, who apparently heard about the death of their parents through media and social media rather than police.



I am not on board with murder/suicide.

 

[gregjrichards]

Interesting article from 10 years ago on Barry, including details on the family dispute: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/the-real-barry-sherman/article698483/

More on the lawsuit that only recently concluded in September 2017.

Billionaire Barry Sherman has come out victorious in a lawsuit brought by his cousins, who argued he owed them a share of his interest in Apotex, the generic drug company he founded in 1974.

"The claimed interest in Apotex was wishful thinking, and beyond fanciful," Superior Court Justice Kenneth Hood wrote in a decision released this month.

"Nothing can now change these findings of fact."

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/...naire-s-fortune-wishful-thinking-judge-rules/

 

[NaanOfYourBusiness]

Devastating for this to happen at the start of the Hannukah season.
Their mansion is listed for sale, but we don't know if they'd moved out yet.
Here's a snippet from a Toronto Life article published just two days prior and since page removed!

Pharma titan Barry Sherman is selling his modern North York mansion

https://torontolife.com/.../pharma-titan-barry-sherman-selling-modern-north-york-ma...
2 days ago - Barry Sherman, founder and chairman of the generic drug manufacturer Apotex, is one of Canada's richest people, with a Forbes-estimated fortune of about $3 billion. In 1985, he and his wife, Honey, bought a parcel of land in North York, at 50 Old Colony Road, near Bayview and the 401, for $390,000.

 

[Gardenista]

Hitting US news

https://www.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-founder-canada-drug-firm-suspicious-death-102945462.html

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/1...y-found-dead-in-their-mansion-police-say.html

 

[dotr]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...ionize-canadas-drug-industry/article37355332/

Barry Sherman was on a family vacation in the Serengeti several years ago when he decided to jot down a few reflections on his life and career.

There is no God, no free will, no altruism and no morality, Mr. Sherman wrote in what he titled A Legacy of Thoughts. "I find no inconsistency in holding intellectually that life has no meaning, while at the same time being highly motivated to survive and to achieve," he added.

He even beat prostate cancer at the age of 65, declaring after successful surgery in 2007 that he had no intention of retiring. "I'm just getting started," he told The Globe and Mail. "I'm a kid just out of school."
But Mr. Sherman, who was 75, was also a ruthless fighter capable of waging as many as 100 lawsuits at a time against business rivals and spending the past ten years of his life battling a group of cousins in court. That family feud was especially painful for Mr. Sherman who frequently expressed frustration at his relatives after they demanded as much as $1-billion for allegedly cutting them out of Apotex

Mr. Sherman started life as a shy, awkward, boy who had few friends and didn't do well in school

The elder Mr. Sherman died when Barry was nine years old, forcing his mother, Sara, to head back to work as an occupational therapist.

His uncle, Louis Winter, became something of a father figure and Mr. Sherman spent several summers during his university years working at Mr. Winter's company, Toronto-based Empire Laboratories, which made cheaper versions of Aspirin, saccharin and Valium. Mr. Winter died suddenly in 1965 and his wife, Beverley, passed away just 17 days later. Their four young sons, Mr. Sherman's cousins, were adopted by another family.

Just as Apotex was taking off in the late 1980s, Mr. Sherman unexpectedly reunited with the four Winter boys. They had not fared as well. A couple had turned to drugs and one later died of an overdose. None of them had gotten much from their father's estate. They were entitled to about $330,000 each from the sale of Empire but their adoptive parents spent most of the money and the boys blew through the rest when they turned of age.



After meeting them by chance through a mutual friend in 1988, Mr. Sherman became a benevolent cousin. He bought them houses, gave out cash and provided loans for an assortment of business ventures.

The legal fight turned ugly, with allegations flying that Mr. Sherman had plotted to kill Mr. Winter and that he used handouts to control the cousins. Mr. Sherman hit back by calling in their loans and moving to seize their houses.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Wow- such ugliness underneath the veneer of success......

This is going to become an A&E special in the future.

 

[Betty P]

Murder-suicide suspected in deaths of Toronto billionaire and wife

http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/much-loved-billionaire-couple-found-dead-in-north-york-mansion

They were found hanging side by side near their indoor pool.

It sounds consistent with his personality. He was described as a "ruthless" man, as are many extremely wealthy business executives. It comes with the territory. Perhaps he discovered he had a health problem or something and decided his wife shouldn't live after he died, spending all his money. JMO.

What a horrible person to abandon his young cousins after his uncle died, the one person who helped him become wealthy. Even worse that he fought his cousins in court to prevent them from getting a share of the business that their father helped found. Such unpleasant people are often unhappy when they retire, having devoted their entire life to work and obsession with building wealth. Once they stop working, they realize they have no life, few friends, little happiness.

