Canada - Barry & Honey Sherman, Toronto, 15 Dec 2017 MEDIA, MAPS & TIMELINE *NO DISCUSSION*

[Lexiintoronto]

Small edits to timeline. Added dates and links.


Note: Toronto Star reporter and chief investigative journalist Kevin Donovan represented himself, and on behalf of the Toronto Star, in court for the last three years, in an ongoing effort to have police and court documents unsealed in this case.


2007, Barry Sherman cousins Tim Barkin, Kerry Winter, Jeffrey Barkin, and Julia Winter (widow of the late Dana Winter), file a lawsuit seeking 20% of the Apotex fortune. Background here: Barry Sherman's legal battle with his cousins goes on weeks after his murder - Macleans.ca

2013, Barry Sherman updates his will naming trustees Jack Kay, Craig Baxter (then president of Sherfam, the Sherman family holding company), Mike Florence (husband of Barry’s sister Sandra), Allen Shechtman (husband of Honey’s sister Mary), and Barry and Honey’s grown children, Lauren, Jonathon, Alexandra and Kaelen. (Source: Honey Sherman would have controlled the ‘net income’ of husband Barry’s multibillion-dollar fortune had she lived, sources reveal )

April, 2015, Heated email exchange between Barry Sherman & Jonathon Sherman. Jonathon did not understand or approve of Barry financing Frank D’Angelo and his projects. Jonathon suggested in further emails to his sisters that Barry was unfit to handle finances, and as shareholders that was a concern they should act upon. (the sisters did not support this suggestion).

Jonathon then asks Barry to agree to fund a $250 million dollar business plan for himself and Adam Paulin. Jonathon asks Barry to meet with him and Adam Paulin, saying: “I can promise to remain calm and amicable”

Barry is quoted by friends as saying Jonathon attempted a ‘palace coup’ in regards to Jonathon’s suggestions that he was unfit to make financial decisions. From this date forward, for the rest of 2015, Barry did not loan or advance money to Jonathon or his companies. (KD’s book, pg 256).

-2016, $5 million of Sherfam money advanced to Hour Holdings (Jonathon’s & Adam Paulin’s company) to purchase a storage company (source KD’s book, pg 259).

-March 29, 2017, Barry updates his will, removing some estate trustees and adding others. The trustees are now: Jack Kay, Jonathon Sherman, Alex Glasenberg (Sherfam),Brad Krawczyk (Sherman daughter Alex’s husband and Sherfam employee) (source: Honey Sherman would have controlled the ‘net income’ of husband Barry’s multibillion-dollar fortune had she lived, sources reveal ).

-April, 2017, Barry (Sherfam?) loaned $50 million to Green Storage to purchase a property (source, KD’s book, pg 259).

-Summer, 2017, Barry tells Jonathon that he needs Jonathon to repay $50-60 million. Barry asks Jonathon to obtain a bank mortgage. Barry is concerned about a possible court loss regarding a patent, and having to possibly pay over $500 million as a result.

-September, 2017, The lawsuit filed in 2007 by Barry’s cousins (Tim, Jeffrey, Kerry & Dana’s widow, Julia), for 20% of Apotex is dismissed as “wishful thinking and beyond fanciful,” by Ontario Superior Court judge Justice Kenneth Hood, who also called the case an abuse of process.

-September 2017, Hour holdings (Jonathon’s & Adam’s company) advanced $1.5 million for the construction of a cottage owned by Jonathon Sherman and Adam Paulin. (Source, KD’s book, pg 259)

October, 2017, Barry’s cousins, Winter/Barkin, file an appeal to the lawsuit they lost in September, 2017.

- November 16, 2017, Barry sends an email to Jonathon and Adam requesting repayment of $50-60 million. (Mid-November, Barry comments in an email that Jonathon’s ‘hostility persists’, and also mentions Jonathon’s lack of involvement with Apotex.)

-November 28, 2017, height of disagreement between Barry/Adam & Jonathon. Adam requests money from Sherfam, cc’ing Barry, writing that Barry approved the amounts. Barry says no, that he and Jonathon need to return of $50-60 million ASAP. Adam agrees, but requests millions to cover ‘cash needs’ for December 15th, 2017, and January 15th, 2017. Barry gives Sherfam the approval for the requested funds.

-November 30, or December 1, Jonathon and his husband go to Japan on vacation. Jonathon later tells the Star’s Kevin Donovan that he was learning and investing in crypto currency while there. Jonathon admittedly did nothing to repay Barry as promised.

-December 6, 2017, an Ontario Superior Court judge orders Barry’s cousins, Winter/Barkin, to pay Barry $300,000 in legal fees related to the case they lost in September, 2017.

-Approximately December 7, 2017, Barry pays $311,609 to a US company for Jonathon’s surrogate’s fees.

-December 10, 2017 (approximately), Kerry Winter, (later recounting this to Kevin Donovan), tells a person that he fears that his brother Jeffrey may kill Barry. (KD’s book, page 152).

-December 12, 2017, daytime, Honey Sherman uncharacteristically misses a meeting at the Baycrest Centre Foundation, as she was ‘dealing with some stuff’.

-December 12, 2017, evening, Jonathon and his husband return home from Japan.

-December 13, 2017 was the last day the Shermans were seen alive. This information is from Kevin Donovan’s book, and articles linked below.

8:30 am: Personal trainer and friend, Denise Gold arrives at the Sherman family home as part of her twice-weekly training session for both Honey and Barry.

BS routinely would open the front door to pick up the paper (Toronto Star), read it in the kitchen, and eat his breakfast, cutting 15 minutes into the beginning of his session.

9:30 am: Barry’s workout is completed.

10:00 am: He leaves for work. Gold states that Barry wore one of two almost-identical new belts that Honey had purchased from Canadian Tire. (Identical except for size.)

9:30- 11:30 Honey’s workout session. Gold left after the session.

Mid-morning:

• At 10:51 am, Barry responds to an email from Jonathon who is requesting $17,677 USD. Barry instructs a staffer to send the money to him.
• Real estate agent Elise Stern is at the Sherman home, as well as workers and cleaners.

11:30-2:30, approximately, Honey had massage therapy at home.

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm, Barry had a routine meeting with then-Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai and legal council at Apotex.

5:00 pm, approximately, Honey pulled into the Apotex parking lot, followed shortly by architects there to meet with Honey and Barry to discuss the plans for the new house they were planning to build.

5:00 pm is the time that magnetic locks at Apotex activate, preventing anyone from entering the building without a special pass.

*5:30...6:00 pm (Donovan and the CBC specify different times, I’ll leave the CBC link here.), the meeting ends and Barry walks them all to the front doors and they exit. The team of architects drive off, and Honey drives off. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5860527

6:21 pm, Honey makes her last known call (as per link directly above.) She speaks to a friend for approximately 5 minutes. As per the Star, her friend stated that: “Honey sounded completely normal and was ‘on her way home.’ ” Did someone know Barry and Honey Sherman’s schedule? Close friends were away and they had nothing planned

Honey stops by Bayview Village Shopping Centre and makes purchases. (time not specified).

-7:17 pm, time code of photo of Jonathon’s hand, with his home in the background, that Jonathon later shows to Kevin Donovan to establish his whereabouts on the evening of the murders.(Source in article linked below.)

8:13 pm, Barry composed a routine email at his desktop computer at Apotex.

8:30 pm, Barry left Apotex.

-Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered within a few hours upon arriving home on Wednesday, December 13th, according to Homicide Inspector Hank Idsinga. Police believe they were both killed between 9:00 pm-12:00 am. (His statement was on January 15th, 2020. Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered within hours of arriving home, Toronto police say)

-December 15, 2017, Honey and Barry Sherman are found deceased in their home.
The timeline information below is based on redacted court files, except where noted. Sources: ‘Someone has killed my clients’: Newly released documents detail the day Barry and Honey Sherman were found dead, and what police did after , https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5860527?client=safari , and Court documents reveal more details about 2017 homicides of Barry and Honey Sherman

• 8:25 am, the housekeeper and a personal trainer arrive at the home and find the house alarm was deactivated, which was unusual. Also irregular is that the newspaper is still outside on the front step. (My note: shouldn’t there be two papers outside? Thursday’s and Friday’s?) A furnace technician arrives to do routine maintenance, and leaves after one hour. Honey’s SUV is parked on the circular driveway, her usual parking spot.
  
