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Scott Mission was ‘like home’ for alleged serial killer victim Dean Lisowick

Lisowick has been named of one of at least five men who Toronto police now believe was murdered by Bruce McArthur.

[...]

“When I think about it, Laser is one of the last people that this should have happened to. Not that it should have happened to anybody, but he was such a good guy.”

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https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/...leged-serial-killer-victim-dean-lisowick.html
 
Police made quick decision to arrest Bruce McArthur to protect life of young man: sources
Sources say police decided to intervene when they saw a young man enter Bruce McArthur’s apartment.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...hur-to-protect-life-of-young-man-sources.html

On the morning of January 18, police watching McArthur observed a young man entering the Thorncliffe Park building where there the 66-year-old landscaper rented an apartment. When he walked in the 19th floor unit, they knew they had to intervene, according to a police source with knowledge of the events.

When officers decided they had to take action, they entered McArthur’s apartment and found a young man tied up but unharmed, according to the source.

None of the information about the circumstances of McArthur’s arrest has been officially released by Toronto police.
 
Meet the junior Toronto homicide detective that’s the ‘energy’ behind the Bruce McArthur investigation
Det. David Dickinson has been working full-time on the case since August.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...-behind-the-bruce-mcarthur-investigation.html

The “energy” behind the ongoing investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur doesn’t like the spotlight.

But Toronto police Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga says his right-hand man on the sprawling case, Det. David Dickinson, nonetheless deserves it. The junior homicide cop played a central role in collecting key evidence against the 66-year-old landscaper who stands accused of being Toronto’s most prolific killer.

(snip)

Dickinson, who has about four years on the homicide squad, has been working full-time on the case since August, when officers from 51 division probing the disappearances of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen reached out for assistance.
 
Alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur ‘undoubtedly believed he had outsmarted everyone’
Concealing dismembered remains in planter boxes “essentially in plain sight” shows a level of brazenness, criminologist says.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/01/31/serial-killer-believed-he-had-outsmarted-everyone.html

Bruce McArthur, a 66-year-old landscaper, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Andrew Kinsmen, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi and Dean Lisowick.

Police have found the dismembered, skeletal remains of three unidentified people in planters at a Leaside home. They have identified 30 properties linked to McArthur through his landscaping business.

Links between occupation and serial murder are “very well established,” said Michael Arntfield, a criminologist and professor at Western University.

Serial killers typically “use the guise of their job” to access locations where they can find victims, Arntfield said.

In this case, he noted, it appears that the killer may have used an occupation to dispose of them.
 
City needs answers on serial killer investigation
Whatever one thinks of how Toronto police have handled the case of Bruce McArthur thus far, their job now could hardly be more important. They must ensure that everyone in our city feels protected.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/edi...s-answers-on-serial-killer-investigation.html

The grisly story police are now telling, of at least five murdered and quite likely more, has no doubt brought terrible grief to the victims’ families and friends and fear to the loved ones of other missing persons.

How disquieting, too, for the quiet neighbourhoods where McArthur earned his living as a landscaper and in particular for those residents on whose properties police say they have found, in planters, parts of an unknown number of bodies.

But the statement by Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga on Monday that McArthur was indeed a serial killer, who had been murdering men for at least the better part of a decade, was met by many, particularly within the LGBTQ community, with not only sadness and some degree of fear, but also with anger.
 
Anguished family of man missing since 2010 watch news of murders from afar
Skandaraj, 40, was last seen in the early hours of Sept. 10, 2010, leaving Zipperz, a now closed bar near Church and Carlton Sts., with an unknown man.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...nce-2010-watch-news-of-murders-from-afar.html

For over seven years, Navaseelan Navaratnam has been carefully guarding a devastating truth from his 80-year-old Sri Lankan mother: no one knows where his brother, Skandaraj, is.

“She is a heart patient,” said Navaratnam. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, was last seen in the early hours of Sept. 10, 2010, leaving Zipperz, a now closed bar near Church and Carlton Sts., with an unknown man.

The case of his disappearance would become part of Project Houston — an eighteen-month long police task force looking for Skandaraj and two other men who went missing between 2010 and 2012: Majeed Kayhan, 58, and Abdulbasir Faizi, 42.

On Monday, Toronto Police announced three additional counts of first-degree murder have been laid against suspected serial killer Bruce McArthur. One of those counts was in relation to Kayhan’s death.

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Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40
 

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Police say he's a serial killer who buried his victims' remains in potted plants

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/world/toronto-landscaper-murders-trnd/index.html

Toronto police have arrested a landscaper who they say killed men and buried their body parts in potted plants on the properties where he worked.

Bruce McArthur, 66, is charged with five murders. Authorities expect the number of victims to go up.

"We do believe there are more and I have no idea how many more there are going to be," homicide detective Sgt. Hank Idsinga told reporters Monday.

Police have identified more than 30 properties where McArthur worked and urged his past clients to come forward.

Initially, investigators thought the victims were all from the Gay Village, a neighborhood in Toronto known for its predominantly gay population. But new evidence is expanding the victim profile, Idsinga said.
 