 

[TTF14]

Hmmm, I find it a bit hard to imagine a 75 year old man killing his wife in another location inside the home and then managing to string her up to fake a suicide.

I find it easy to imagine younger people doing this to both of them, though.

We'll have to see how this one plays out.

 

[Cora]

Bott said homicide detectives will conduct a full investigation and all avenues will be explored.

That said, police did not immediately find a suicide note and a search of the massive house, which will include reviewing of the home’s video surveillance system, was just beginning.

http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/much-loved-billionaire-couple-found-dead-in-north-york-mansion

It was a horrific day for the couple’s grown children, who apparently heard about the death of their parents through media and social media rather than police.



I am not on board with murder/suicide.

Me either. I can't recall a murder-suicide by hanging.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cora]

Hmmm, I find it a bit hard to imagine a 75 year old man killing his wife in another location inside the home and then managing to string her up to fake a suicide.

I find it easy to imagine younger people doing this to both of them, though.

We'll have to see how this one plays out.

Agreed. Makes absolutely NO sense.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kaley Smith]

I don't buy the murder-suicide claim either. Not for a minute.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Here's the thing- if you hang someone, you watch them suffer for a good long while before they are dead. I think someone wanted them more than dead- a simple bullet to the head would accomplish that. Someone wanted to watch them suffer.

That is horrible to even think about.

 

[Elley Mae]

Beginning in the late 1980s, Mr. Sherman had a good relationship with three of his younger cousins, and supported them financially. But that relationship slowly dissolved as the late Mr. Winter’s son Kerry began looking for information on the history of the estate. Along with one of his brothers and another brother’s widow, Kerry eventually filed a claim against Royal Trust (now owned by Royal Bank of Canada) in 2006 and a separate claim against Mr. Sherman (among other defendants including Apotex) in 2007, both in the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.

http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/architect-of-a-well-laid-plan

 

[Elley Mae]

Sherman is the sole owner of Apotex, Canada's largest pharmaceutical company. The Toronto-based business is a manufacturer of more than 300 types of generic drugs, which it exports to more than 115 countries. It had revenue of C$2.5 billion ($1.9 billion) in 2016. He also owns 30 percent of Anconia Resources, a Canadian miner.

https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/bernard-c-sherman/

 

[Elley Mae]

Their bodies were discovered by an estate agent who was setting up an open house for the luxury property, which had recently been put up for sale for $6.9m Canadian dollars (over £4m).

https://news.sky.com/story/billionaire-couple-found-dead-in-their-mansion-basement-11172541

 

[gregjrichards]

It will be interesting to see if the lawsuit has anything to do with this.

 

[rosesfromangels]

I don't buy the murder-suicide claim either. Not for a minute.

AGREE. All that money - someone wanted it.
In addition, the bodies of these two people are barely cold and all the tabloid reporting is smearing their memories, their legacies. How very despicable. Canadians are usually far more dignified, and civilized. I'm quite surprised by this tawdry reporting. Shame on them.

 

[Kilr0y]

Also casting my vote against murder-suicide. It just makes no sense if they were both hanging. Look at the pool railing where they were found. It is so low. They were either hunched over or into the water.

I grabbed the image from the real estate site before they take it down.

https://ibb.co/d4BHS6

 

[dotr]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...n-and-wife-as-murder-suicide/article37357096/

Updated 2 minutes ago Police are investigating the deaths of Toronto billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey, as a murder-suicide.
A Toronto police source told The Globe and Mail their bodies were found Friday, seated on the edge of their basement lap pool, hanging from a railing that surrounded the pool. Investigators are working on the theory that Mr. Sherman killed his wife, hung her body and then hanged himself at the pool's edge, the source said.

The real estate agent who had been helping to sell the pair's North York home found the bodies.



Police services spokesman Mark Pugash confirmed that the homicide squad is now involved in the investigation. "Homicide is working with 33 Division on this until we get the post mortem. When we get the post mortem result, that should give us a good indication of where the investigation goes from there," he told The Globe.

The Shermans, the family said, had just welcomed a new grandchild. Mr. Sherman was 75 and Ms. Sherman, 70. They had four children.
On Monday, Mrs. Sherman e-mailed friends to book social dates on the couple's upcoming Florida trip.
"Looking forward to getting together in Florida. I am coming south Monday, December 18 - Friday, January 12," Ms. Sherman wrote in the email. "Barry is coming south for Monday December 25 & going home with me Jan. 12. Please let me know your dates south asap so i can place in my calendar... Looking forward to hearing back asap. Xoxo Honey"