• The housekeeper goes upstairs to try to locate Honey, but does not find her. The bed is made, but is slightly messy. Normally she would expect to find the bed unmade, and clothes for washing, but there are none. Honey normally would use a sink in the morning, but the sink is dry.
• The personal trainer leaves.
• (Time unknown) The housekeeper hears a cellphone ring. She finds Honey’s cellphone on the floor of the powder room by the front door. She picks it up and places it on the counter.
• The housekeeper starts her cleaning routine upstairs, working her way down.
• 10:45 am (time approximate) Sherman real estate agent Elise Stern arrives to find two prospective buyers and their agents waiting to tour the home. They start upstairs and make their way to the basement where there is an indoor pool.
• Stern leads the way down the basement corridor to the pool area. She finds a pair of gloves and a home inspection report on the floor, close to the doors leading out to the underground garage. She picks them up and places them on a (ledge or table).
• Stern enters the pool area and glancing in, sees what appears to be the the Shermans, motionless, in semi-seated position with belts attached to their necks, tied to a pool railing, and facing a wall.
  
• Stern quickly ushers the group upstairs. Stern is unsure about what she saw.
• (Time unspecified) As Stern and the group walk upstairs, a gardener arrives who routinely waters the Shermans’ indoor plants.
• (Time unspecified) The prospective buyers and their agents left before first responders arrived. They were unsure as to what they witnessed (the agent is quoted as saying it looked like a ‘fake’ murder scene or Halloween display, and the clients were upset as they considered it to be a bad omen.)
• Stern tells the housekeeper about finding the Shermans, and asks her to check the pool, but she is too afraid to do so.
  
• The gardener says she is not afraid, and goes down to check, and finds the Shermans obviously deceased.
• While the gardener is downstairs, Stern calls Honey’s sister Mary.
  
• [Note: This is from page 10 of KD’s book—KD writes that Stern called Mary, and Mary told her to hang up and call 911. Mary then calls the Sherman children, reaching Jonathon first. Donovan writes that there is a delay of 90 minutes from the time that the bodies are found to when 911 is called....however, according to the court documents that were released after his book was published, the 90 minute estimate may be incorrect.]
• 11:44 am or 11:45 am, Toronto Fire Department and Paramedics respond to a 911 call from real estate Agent Elise Stern, made from the Sherman home. “Someone has killed my clients,” Stern shouted. “They are dead.”
  
• 11:54 am, Toronto Police arrive at the scene. [Note: to date, the TPS has the time of police response as 12:56 pm on their website.]
• In the late afternoon, outside the Sherman residence, Police Const. David Hopkinson told the press that had gathered that circumstances of the deaths “appear to be suspicious,” but noted they are not looking for any suspects and that there were no signs of forced entry.Apotex billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife Honey found dead

-December 16, 2017, The Sherman children retain lawyer Brian Greenspan to organize a private team to investigate the deaths they believe are murders. Family of Barry, Honey Sherman announce $10-million reward for information, criticize Toronto Police

-December 16, 2017, The Toronto Sun reports that, according to TPS police sources, the deaths were a murder-suicide. Murder-suicide suspected in deaths of Toronto billionaire and wife | Toronto Sun

-December 21, 2017- Thousands attend a memorial for Honey and Barry Sherman. Leaders from all levels of government attend, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The memorial is televised. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4458576

-December 22, 2017, Sherman lawyers file an appeal to increase the court costs awarded to the late Barry Sherman over the Winter/Barkin cousin’s failed lawsuit in September, 2017. They ask the court to increase the amount owing to $985,000.

-January 26, 2018, At a press conference, the TPS announce that the Shermans were the victims of a targeted double-homicide. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4505259


-February 1, 2018, Barry Sherman’s cousin Kerry Winter appears on the Fifth Estate and fails a lie detector test over his claims that years prior, Barry had asked him to arrange to have Honey Sherman murdered. Winter graphically described how he had previously fantasized about killing Barry, but denied that he had any involvement in the murders. Winter says he believes Barry killed Honey, then took his own life. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4514176

-May 5, 2018, Court records are unsealed, revealing that Brad Teplitsky, the lawyer for Barry’s cousin Kerry Winter, asked the court to require Winter to undergo a mental health examination to see whether the Office of the Public Guardian should be appointed as his litigation guardian. In an affidavit, Julia Winter wrote that she believes Kerry Winter suffered a nervous breakdown at the time of the Sherman murders. Background: MANDEL: Barry Sherman's cousin Kerry Winter suffered nervous breakdown, sister-in-law tells court | Toronto Sun

August 29, 2018, Judges dismiss the Winter/Barkin V Sherman Estate application to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Sherman cousins lose appeal for piece of drug company’s billions

October, 2018, Winter/Barkin cousins file an application to the SCC for leave to appeal (Kerry Winter, applicant.) for their failed 2018 lawsuit seeking part of the Apotex fortune.Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Docket - 38899

-October 26, 2018, The Sherman family offer a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Sherman killer(s). Then-family attorney Brian Greenspan announced a private tip line phone number that would be run by his private investigation team. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.the...-sherman-announce-10-million-reward-for-info/


October 29, 2019, Toronto Star chief investigative journalist, and author, Kevin Donovan’s book titled ‘The Billionaire Murders: The Mysterious Deaths of Honey and Barry Sherman’ is published. Excerpt: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes...ream-twitch-youtube-facebook/?sh=132b8b0d515c

-December 16, 2019, The Sherman private investigation ends, police ask the public to re-submit any tips they may shared with the team to the Toronto Police. The Shermans announce they have confidence in the police investigation. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/local/toronto/2019/12/16/1_4731548.html

March 19, 2020, Winter/Barkin Sherman cousin V Sherman Estate SCC application is dismissed, case will not be heard by the SCC. https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/dock-regi-eng.aspx?cas=38899

-November 25, 2020, Police announce they have a PERSON (singular) of interest in the case. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5816882

-November 27, 2020, Police clarify they have “Numerous ‘PERSONS of interest’ in the case. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/toronto...-person-of-interest-in-sherman-homicides/amp/

-February 3, 2021, The CBC reports that Jonathon Sherman has hired new legal counsel and his own investigator to look into the murders of his parents. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5896496

Barry and Jonathon Sherman 2015 email exchange information:
Barry Sherman’s son says his father asked him to repay tens of millions of dollars, two weeks before murders, but Barry was ‘all in’ with son’s business

Information about the meeting HS missed, and her explanation:
Endless court battles, angry relatives and shady players: the truth about Barry Sherman

More timeline info:Did someone know Barry and Honey Sherman’s schedule? Close friends were away and they had nothing planned

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Apotex key dates following the murders:

-January 26, 2018, CEO Jeremy Desai announces he has left Apotex. This was announced on the day of the TPS press conference announcing that both Honey and Barry Sherman were murdered. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4505624

-December 13, 2018, (Two days prior to the first anniversary of the murders.) Acting CEO and best friend and business partner of Barry Sherman, Jack Kay, is fired by Jonathon Sherman.Barry Sherman’s son tells Apotex CEO to leave

-April, 4, 2019, Confirming previous speculation, Apotex is for sale. Since the murders, Apotex had previously sold off some of their holdings, and ended some new projects that Barry Sherman was working on prior to his death. .Canadian drugmaker Apotex is said to weigh sale amid interest - BNN Bloomberg

-February 20, 2021, The Toronto Star reports that there is a division in leadership at Apotex. Family members and top employees side with the three Sherman daughters against Jonathon Sherman.
Brother vs. sister: Two of Barry and Honey Sherman’s children in a battle for control of the family empire

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Long, in-depth, non-paywalled article from 2018.

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME


Last Dec. 15, two real estate agents arrived at a sprawling modern house near the northern edge of Toronto. They were accompanied by a couple who were considering buying the 12,000-square-foot mansion at 50 Old Colony Rd., recently listed for just shy of C$7 million. With five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a gym, a sauna, a tennis court, and underground parking for six cars, it was one of the more impressive properties on a street lined with grand homes. The sellers, pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife, Honey, 70, had lived there for more than two decades but were preparing to build a house closer to the center of the city.

The Shermans weren’t supposed to be home that day. It was midmorning, and a housekeeper was doing her semiweekly cleaning while another woman watered the plants. The tour took in the hexagonal entrance foyer, with its chandelier and black tile floors, and the spacious kitchen, soaked in natural light from a broad conservatory window over the sink. In the basement, the Shermans’ agent had something more unusual to show off: a lap pool and hot tub, handy in a city where winter weather can drag into April.