'That was my escape': Longtime acquaintance of Bruce McArthur recounts violent night

It was a night of light conversation, a bit of kissing. Then Peter Sgromo had to trust his gut.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4513650

When Peter Sgromo decided to enrol in martial arts training a couple of years ago, he had no way of knowing just how valuable those skills would prove to be — until, he says, he wound up in the back of a van with accused serial killer Bruce McArthur.

Sgromo had known McArthur for more than a decade when a casual meet-up with the acquaintance turned into a terrifying encounter that ended shortly after the 66-year-old grabbed and twisted his neck without warning, he told CBC News.

When Peter Sgromo decided to enroll in martial arts training a couple of years ago, he had no way of knowing just how valuable those skills would prove to be — until, he says, he wound up in the back of a van with accused serial killer Bruce McArthur.

Sgromo had known McArthur for more than a decade when a casual meet-up with the acquaintance turned into a terrifying encounter that ended shortly after the 66-year-old grabbed and twisted his neck without warning, he told CBC News.

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Peter Sgromo had known McArthur for more than a decade when he says a casual meet-up with him turned into a terrifying encounter that ended shortly after, he says, the 66-year-old grabbed and twisted his neck without warning. (CBC)
 

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A different standard': Disappearances of men of colour not taken seriously enough, LGBT leader says

South Asian group calls for review into police investigations of missing men in Toronto's Gay Village

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/disappearances-lgbt-ethnic-men-1.4507235

Years before he disappeared from Toronto's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, Abdulbasir Faizi brought up the possibility with a childhood friend while living in Iran that he might be gay.

It was a conversation his family wouldn't learn about until after the 44-year-old went missing in 2010, according to his nephew, Bobac Faizi.

"You're in the wrong place to be a homosexual," the friend recounted to Faizi's family after his disappearance. "You should try to find God or leave."

It seems that conflict would remain with Faizi, whose "nightlife" his nephew says remained hidden from his family, including his wife and children, until it was discovered he may have been corresponding with various men.
 
Man missing since 2010 was romantically involved with accused killer Bruce McArthur, says friend

Skandaraj Navaratnam said to have first met McArthur in 1999

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bruce-mcarthur-skandaraj-navaratnam-missing-1.4500457

A gay man who disappeared in 2010 had a romantic history with suspected murderer Bruce McArthur, according to the missing man's friend.

Kevin Nash says Skandaraj Navaratnam, known to friends as Skanda, met McArthur in 1999 and they began a relationship in the early 2000s.

McArthur, 66, has been charged with two counts of first degree murder in the cases of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen. Police say they believe there are other victims.

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All three men went missing between 2010 and 2012, prompting the creation of Project Houston. From left: Abdulbasir Faizi, Majeed Kayhan, and Skandaraj Navaratnam. (Toronto Police)
 

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Traces of blood found by police in Bruce McArthur's vehicle, auto shop owner says

Shop owner says police first came looking in October for McArthur's vehicle, a Dodge Caravan

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/blood-bruce-mcarthur-vehicle-auto-shop-1.4497570

The man accused of killing two men who disappeared from Toronto's Gay Village in 2017 sold his van to an auto parts shop last fall, the shop owner says, and police came looking for the vehicle in early October.

Dominic Vetere, owner of Dom's Auto Parts, located roughly 70 kilometres northeast of Toronto, says Bruce McArthur visited him on Sept. 16 to sell his old, rusty, maroon-coloured Dodge Caravan. A month later police came looking for exactly that vehicle.

"According to our salesman, the day [McArthur] came in to sell the van, it was just a regular purchase. He was not upset, he was not panicky, he just came in, made the sale and he left," Vetere told CBC News said, adding he wasn't sure how McArthur left or who he might have gone with.

The vehicle had racked up 243,000 kilometres and Vetere's shop purchased it for $125.

McArthur was arrested and charged with first-degree murder last week in the deaths of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen. Police believe there are more victims.
 
Accused killer Bruce McArthur’s 2003 assault conviction led to DNA order

Though the DNA was taken over a decade ago, former Toronto police homicide cop Mark Valois said it’s “absolutely” possible that information aided in his most recent arrest.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...2003-assault-conviction-led-to-dna-order.html

Accused killer Bruce McArthur was sentenced for assault more than a decade ago, in a ruling that prohibited him from owning weapons for 10 years and ordered samples of his DNA to be taken and placed in a database.

On April 11, 2003, McArthur — who now faces charges of first-degree murder in the killings of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen — was sentenced in Ontario for one count of assault causing bodily harm and one count of assault with a weapon, according to a Ministry of the Attorney General spokesperson. At the time, McArthur received a conditional sentence of two years less a day (the maximum allowed by law) and probation for three years.

A conditional sentence is served in the community rather than in jail.

McArthur was also subject to a DNA order and a weapons prohibition for 10 years, the spokesperson said. DNA orders allow bodily substance samples to be taken from an offender, typically through a mouth swab, to add to a database.

Because assault causing bodily harm is what’s called a “primary designated” offence, the judge was required to make a DNA order if a conviction was reached, said criminal lawyer Daniel Brown, who is not connected to the McArthur murder case or to the earlier assault case.
 