Who Killed the Billionaire Founder of a Generic Drug Empire?

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Fifth Estate, from 2018. Their description of the program:

Published on Feb 2, 2018
Barry Sherman was Canada’s top pharmaceutical executive, worth over $4 billion dollars. His wife, Honey was a philanthropist who raised millions for charities. They were loved and admired for their success and generosity. But Barry also had a long list of enemies which had grown over time as he battled rivals in courtrooms and boardrooms, always determined to win, whatever the cost… So when the couple were found strangled in their Toronto home in December, the whispers began. Did someone really hate them enough to kill them? Was it a professional hit, an act of bitter vengeance from someone known to the Shermans, or was there another explanation? The Fifth Estate uncovers new leads in the mystery of the Sherman murders.

 

[Lexiintoronto]

From October 30, 2019

“Who killed Barry and Honey Sherman? A new book offers fascinating insights.
Kevin Donovan, the chief investigative reporter at the Toronto Star, talks about the unique investigation, the family and why he believes the case will be solved”
Question and answer article.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.macleans.ca/news/canada/who-killed-barry-and-honey-sherman-a-new-book-offers-fascinating-insights/amp/

 

[SouthernON767]

The Daily Mail(UK) reported recently that Barry and Honey had discussed leaving the "bulk" of their estate to charity, rather than the children ,about a week before they were killed.
Certainly motive to the main beneficiaries, their children, under the previous will to commit murder.. to preserve an inheritance of several hundred million dollars apiece?
My money would be on Jonathon, were there betting on this. Hired professional kil!er(s)

 

[Lexiintoronto]

The Daily Mail(UK) reported recently that Barry and Honey had discussed leaving the "bulk" of their estate to charity, rather than the children ,about a week before they were killed.
Certainly motive to the main beneficiaries, their children, under the previous will to commit murder.. to preserve an inheritance of several hundred million dollars apiece?
My money would be on Jonathon, were there betting on this. Hired professional kil!er(s)

Good point about the article. I’ll post it here.
Billionaire couple found 'murdered' discussed pledging their fortune to philanthropy campaign | Daily Mail Online

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Google map images. From Apotex to their former home at 50 Old Colony the drive would take about 20 minutes. Barry left Apotex at 8:30 pm the night of the murders.


Honey Sherman left Apotex between 5:30-6:00 pm, as noted on timeline. According to a receipt/statement that daughter Alex has seen, Honey stopped of at Bayview Village shopping centre. Route from Apotex, Google images, the drive takes about 18 minutes:



Honey’s last known call was made at 6:21pm as noted on timeline. She told her friend she was ‘on her way home.’ The drive from Bayview SC to her former home takes about 4 minutes. From Google images:

 

[tayaway]

Ok, Lexi, I just watched the Fifth Estate and Bloomberg vids and read the articles. IMO, I'm still betting on JS as the conductor of the murders.

It appears that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as far as how combative JS was in comparison to his father. BS initiated all kinds of lawsuits against others, especially Big Pharma. It's almost like he fabricated a David (himself) and Goliath (brand name industry). JS took on family members and execs at Apotex. They both also had a talent for cruelty. BS's uncle and aunt died within weeks of each other, leaving his 4 young cousins as orphans. What does he do as a man in his early 20a? Nothing for the children, not even the contracted percentage he agreed to give them? Ok, I'm not sure how the sale of the original, pre-Apotex co, went down, but maybe they got some of that?

Then there's the control that BS needed over people. HS wasn't allowed money for what BS considered 'desire' purchases. IMO, that's spousal abuse. He's a freaking billionaire and he won't give his wife an annual allowance to do with what she wants? While his cousin, Kerry Winter, clearly has issues of credibility, he does help make the case that BS has control issues. It's like when a parent loans you money; sometimes it's just better to go without rather than go through the mental torture, or, to paraphrase Winter, being under BS's thumb.

I've got to turn back to the deaths of KW's parents. His mother died of leukemia, but a few weeks before that, his father died of an aneurysm. BS, in his early 20s, swoops in and buys the pharm biz, which he claimed was faltering and would've gone into insolvency if he and a biz partner hadn't bought it? There's no doubt in my mind that there was a lineup of people, from close and distant family members to execs across the industry, that were deeply disappointed they didn't get to do the job on BS. Imagine being his son, though...

 

[Lexiintoronto]

A few real estate listing photos of former Sherman home 50 Old Colony, all photos from houssmax.ca, and Building of Sherman's North York dream home was a 'disaster' that led to litigation

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Video from Kevin Donovan, Toronto Star, December 12, 2019. Video includes floor plan of home as Donovan sets out his theory.

“What happened inside Barry and Honey Sherman's home the day the billionaires were killed? The Star's Kevin Donovan shares the most likely scenario.”

 

[Lexiintoronto]

*Note, this was one of the sources for the timeline (‘December 13, 2017, 7:17pm’), when Jonathon left and returned from his trip to Japan, and his stated reasons for being there.)

Brief summary of article (article is long and very detailed):

• This is Jonathon’s first interview with Kevin Donovan. Jonathon said the interview was to provide ‘context’ to the apparent dispute about money between him and his father prior to the murders.
  
• Jonathon: ““I’m not going to kill my dad because he needs $50 million to get through a crisis.”
• Jonathon says he has 15 guns and target shoots on his property.
• Jonathon says that his sister Alex believes Jonathon is involved in the murders.
• “He says one of his siblings has told him that Alex thinks he carries a gun at all times and is going to “pull it out” and “shoot her in front of everybody.””
  
• Jonathon comfirms there is a major rift between him and his three sisters.

“On Nov. 28, (2017) the day after the lunch, Paulin writes to Glasenberg, copying Barry and Jonathon. Subject: Short term cash needs. “Please see attached a breakdown of our immediate cash needs. Barry has agreed to cover us with these needs.” Paulin and Jonathon were requesting $6.2 million by Dec. 15 and another unspecified amount “no later than Jan. 15.” ....

....Three minutes later, Barry writes back: “Adam: As discussed, you have to take steps immediately to arrange mortgages (to repay the $50-60 million). What will you do and when?””...

...“I also ask Jonathon about his whereabouts the week of his parents’ deaths, particularly the Wednesday evening. In our email exchange in December, Jonathon had shared a photo he took of his hand and a note with the time code of 7:17 p.m. Wednesday, December 13, 2017, and the location of his home visible on the smartphone photo. Police have said the Shermans were killed that evening, likely between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Jonathon says he snapped the photo that evening to have a record of a “seed code” for his cryptocurrency account and that the hand in the photo is his. He says he also has a photo on his phone taken the next morning at 8:30 a.m., and the location is at his home.”

Barry Sherman’s son says his father asked him to repay tens of millions of dollars, two weeks before murders, but Barry was ‘all in’ with son’s business

ETA: The last paragraph is the hyperlink to the article. The paragraph above is a quote from the article. I’m not sure why the text above it also is formatting as a hyperlink.

 

[Lexiintoronto]

October 6, 2020 the SCC case of Estate of Bernard Sherman and the Trustees of the Estate, et al. v. Kevin Donovan, et al. was heard. A decision is expected in 2021.

In brief: Donovan’s position is that Estate files are part of the public record; the Estate trustees believe unsealing the files may put the heirs at further risk as this is still an active murder investigation.

Background of case on SCC website, and Docket:
Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Summary - 38695

Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Docket - 38695


The Toronto Police have said that the Sherman Estate files are embeded within their investigation. Estate of Barry and Honey Sherman part of Toronto police murder probe, detective tells court , and,
Who killed Barry and Honey Sherman? A new book offers fascinating insights. - Macleans.ca

 

[Lexiintoronto]

From the TPS website, current active Homicide cases, Honey and Barry Sherman. (Note: as indicated in timeline, court records have the police responding to the 911 call one hour earlier than stated at the links below.)

Homicide #65/2017
Homicide #64/2017

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Honey Sherman’s sister, Mary Shechtman, has made public claims to part of the estate:

"In fact, in the wake of the Sherman murders, sources say Shechtman told the Sherman children that Honey had promised her $300 million. That claim, unsubstantiated by any paperwork, produced a rift between the Sherman children and Shechtman, beginning several days after the murder. The rift continues to this day. Separate shivas were held, one at Shechtman’s home and one at Barry’s sister Sandra Florence’s home.”
Murdered billionaire Barry Sherman planned to give away or invest much of his fortune, sources say

“One family member who has been completely shut out is Mary Shechtman, Honey’s sister and best friend, who had hoped to play an important role in the Sherman philanthropy. A comment she made following the murders, that Honey promised her a $300 million gift (she told me (Kevin Donovan) it was really $500 million but she decided to give the lower figure), upset the four Sherman children...

...Mary has disputed characterizations of her as someone who has lived off her late sister and her husband. She said her parents provided seed money for Barry in the early days and over the years she has worked hard on real-estate projects for the Shermans, earning everything that was paid to her. Recently, in her basement, she discovered an IOU Barry wrote to her mother in the 1970s for monies advanced when he was starting out in business. It is an IOU she has not been able to collect on.”
Many lined up at the ‘Bank of Barry’ Sherman: Inside the $10 billion succession battle

 

[Kemug]

What an awful awful story this is. And all from money - the desire to have money, and all it can buy. So much better to not have too much. I wonder if the family would agree?

 

[almuerte]

I find the testimonies and failed polygraphs coming from Kerry Winter disturbing. The fact that he made up this elaborate story about Jonathon Sherman wanting to execute a planned murder makes me want to speculate that White is more involved in the case than people seem to think. I just can't wrap my head around Jonathon being the killer. After all, Barry had just approved a request from him for money, the same night that some allege J killed them.

While I think about it more , I also can start to read it as almost a reverse stressor : Jonathon finally being helped by his father after a series of rejections, perhaps ascertaining it as a way of taunting? But, after all, Jonathon also hired a PI to help with the case just this year. I can't understand why he would hire someone if he was truly the culprit, wouldn't an influx of scrutiny with the case point more fingers to him over time?

When I look at this article,
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/family-sherman-deaths-police-probe-1.5896496

It seems to me like Jonathon is the most involved family member in the case.

What a perplexing case. I'm going to read into Kerry White some more...

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Press conference from today. I did my best with the transcription, but it was difficult to hear some of the questions from the press. So this transcript is not to be taken as ‘verbatim’—please refer to the video for 100% accuracy.

Officer Brandon Price (BP): I am a detective sergeant with the Toronto Police Service homicide squad. Four years ago the Toronto Police Service responded to an emergency call for service at a home on Old Colony road.

When officers arrived they located Barry and Honey Sherman deceased within their residence.

It was later determined that both had died of ligature neck compression.

Since that time members of the homicide squad with the cooperation and support of numerous other Toronto Police Service units have worked diligently to identify the person or persons responsible.

So far, the investigation has involved 41 judicial authorizations, approximately 250 witness interviews, 1255 tips have been provided to the police from the public, 992 investigative actions have been undertaken.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to bring closure to the Sherman family, their friends, loved ones and the community. At the onset of this investigation we seized a very large amount of security video footage. Some of these videos were from locations in the area of Old Colony Road.

Numerous individuals were found on video in the neighborhood, and our team took extraordinary efforts to identify and investigate those individuals to be able to include them or exclude them from our investigation.

These efforts included, but were not limited to, requesting video analysis from law enforcement partners, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Ontario Provincial Police.

Our own forensic video analysis unit conducted photogrammetry measurements. This involves attempts to determine physical identifiers, such as the approximate height of persons captured on the videos.

We've also obtained judicial authorizations to collect data from nearby cell phone towers and cross reference that with the physical locations of individuals on the videos.

We've also conducted numerous canvasses of the neighborhood to identify individuals on the videos.

We have been able to eliminate the vast majority of people captured on video. We are left with one individual whom we have been unable to identify.

I'll ask that you take a look at the screen and observe this individual.

Through our investigation, we have been unable to determine what this individual's purpose was in the neighborhood.

The timing of this individual's appearance is in line with when we believe the murders took place. Based on this evidence, we're classifying this individual as a suspect.

Though there's a lack of detail in features of this individual, we believe that further information from the public could assist us in making an identification.

I would ask that you pay particular attention to the gait, or the stride, or walk style, that this person has on the video.

We are not able to provide you with any certainty the person's age, weight or skin colour.

However, through photogrammetry performed, we have been able to determine that the suspect in this video is standing between five foot six and three quarters and five foot nine and a half inches.

There may be a legitimate explanation as to what this person's actions were in the area.

If you recognize yourself in this video, please come forward so you can be excluded from our investigation.

However, it is our hope that someone will come forward with a name when they recognize the individual's walk—the way in which they kick up their right foot with every step—knowing that the person was or is connected to the Sherman family or was in the area on that day at that time.

To be clear, this release is in no way an indication of a conclusion to this investigation.

From the beginning, this has been a multifaceted investigation, and we will continue to work on various other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken and keep an open mind to new ones.

In my recent conversations with the Sherman family, they have asked me to remind the public that their private $10 million reward is still available. Thank you.

_______

2nd Officer: Thanks Brandon. We're going to go online. First I will call out your name if you have a question, please ask, if not just please say pass and we will provide another opportunity at the end.

(I omitted the names and media outlets as I couldn’t hear them clearly)

(Journalist) Thank you very much. Are there other people assisting you now with the investigation? Are you still solo?

(BP): No, I've never been solo on this investigation. From the beginning we had a huge compliment of officers to sort of take care of the initial mass of data and information processing at the beginning.

At this point now I have —my primary partner in this—is a Detective Constable Yim, who is on a daily basis assigned to this and works diligently on this investigation.


(Journalist) Could you please tell me what time is it on the tape? Because from the here on my screen, it seems like it's the daylight, but I guess it's nighttime. No?

(BP) That's correct. I'm not going to say exactly the time of this clip. But I will say it is in the evening or night hours of December 13 2017. And you're correct. It's sort of quite bright. But that's partly to do with the type of camera that was recording.


(Journalist) the only description you can give is the height of that suspect person?


(BP) I think that, you know, when people take a close look at this individual, they'll be able to determine that there's a jacket that's being worn, there's some type of headdress whether it be a hat or part of a hood, long pants and some boots that can be seen.

Further scrutiny and detail was undertaken to determine, with finer—you know—get a better idea of what it exactly it was that those items were. We're unable to sort of determine exactly what type of boots thise were or those kinds of things.

(Journalist) My question: I'm just wondering why…I believe this is the first time the term ‘suspect’ is being used in this investigation, and you said this person could potentially be eliminated….So why are they a ‘suspect’, versus a ‘person of interest’, could you elaborate?

(BP). Sure. So the that's a good question. So, this footage is not the only footage of this individual that we have. We have done an exhaustive video canvass of the whole area. And we have—based on the timing of when we understand when we believe the murders took place—we have this individual coming into a very defined area, around the Sherman's household, and remaining in that area for a period, and then leaving from that area.

So we have been unable to identify what purpose that person had to be within that defined area.

And therefore —and the timing is in line with our belief as to when this these murders took place. And so that is why we classify this individual as a suspect.

(Journalist) I just wanted to know if this video has been shared with the members of the Sherman family and if they were able to give you any information as to whether they know, or are unable to recognize, this person.

(BP): I did share with the Sherman family. And, as always, my conversations with them will remain private. But they have been very supportive and very helpful, all the way through this investigation. And I look forward to their continued support.

(Journalist) Yes, quite a unique gait that he has, the way he walks with that right foot picking it up. You mentioned there was other video. Why not release the other videos of the suspect?


(BP) The reason is that this is amongst the best images of this individual that we have. So we've sort of chosen the best one that has the greatest likelihood of somebody being able to identify this individual. So that's why we've chosen to release this one.


(Journalist) You mentioned that this individual was seen going into a defined area. What do you mean by that? That are they going on to the Sherman's property? Are they on public property walking down the street.. like… what do you mean by defined area? And like so? I mean, what makes that of interest?


(BP) Yeah, so. So in our exhaustive video canvas, we were able to get images from nearby: on either side, kind of, and around the Sherman household. This individual walks into that area—does not continue to walk through—but remains in that area that's not covered by video footage, and remains in there and then comes back out sometime later.

And that's how we've been able to sort of narrow this individual's location down.

(Journalist) Yeah, I mean, is there anything else to make you believe this person is a suspect other than a sort of go (out or on) camera view for a period of time?


(BP) Well, it's a it's a fairly defined area. So—and like I said before—we were able to eliminate pretty well every other person on the video footage that we've obtained.

And so we're left with a very glaring sort of unknown with this individual that requires an explanation if there's a legitimate one.


(Journalist) Why did it take four years to release this video?