Forensic investigators descend on 3rd Toronto property tied to man charged in 2 killings

Bruce McArthur faces 1st-degree murder charges in the disappearances of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bruce-mc-arthur-properties-search-toronto-1.4497067

A forensic team descended Saturday on a third Toronto property associated with Bruce McArthur, accused in the killing of two men who vanished from the Gay Village last spring.

Resident Stephen Haskett said he first noticed police in the neighbourhood Thursday, but didn't realize at the time why they were there.

"It's uncomfortable," he said. "This is not something that I've ever experienced, and to know that it's this close to home is just kind of creepy — just out of Stephen King."

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Forensic investigators in coveralls could be seen searching the garage of a home on Mallory Crescent in Toronto on Saturday. (CBC)
 

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As the murder investigation expands, one man says Bruce McArthur sold him planters. ‘God knows what’s inside’

While a Church St. restaurateur worries, tips flood in from around the world about the landscaper who Toronto police allege is a serial killer.

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/...o-peel-and-durham-in-bruce-mcarthur-case.html

A.J. Kahn was terrified as he placed call after call to police about the foliage at his restaurant in Toronto’s gay village. His planters came from Bruce McArthur, the landscaper who police believe killed at least five people and hid dismembered human remains in planters.

But Kahn’s calls were going to voicemail.

“Trust me, I’m scared right now,” Kahn said Wednesday, sitting in the restaurant where McArthur was once a regular. “God knows what’s inside.”

Meanwhile, phones were ringing off the hook and emails were piling up for Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga and his team of investigators. “I’ve got a log like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.

Idsinga said he could “almost guarantee” police had received Kahn’s tip – but they’ve been swamped with leads to chase.
 
Gay Village disappearances and police behaviour show ‘whose lives are disposable and whose lives are not’

Serial killers succeed when they know their victims are not valued. And so it would be with these missing gay men, writes Shree Paradkar.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...s-are-disposable-and-whose-lives-are-not.html

Avuncular, white-haired, white guy. “Harmless” is the word that springs to mind, right?

That’s the kind of thinking that allowed Jeffrey Dahmer’s killing spree to go unchecked between 1978 and 1991 in Milwaukee, Wisc. Police actually took a bleeding, naked, incoherent Asian boy who managed to escape him, back to Dahmer’s house over the protestations of the two Black women who had flagged them.
 
Candlelight vigils, increased support for shocked community as investigation into alleged serial killer continues

The 519 and Metropolitan Community Church are two of many organizations planning vigils and increasing services in wake of the Bruce McArthur murder investigation.

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/...d-support-as-a-shocked-community-grieves.html

A community reeling from the realization that there was a killer in its midst is finding ways to cope and grieve.

“(There) may be from feelings of devastation and heartbreak — because I feel those — but also anger, knowing that we have now lost individuals that we care about,” said city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

There is also “shock and disbelief, and then the desire to want to do something about it.”

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[FONT=&amp]"We have now lost individuals that we care about,” said city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, shown at the 519 Community Centre. (RICHARD LAUTENS /TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
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Christie Blatchford: Lead detective in Toronto serial killer case refutes charges of racism in probe

'You know, we actually did a bigger, longer investigation in 2013 when we were dealing with Southeast Asian guys,' Hank Idsinga says

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/chr...iller-case-refutes-charges-of-racism-in-probe

His point was that homicide detectives, a little like forensic pathologists, may be the genuinely colour-blind element of law and order: For them, everybody counts, or as Bosch would say, nobody counts.

Kinsman’s disappearance — he was reported missing in June last year — was central to the start-up of a second major investigation, Project Prism, not because of his skin colour, but because toward the end of July, police got a break.

Idsinga can’t say what that was, for investigative reasons.
 
By allegedly burying remains in planters, Bruce McArthur may have accidentally preserved bones for police

Scott Fairgrieve said burying human remains actually works to preserve because insects, the sun, heat and scavengers aren't working to decompose them

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada...ave-accidentally-preserved-remains-for-police

The soil found in household gardens is usually neutral and not appropriate to support the growth of acidic plants. However, the acidity of the soil can be manipulated in a more controlled area such as a planter box. But, even if a killer purposely buried human remains in the most acidic soil, Fairgrieve said, they’d have to consistently drown it in water — and it would still take several years for the bones to decompose.

Of the victims linked to McArthur, Majeed Kayhan died the earliest around Oct. 2012, according to court documents. Six years is a short time frame, Fairgrieve said, and in cases where bodies are buried whole, forensics teams may even find soft tissue preserving internal organs.

McArthur, 66, was charged with an additional three counts of first-degree murder on Monday, bringing the total to five.

(snip)

But Fairgrieve doesn’t just search test pits for the DNA of a victim. The perpetrators often leave behind their own DNA and affirmatively linking them to the burial site assists the prosecution in court.

(snip)

Roughly 30 properties linked to McArthur and his Artistic Design landscaping company are being investigated. After having dogs trained to sniff out human remains examine the properties, police were seen confiscating multiple planters. They’ll likely be taken to the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service facilities in Toronto where they can be examined in a controlled environment, Fairgrieve said.
 

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