(BP) So, as you can see, partly to do with…the sort of… poor quality of the image the investigative considerations were… that the cost to the investigation by releasing this early on would have outweighed the benefit of releasing it early on. So we undertook these investigative steps, exhaustive investigative steps, to identify this individual.

Now, having gotten to the point where we have not been able to do so—with these videos—this is now the prudent time to release this to the public and seek the public's assistance

(Journalist) (cross-talk between 2 reporters, I couldn’t hear clearly, garbled when one reporter did speak) You said (he) was in a defined area for a period of time around the time of the murders, is that correct? Are we talking 5 minutes or ten minutes or an hour, or a few hours? Can you give us an idea of how long (he) was loitering, or I guess hanging out, in that area?


(BP) So I'm not going to get into the exact timing of it, I would say…I mean…I can just generally answer that it is a very suspicious amount of time. It's in line with our belief as to when these murders took place. And so that's about as tight (of a time) as I can get you.

(Journalist) …and is there any video showing him leaving in a vehicle or riding in a vehicle. Do we have any idea of how he came to Old Colony Road and left?

(BP) So, I’m not going to get into that. I'm sorry. Thank you

(Journalist) (garbled—asked something about ‘cost to the investigation, what do you mean by cost?’)

(BP) So, I mean, I'm not going to get into what those are, but they're investigative considerations. And that's about as deep as I can get into it with regard to this.

(Journalist) (garbled again. ‘cost in terms of budget—?’)

(BP) No, no, it's not nothing financial, it is a cost to the integrity of the investigation or the potential benefit to the investigation. If we identify this individual on our own, as opposed to releasing it widely to the public.

(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear the question.)

(BP) You can see this as well as I can. It's very difficult to say with any level of certainty whether this is a male or a female.
I wouldn't declare one or the other at this point.

(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear the question)

(BP) There’s certainly still potential, we're keeping an open mind to to that possibility. There's a lot of scenarios but one thing I can say is that this individual's actions are highly suspicious

(Journalist) (Couldn’t hear clearly ‘releasing this video because you’re at a dead end or trying to solve…’)


(BP) Well, I mean… this is commonly… we get questioned for updates, updates, updates and the the common misconception in the public, and often in the press, is that nothing's going on when the police are not updating and, and really, at the end of the day, the most important thing for us is the integrity of the investigation. And unless it is beneficial to the investigation, to release information, it's not going to be something that we're going to do. We are constantly balancing, you know, the public interest to to have…to know… what's going on and to scrutinize the police work and that is why we have released information.

And.. but… we do it on a on a tactical, very calculated and careful timeline. And so we will not rush into releasing information. This like I said, is a very multifaceted investigation of right from the beginning. It continues to be…this was a very complex effort to reach this point.

The cellular telephone data portion of this investigation, in attempts to identify this individual, yielded 10s of 1000s of data lines that needed to be analyzed. These kinds of things take a great deal of time. And Earlier I spoke of 992, I believe, investigative actions. ‘analyze data from cell phone tower download’ is one line of the 992, to give you some measure of perspective of what can be going on in this investigation.

(Journalist) (Unclear. Asked how they were able to identify this one individual from different cctv footage.)

(BP) I mean, that's like when when we're tracking individuals you can logically connect one individual walking out of one frame and into another frame with some measure of certainty.

As you can see, there, you can tell.. some measure…with the clothing this individual is wearing it is discernible on the other footage, it's just not as not as clearly discernible. But we have a great deal of confidence that we have properly tracked this individual to and from the location.

(Journalist) Can you tell us where this video was captured and which direction the suspect appears to be going in?

(BP) No, I'm not going to get into further detail as to the location or the directions of travel. Thank you though.


(Journalist) How many videos do you have of this person and what's he doing.. or what are they doing… in other video..is the person walking?

(BP) …So… we have gathered four terabytes of video footage in this investigation. And a great deal of it was from the area around Old Colony road and the surrounding neighborhood.

I'm not going to get further into it but the walking is generally the action leading hi—this individual to and from the defined area.

(Journalist) Is this your biggest lead in your investigation?

(BP) I don't know if I would say it's the biggest lead—it is it's been with us from the from the early stages of this investigation. It took some time to collect all of this footage. It took some time to analyze the footage to be able to link the these images together and identify that this individual's time timeline was consistent with when we believe these offenses took place.

But there's other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken and are ongoing.

This is certainly a valuable piece of evidence though.


(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear clearly. They asked about the previous ‘persons of interest’ announced by police.) You haven't identified them. Have you looked at each of those people to see if they match this person?And have you excluded those people of interest?


(BP) So I don't like to say that we've excluded people or included people specifically. So we certainly won't get into that.

But it's a consideration now, the fact is, is that nobody can be 100% excluded because there's always a possibility—and we'll keep an open mind to—that there's more than the one individual who executes the action that may be culpable. So we're certainly keeping an open mind to that and so—

(Journalist) (Not verbatim—asks if the persons of interest that the police previously mentioned have been compared to the person in this video, in terms of body type and style of walking matches?)

(BP) —yes—

(Journalist) ( I couldn’t hear the question.)

(BP) Well, we need to get a lot more than that to be able to move that individual—any individual—that we are looking at to a level of a suspect but this individual is a suspect.


(Journalist) Second question, do you have videos that show that person entering the Sherman property?


(BP) So I don't think it's a.. so… like I said, it's a very well defined area around the Sherman property. I won't say whether we have on specifically the property itself though.

(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear the question clearly, something about whether the suspect was caught on film entering the home.)

(BP) All footage that could be collected was collected by the Toronto Police. We have analyzed it all and I'm not going to get into what exactly we see this individual doing when it comes to the address itself.


(Journalist) (Not verbatim) The ‘defined area’: does that include the Sherman property, or a couple of other houses around the defined area?

(BP) Well, it's a well defined area. It is tied to the Sherman property.


(Journalist) It’s hard for us who are online to see this video. Is it going to be on the TPS website so we can download it or—

(2nd officer) —yes, a news release will be published if it has not been published already. It includes a link to the video as well as a screen capture in a still format as well. If there are any other questions after that news release has been published, you can please contact corporate communications. Thanks for joining our news conference. today. Thank you

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Press conference from today. I did my best with the transcription, but it was difficult to hear some of the questions from the press. So this transcript is not to be taken as ‘verbatim’—please refer to the video for 100% accuracy.

Officer Brandon Price (BP): I am a detective sergeant with the Toronto Police Service homicide squad. Four years ago the Toronto Police Service responded to an emergency call for service at a home on Old Colony road.

When officers arrived they located Barry and Honey Sherman deceased within their residence.

It was later determined that both had died of ligature neck compression.

Since that time members of the homicide squad with the cooperation and support of numerous other Toronto Police Service units have worked diligently to identify the person or persons responsible.

So far, the investigation has involved 41 judicial authorizations, approximately 250 witness interviews, 1255 tips have been provided to the police from the public, 992 investigative actions have been undertaken.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to bring closure to the Sherman family, their friends, loved ones and the community. At the onset of this investigation we seized a very large amount of security video footage. Some of these videos were from locations in the area of Old Colony Road.

Numerous individuals were found on video in the neighborhood, and our team took extraordinary efforts to identify and investigate those individuals to be able to include them or exclude them from our investigation.

These efforts included, but were not limited to, requesting video analysis from law enforcement partners, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Ontario Provincial Police.

Our own forensic video analysis unit conducted photogrammetry measurements. This involves attempts to determine physical identifiers, such as the approximate height of persons captured on the videos.

We've also obtained judicial authorizations to collect data from nearby cell phone towers and cross reference that with the physical locations of individuals on the videos.

We've also conducted numerous canvasses of the neighborhood to identify individuals on the videos.

We have been able to eliminate the vast majority of people captured on video. We are left with one individual whom we have been unable to identify.

I'll ask that you take a look at the screen and observe this individual.

Through our investigation, we have been unable to determine what this individual's purpose was in the neighborhood.

The timing of this individual's appearance is in line with when we believe the murders took place. Based on this evidence, we're classifying this individual as a suspect.

Though there's a lack of detail in features of this individual, we believe that further information from the public could assist us in making an identification.

I would ask that you pay particular attention to the gait, or the stride, or walk style, that this person has on the video.

We are not able to provide you with any certainty the person's age, weight or skin colour.

However, through photogrammetry performed, we have been able to determine that the suspect in this video is standing between five foot six and three quarters and five foot nine and a half inches.

There may be a legitimate explanation as to what this person's actions were in the area.

If you recognize yourself in this video, please come forward so you can be excluded from our investigation.

However, it is our hope that someone will come forward with a name when they recognize the individual's walk—the way in which they kick up their right foot with every step—knowing that the person was or is connected to the Sherman family or was in the area on that day at that time.

To be clear, this release is in no way an indication of a conclusion to this investigation.

From the beginning, this has been a multifaceted investigation, and we will continue to work on various other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken and keep an open mind to new ones.

In my recent conversations with the Sherman family, they have asked me to remind the public that their private $10 million reward is still available. Thank you.

_______

2nd Officer: Thanks Brandon. We're going to go online. First I will call out your name if you have a question, please ask, if not just please say pass and we will provide another opportunity at the end.

(I omitted the names and media outlets as I couldn’t hear them clearly)

(Journalist) Thank you very much. Are there other people assisting you now with the investigation? Are you still solo?

(BP): No, I've never been solo on this investigation. From the beginning we had a huge compliment of officers to sort of take care of the initial mass of data and information processing at the beginning.

At this point now I have —my primary partner in this—is a Detective Constable Yim, who is on a daily basis assigned to this and works diligently on this investigation.


(Journalist) Could you please tell me what time is it on the tape? Because from the here on my screen, it seems like it's the daylight, but I guess it's nighttime. No?

(BP) That's correct. I'm not going to say exactly the time of this clip. But I will say it is in the evening or night hours of December 13 2017. And you're correct. It's sort of quite bright. But that's partly to do with the type of camera that was recording.


(Journalist) the only description you can give is the height of that suspect person?


(BP) I think that, you know, when people take a close look at this individual, they'll be able to determine that there's a jacket that's being worn, there's some type of headdress whether it be a hat or part of a hood, long pants and some boots that can be seen.

Further scrutiny and detail was undertaken to determine, with finer—you know—get a better idea of what it exactly it was that those items were. We're unable to sort of determine exactly what type of boots thise were or those kinds of things.

(Journalist) My question: I'm just wondering why…I believe this is the first time the term ‘suspect’ is being used in this investigation, and you said this person could potentially be eliminated….So why are they a ‘suspect’, versus a ‘person of interest’, could you elaborate?

(BP). Sure. So the that's a good question. So, this footage is not the only footage of this individual that we have. We have done an exhaustive video canvass of the whole area. And we have—based on the timing of when we understand when we believe the murders took place—we have this individual coming into a very defined area, around the Sherman's household, and remaining in that area for a period, and then leaving from that area.

So we have been unable to identify what purpose that person had to be within that defined area.

And therefore —and the timing is in line with our belief as to when this these murders took place. And so that is why we classify this individual as a suspect.

(Journalist) I just wanted to know if this video has been shared with the members of the Sherman family and if they were able to give you any information as to whether they know, or are unable to recognize, this person.

(BP): I did share with the Sherman family. And, as always, my conversations with them will remain private. But they have been very supportive and very helpful, all the way through this investigation. And I look forward to their continued support.

(Journalist) Yes, quite a unique gait that he has, the way he walks with that right foot picking it up. You mentioned there was other video. Why not release the other videos of the suspect?


(BP) The reason is that this is amongst the best images of this individual that we have. So we've sort of chosen the best one that has the greatest likelihood of somebody being able to identify this individual. So that's why we've chosen to release this one.


(Journalist) You mentioned that this individual was seen going into a defined area. What do you mean by that? That are they going on to the Sherman's property? Are they on public property walking down the street.. like… what do you mean by defined area? And like so? I mean, what makes that of interest?


(BP) Yeah, so. So in our exhaustive video canvas, we were able to get images from nearby: on either side, kind of, and around the Sherman household. This individual walks into that area—does not continue to walk through—but remains in that area that's not covered by video footage, and remains in there and then comes back out sometime later.

And that's how we've been able to sort of narrow this individual's location down.

(Journalist) Yeah, I mean, is there anything else to make you believe this person is a suspect other than a sort of go (out or on) camera view for a period of time?


(BP) Well, it's a it's a fairly defined area. So—and like I said before—we were able to eliminate pretty well every other person on the video footage that we've obtained.

And so we're left with a very glaring sort of unknown with this individual that requires an explanation if there's a legitimate one.


(Journalist) Why did it take four years to release this video?

(BP) So, as you can see, partly to do with…the sort of… poor quality of the image the investigative considerations were… that the cost to the investigation by releasing this early on would have outweighed the benefit of releasing it early on. So we undertook these investigative steps, exhaustive investigative steps, to identify this individual.

Now, having gotten to the point where we have not been able to do so—with these videos—this is now the prudent time to release this to the public and seek the public's assistance

(Journalist) (cross-talk between 2 reporters, I couldn’t hear clearly, garbled when one reporter did speak) You said (he) was in a defined area for a period of time around the time of the murders, is that correct? Are we talking 5 minutes or ten minutes or an hour, or a few hours? Can you give us an idea of how long (he) was loitering, or I guess hanging out, in that area?


(BP) So I'm not going to get into the exact timing of it, I would say…I mean…I can just generally answer that it is a very suspicious amount of time. It's in line with our belief as to when these murders took place. And so that's about as tight (of a time) as I can get you.

(Journalist) …and is there any video showing him leaving in a vehicle or riding in a vehicle. Do we have any idea of how he came to Old Colony Road and left?

(BP) So, I’m not going to get into that. I'm sorry. Thank you

(Journalist) (garbled—asked something about ‘cost to the investigation, what do you mean by cost?’)

(BP) So, I mean, I'm not going to get into what those are, but they're investigative considerations. And that's about as deep as I can get into it with regard to this.

(Journalist) (garbled again. ‘cost in terms of budget—?’)

(BP) No, no, it's not nothing financial, it is a cost to the integrity of the investigation or the potential benefit to the investigation. If we identify this individual on our own, as opposed to releasing it widely to the public.

(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear the question.)

(BP) You can see this as well as I can. It's very difficult to say with any level of certainty whether this is a male or a female.
I wouldn't declare one or the other at this point.

(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear the question)

(BP) There’s certainly still potential, we're keeping an open mind to to that possibility. There's a lot of scenarios but one thing I can say is that this individual's actions are highly suspicious

(Journalist) (Couldn’t hear clearly ‘releasing this video because you’re at a dead end or trying to solve…’)


(BP) Well, I mean… this is commonly… we get questioned for updates, updates, updates and the the common misconception in the public, and often in the press, is that nothing's going on when the police are not updating and, and really, at the end of the day, the most important thing for us is the integrity of the investigation. And unless it is beneficial to the investigation, to release information, it's not going to be something that we're going to do. We are constantly balancing, you know, the public interest to to have…to know… what's going on and to scrutinize the police work and that is why we have released information.

And.. but… we do it on a on a tactical, very calculated and careful timeline. And so we will not rush into releasing information. This like I said, is a very multifaceted investigation of right from the beginning. It continues to be…this was a very complex effort to reach this point.

The cellular telephone data portion of this investigation, in attempts to identify this individual, yielded 10s of 1000s of data lines that needed to be analyzed. These kinds of things take a great deal of time. And Earlier I spoke of 992, I believe, investigative actions. ‘analyze data from cell phone tower download’ is one line of the 992, to give you some measure of perspective of what can be going on in this investigation.

(Journalist) (Unclear. Asked how they were able to identify this one individual from different cctv footage.)

(BP) I mean, that's like when when we're tracking individuals you can logically connect one individual walking out of one frame and into another frame with some measure of certainty.

As you can see, there, you can tell.. some measure…with the clothing this individual is wearing it is discernible on the other footage, it's just not as not as clearly discernible. But we have a great deal of confidence that we have properly tracked this individual to and from the location.

(Journalist) Can you tell us where this video was captured and which direction the suspect appears to be going in?

(BP) No, I'm not going to get into further detail as to the location or the directions of travel. Thank you though.


(Journalist) How many videos do you have of this person and what's he doing.. or what are they doing… in other video..is the person walking?

(BP) …So… we have gathered four terabytes of video footage in this investigation. And a great deal of it was from the area around Old Colony road and the surrounding neighborhood.

I'm not going to get further into it but the walking is generally the action leading hi—this individual to and from the defined area.

(Journalist) Is this your biggest lead in your investigation?

(BP) I don't know if I would say it's the biggest lead—it is it's been with us from the from the early stages of this investigation. It took some time to collect all of this footage. It took some time to analyze the footage to be able to link the these images together and identify that this individual's time timeline was consistent with when we believe these offenses took place.

But there's other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken and are ongoing.

This is certainly a valuable piece of evidence though.


(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear clearly. They asked about the previous ‘persons of interest’ announced by police.) You haven't identified them. Have you looked at each of those people to see if they match this person?And have you excluded those people of interest?


(BP) So I don't like to say that we've excluded people or included people specifically. So we certainly won't get into that.

But it's a consideration now, the fact is, is that nobody can be 100% excluded because there's always a possibility—and we'll keep an open mind to—that there's more than the one individual who executes the action that may be culpable. So we're certainly keeping an open mind to that and so—

(Journalist) (Not verbatim—asks if the persons of interest that the police previously mentioned have been compared to the person in this video, in terms of body type and style of walking matches?)

(BP) —yes—

(Journalist) ( I couldn’t hear the question.)

(BP) Well, we need to get a lot more than that to be able to move that individual—any individual—that we are looking at to a level of a suspect but this individual is a suspect.


(Journalist) Second question, do you have videos that show that person entering the Sherman property?


(BP) So I don't think it's a.. so… like I said, it's a very well defined area around the Sherman property. I won't say whether we have on specifically the property itself though.

(Journalist) (I couldn’t hear the question clearly, something about whether the suspect was caught on film entering the home.)

(BP) All footage that could be collected was collected by the Toronto Police. We have analyzed it all and I'm not going to get into what exactly we see this individual doing when it comes to the address itself.


(Journalist) (Not verbatim) The ‘defined area’: does that include the Sherman property, or a couple of other houses around the defined area?

(BP) Well, it's a well defined area. It is tied to the Sherman property.


(Journalist) It’s hard for us who are online to see this video. Is it going to be on the TPS website so we can download it or—

(2nd officer) —yes, a news release will be published if it has not been published already. It includes a link to the video as well as a screen capture in a still format as well. If there are any other questions after that news release has been published, you can please contact corporate communications. Thanks for joining our news conference. today. Thank you

A great transcription by @north_west
CANADA - Canada - Barry, 75, & Honey Sherman, 70, found dead, Toronto, 15 Dec 2017 #16


On Tuesday, December 14th, 2021, at 1100AM, Detective Sergeant Brandon Price of Toronto Police Homicide updated the media on the investigation into the murders of Barry and Honey Sherman.

TPHQ: Good morning everybody. Welcome to please headquarters thank you for joining us today. Detective Sergeant Brandon Price from our homicide section will provide a brief update on the Sherman double homicide investigation. He'll then take questions from our media partners online and then here in the media gallery, Brandon

DSBP: Thank you for joining us today. My name is Brandon Price. I am a detective sergeant with the Toronto Police Service, homicide squad. Four years ago, the Toronto Police Service responded to an emergency call for service at the home on Old Colony Road. When officers arrived, they located Barry and Honey Sherman deceased within their residence.

It was later determined that both had died of ligature neck compression. Since that time, members of the homicide squad with the cooperation and support of numerous other Toronto Police Service units have worked diligently to identify the person or persons responsible. So far the investigation has involved:

-41 judicial authorizations

-approximately 250 witness interviews

-1,255 tips have been provided to the police from the public

-992 investigative actions have been undertaken.

We have remained steadfast in our commitment to bring closure to the Sherman family, their friends, loved ones and the community.

At the outside of this investigation, we seized a very large amount of security video footage. Some of these videos are from locations in the area of Old Colony Road. Numerous individuals were found on the video in the neighborhood and our team took extraordinary efforts to identify and investigate those individuals to be able to include them or exclude them from our investigation. These efforts included, but were not limited to, requesting video analysis from law enforcement partners such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Ontario Provincial Police.

Our own forensic video analysis unit conducted photogrammetry measurements; this involves attempts to determine physical identifiers, such as the approximate height of persons captured on the videos. We've also obtained judicial authorizations to collect data from nearby cell phone towers and cross referenced that with the physical locations of individuals on the videos.

We've also conducted numerous canvases of the neighborhood to identify individuals on the videos. We have been able to eliminate the vast majority of people captured on the video. We are left with one individual who we have been unable to identify. I'll ask that you take a look at the screen and observe this individual.

Through our investigation we have been unable to determine what this individual's purpose was in the neighborhood. The timing of this individual's appearance is in line with when we believe the murders took place. Based on this evidence, we're classifying this individual as a suspect. Though there is a lack of detail in features of this individual we believe that further information from the public could assist us in making an identification.

I would ask that you pay particular attention to the gate, or the stride or walk style, that this person has on the video. We are not able to provide you with any certainty of the person's age, weight or skin color. However, through photogrammetry performed, we have been able to determine that the suspect in this video is standing between five foot six and three quarters, and five foot nine and a half inches.

There may be a legitimate explanation as to what this person's actions were in the area. If you recognize yourself in this video, please come forward so you can be excluded from our investigation. However, it is our hope that someone will come forward with a name when they recognize the individual's walk - the way in which they kick up their right foot with every step, knowing that the person was, or is connected to the Sherman family, or was in the area on that day at that time.

To be clear this release is in no way an indication of a conclusion to this investigation. From the beginning, this has been a multifaceted investigation and we will continue to work on various other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken and keep an open mind to new ones. In my recent conversations with the Sherman family, they have asked me to remind the public that their private, 10 million dollar reward is still available. Thank you.

TPHQ: Thanks Brandon, we're going to go online first, I will call out your name. If you have a question, please ask, if not, just please say pass and we will provide another opportunity at the end. Ellen Bessner. Please go ahead.

EB(CJN): Hi, thank you very much, I’m Ellen Bessner with the Canadian Jewish News. Detective Sergeant, are there other people assisting you now with the investigation or are you still solo?

DSBP: No, I've never been a solo on this investigation. From the beginning we had a huge complement of officers to sort of take care of the initial mass of data and information processing at the beginning.

At this point, now I have my primary partner in this is Detective Constable Yim, who is on a daily basis assigned to this and works diligently on this investigation.

TPHQ: Do you have another question Ellen?

EB(CJN): Not for now, thanks.

TPHQ: Enzo, please go ahead……Enzo, sorry, please try again, you’re muted Enzo

Enzo: No more questions thank you.

TPHQ: Thank you, JP Nadeau please go ahead.

JP(CBC): I’m JP with CBC French. Detective Sergeant can you please tell me what time is it on the tape right now, because from here, on my screen it seems like it's daylight but I guess it's night time, no?

DSBP: That's correct. I'm not going to say exactly the time of this clip but I will say it is in the evening or night hours of December 13th 2017, and you're correct, it's sort of quite bright but that's partly to do with the type of camera that was recording.

TPHQ: Do you have another question JP?

JP(CBC): Yes, and the only description you can get, is the height of that suspect person?

DSBP: I think that, you know, when people take a close look at this individual, they'll be able to determine that there's a jacket that's being worn. There's some type of headdress, whether it be a hat or part of a hood, long pants and some boots that can be seen, um, further scrutiny and detail was undertaken, to determine with finer with, you know, to get a better idea of what it exactly it was that those items were and we're unable to sort of determine exactly what type of boot that was or those kinds of those kinds of things.

TPHQ: Thanks, JP…MK, Do you have a question?

MK: I do. Yes, good morning Detective Sergeant, thanks for taking my question. I'm just wondering why I believe this is the first time the term suspect is being used in this investigation and why you said this person could potentially be eliminated. So why they’re a suspect versus a person of interest? I was wondering, if you could you elaborate on that.

DSBP: Sure. That's a good question. So this footage is not the only footage of this individual that we have, we have done an exhaustive video canvas of the whole area. And we have, based on the timing of when we understand, when we believe, the murders took place, we have this individual coming into a very defined area aah, surr…around the Sherman's household and remaining in that area for a period and then leaving from that area. So we have been unable to identify what purpose that person had to be within that defined area. And therefore and the timing is, is in line with our belief as to when this, these murders took place. And so that is why we classify this individual as a suspect.

TPHQ: Any follow-up MK?

MK: Yeah. Just one. Just wanted to know if this video has been shared with the members of the Sherman family and if they were able to give you any information to whether they know or are unable to recognize this person

DSBP: I did share with the Sherman family and as always my conversations with them will remain private but they have been very supportive and very helpful all the way through this investigation, um, and I look forward to their continued support.

TPHQ: Rob Gillies do you have a question?

RG(AP): Yes, that's quite a unique gate that he has the way he walks with that right foot kicking it up. You mentioned there was other video. Why not release the other videos of the suspect?

DSBP: The reason is that this is amongst the, the best images of this individual that we have. So, we've sort of chosen the best one that has the greatest likelihood of somebody being able to identify this individual from. So that's why we've chosen to release this one.

TPHQ: Any follow-up Rob?

RG(AP): No, I’m good, thank you.

TPHQ: Thank you. Okay. Tyler Dawson. Please go ahead.

TD: You mentioned this individual is seen going into a defined area, what do you mean by that? Is that they are going on to the Sherman's property, were they all on public property walking down the street, like, what do you mean by “defined area”? So, I mean what makes that of interest?

DSBP: Yeah. So, so, in our exhaustive video canvas, we were able to get images from nearby, on either side, kind of, and around the Sherman household, and this individual walks into that area, does not continue to walk through, but remains in that area that's not covered by video footage and remains in there and then comes back out sometime later. And that's how we have been able to sort of narrow this individual's location down.

TPHQ: Any follow-up, Tyler?

TD: um, yeah, I mean is there anything else to lead you to believe this person’s a suspect other than they sort of go out of camera view for a period of time?

DSBP: Well it's a fairly defined area. So, and like I said before, we were able to eliminate pretty well every other person on the video footage that we've obtained. And so we're left with a very glaring, sort of unknown with this individual, that requires an explanation. If there's a legitimate one.

TPHQ: Thanks everyone, we're just going to move into the room now, Catherine, go ahead, please.

C: Hi, Cathy from… unintelligible…Why did it take you four years to release this video?

DSBP: So as you can see partly to do with the sort of poor quality of the image, um, the investigative considerations were that, the cost to the investigation by releasing this early on, would have outweighed the benefit of releasing it early on. So we undertook these investigative steps, exhaustive investigative steps, um, to identify this individual. And now having gotten to the point where we have not been able to do so with this videos, this is now the prudent time to release this to the public and seek the public's assistance.

Reporter: (Voices talking over each other) …He’s in that defined area for a period of time, around the time of the murders, correct? Are we talking five minutes or ten minutes or an hour or a few hours? How long? Can you give us an idea of how long he was loitering and I guess kinda hanging out in that area?

DSBP: Um, so I'm not going to get into the exact timing of it. I would say, I mean I can just generally answer that it is a very suspicious amount of time. It's in line with our belief as to when these murders took place and so that's, that's the, about as tight as I can get you.

Reporter: And is there any video showing him leaving in a vehicle or arriving in a vehicle? Do you have any idea of how he came to Old Colony Rd and when?

DSBP: So I'm not going to get into that. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Reporter: You mentioned there is a cost that outweighed the benefit at the time, what do you mean when you say cost? Can you expand on that for me?

DSBP: So I mean I'm gonna get into what those are, but they're investigative considerations and that's about as deep as I can get into it with regard to this.

Reporter: Is it budget?

DSBP: No, no it's not, nothing financial, it is a cost to the integrity of the investigation or the potential benefit to the investigation if we identify this individual on our own, as opposed to releasing it widely to the public.

Reporter: unintelligible

DSBP: You can see this as well as I can. It's very difficult to say with any level of certainty whether this is a male or a female. So I wouldn't declare one or the other at this point.

Reporter: With this video do police believe that one person committed these murders or still potential that it was committed by…unintelligible

DSBP: There's certainly a potential, we're keeping an open mind to, to that possibility. There's a lot of scenarios but one thing I can say is that this individual's actions are highly suspicious.

Reporter: unintelligible

DSBP: Well, I mean this is a commonly, we get questioned for updates, updates, updates and the, the common misconception in the public and often in the press, is that nothing's going on when the police are not updating. And, and really, at the end of the day, the most important thing for us is the integrity of the investigation. And unless it is beneficial to the investigation to release information, it's not going to be something that we're going to do.

We are constantly balancing, you know, the public interest to know what's going on and to scrutinize the police work and that is why we have released information. Um, and…but we're do it on a tactical, um, very calculated and careful timeline.

And so we will not rush into releasing information. This, like I said, is a very multifaceted investigation, right from the beginning. It continues to be. This was a very complex effort to reach this point, the cellular telephone data portion of this investigation, in attempts to identify this individual, yielded tens of thousands of data lines that needed to be analyzed. These kinds of things take a great deal of time and earlier I spoke of 992, I believe, investigative actions. Analyzed data from cell phone tower download is one line of the 992, to give you some measure of perspective of what can be going on in this investigation.

Reporter: If this is the best quality of this person, suspect…what has linked the other videos to think it's the same person?

DSBP: I mean it’s like, when we're tracking individuals, you can, you can logically connect one individual walking out of one frame and into another frame with some measure of certainty. As you can see there, you can tell the, to some measure with the clothing this individual is wearing it is discernible on the other footage, it's just not as, not as clearly discernible but we have a great deal of confidence that we have properly tracked this individual to and from the location.

Reporter: Can you tell us where this video was captured and even which direction the suspect appears to be going in?

DSBP: No, I'm not going to get into further detail as to the location or the directions of travel. Thank you, though.

Reporter: How many videos do you have of this person and what’s he doing or what are they doing in the other video…?

DSBP: So we have gathered four terabytes of video footage in this investigation and a great deal of it was from the area around Old Colony Road and the surrounding neighborhood. Um, I'm not going to get further into it, but the walking is generally the action, um, leading hi-, this individual, to and from the defined area.

Reporter: Is this your biggest lead in the case right now?

DSBP: I don't know if I would say it’s, it's the biggest lead. It is, it's been with us from the, from the early stages of this investigation. It took some time to collect all of this footage. It took some time to analyze the footage to be able to link the, these images together and identify that this individual's time-timeline was, was consistent with when we believe these offenses took place. Um, but there's other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken, and are ongoing. This is certainly a valuable piece of evidence, though.

KD(TS): I have two questions, Kevin Donovan, Toronto Star. The first one is: Last year, there was discussion, you put out a release saying there were numerous persons of interest and you haven’t identified them. Have you looked at each of those people to see if they match this person and have you excluded them…people of interest?

DSBP: So, I don't like to say that we've excluded people or included people, specifically, so I certainly won't get into that, um, but it's a consideration. Now, the fact is, is that nobody can be 100% excluded because there's always a possibility and we’ll keep an open mind to, that there's more than the one individual who executes the action, that may be culpable. So we're certainly keeping an open mind to that and so

KD(TS): But you had a look at those people that you identified as persons of interest to see if their body style and walking matches?

DSBP: Yes.

KD(TS): You’ve done that, and they do not.

DSBP: Well, we need to get a lot more than that to be able to move that any individual that we are looking at to a level of a suspect. But this individual is a suspect.

KD(TS): Second question. Do you have video that shows that person entering the Sherman property?

DSBP: So, um, I don't think it's a, so like I said, it's a very well defined area around the Sherman property. I won't say whether we have onto specifically the property itself though.

KD(TS): But there is video across the street…of low quality…should show you something. I’m sure you checked that…from that home to see this person going in or does he come in from the street to the north?

DSBP: All footage that could be collected was collected by the Toronto Police. We have analyzed it all and I'm not going to get into what exactly we see this individual doing when it comes to the address itself.

KD(TS): Last question, the defined area, does it include, it obviously includes the Sherman property, does it include a couple of other houses around there or is the defined area-

DSBP: No, it's, it's a well it's a well-defined area. It is tight to the Sherman property.

KD(TS): Tight to the Sherman property.

TPHQ: Any other questions in the room? Any other questions online?

Reporter: I have one. Sorry if, just because it's hard for us, we're online to see this video. Is it going to be on the TPS website so we can download it or how to get it.

TPHQ: Yes, a news release will be published if it has not been published already, it includes a link to the video as well as a screen capture in a still format as well. If there are any other question after that news release has been published, you can please contact Corporate Communications. Thanks for joining our news conference today.

 

[Kemug]

Well, this sounds very encouraging. I really had given up any hope that the mystery of these horrible killings would ever be solved. And LE definitely know more than they're saying. A person of a probable height of between about 5'7" and 5'9" is not particularly helpful though - it really doesn't point to a particular gender. The unusual gait is much more helpful. Therefore you would have to think that this person has not yet been interviewed, wouldn't you? Which rules out family, friends, workmates, even some acquaintances. So this mysterious person, if indeed guilty, was on the periphery of the Shermans' lives, or else a "hired gun". I suppose a little person can have their life ruined by a big person, without the big person even noticing.