Toronto landscaper Bruce McArthur pleaded guilty in 2019 to the first-degree murders of eight men killed between 2010 and 2017 and was sentenced to life with no parole for 25 years.
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Bruce McArthur, a self-employed Toronto landscaper, pleaded guilty on January 29, 2019, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto to eight counts of first-degree murder. The eight men were killed in Toronto between 2010 and 2017, and most had ties to the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, the city's LGBTQ village. On February 8, 2019, Justice John McMahon sentenced him to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. The case led to an independent civilian review that found systemic discrimination in how the Toronto Police Service handled the related missing persons investigations.
Thomas Donald Bruce McArthur was born on October 8, 1951, in Lindsay, Ontario, and grew up in the Kawartha Lakes region. He moved to Toronto in 1997, frequented the bars of Church and Wellesley and later ran a landscaping business. On October 31, 2001, he struck a man with an iron pipe in the man's apartment. He turned himself in, pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, and on April 11, 2003, received a conditional sentence of two years less a day. The conditions included house arrest for the first year and a ban on entering Church and Wellesley except for work and medical appointments. In 2014 he was granted a record suspension, so the conviction no longer appeared in criminal background checks.
Between 2010 and 2017, eight men disappeared or were killed: Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, last seen in September 2010; Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, last seen in December 2010; Majeed Kayhan, 58, last seen in October 2012; Soroush Mahmudi, 50, last seen in August 2015; Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37, who last contacted his family in August 2015; Dean Lisowick, 43 or 44, last recorded at a Toronto shelter in April 2016; Selim Esen, 44, last seen in the spring of 2017; and Andrew Kinsman, 49, last seen on June 26, 2017. Kanagaratnam and Lisowick were never reported missing. At sentencing, prosecutors said the men had ties to Church and Wellesley, that six were from South Asia or the Middle East, and that several had circumstances that made them easier to target or made the crimes harder to detect.
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In November 2012, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) created a task force, Project Houston, into Navaratnam's disappearance; it later added Faizi and Kayhan. After an anonymous tip, officers interviewed McArthur on November 11, 2013. He said he knew Navaratnam and had employed Kayhan. Project Houston ended without evidence that a crime had been committed or of a suspect.
In June 2016, a man who had known McArthur for years called 9-1-1 after escaping an attempted choking. McArthur went to police and said the encounter was consensual. He was released without charge, and his 2003 conviction did not come up in background checks. These facts were later read in court in the agreed statement of facts.
After Kinsman disappeared, the TPS created Project Prism at the end of July 2017 to investigate his case and Esen's and to look for links with the Project Houston cases. Investigators found the name “Bruce” on Kinsman's calendar for the day he was last seen, and surveillance video outside his residence showed a person matching his appearance approaching a red vehicle, identified as a 2004 Dodge Caravan. Of the more than 6,000 similar vans in Toronto, the only 2004 model registered to someone named Bruce belonged to McArthur. On October 3, 2017, police located the van at an auto parts business in Courtice, Ontario, which had bought it on September 16; DNA found in it matched Kinsman and Esen. On December 8, 2017, Chief Mark Saunders said police had no evidence of a serial killer.
On January 17, 2018, forensic analysis of McArthur's computer produced evidence directly linking him to Esen and Kinsman. On January 18, officers watching him entered his Thorncliffe Park apartment after a man went inside, believing that man's life was at risk, and arrested McArthur. Evidence found on electronic devices seized from his apartment then led police to charge him with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kinsman and Esen. The remains of several men were later found in planters and in a ravine at a Leaside property where McArthur stored equipment. Further first-degree murder charges followed on January 29 (Kayhan, Mahmudi and Lisowick), February 23 (Navaratnam), April 11 (Faizi) and April 16, 2018 (Kanagaratnam). On July 20, 2018, police announced that the remains of all eight men had been identified. It became the largest investigation ever conducted by the TPS, with help from the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP and forensic services.
In January 2018, a publication ban was ordered on court proceedings, limiting what the media could report; this summary relies only on what the sources state. McArthur was held at the Toronto South Detention Centre during the proceedings. The Crown, represented by Crown attorney Mike Cantlon, disclosed its evidence in stages and stated on June 22, 2018, that disclosure was complete. On October 22, 2018, McArthur waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was ordered to stand trial on eight counts of first-degree murder. A trial was set to begin on January 6, 2020.
On January 29, 2019, before Justice John McMahon, McArthur pleaded guilty to all eight counts, so no trial took place. In the agreed statement of facts, the Crown said each murder was either premeditated or involved other crimes, including confinement, that made it first-degree murder; that DNA from four of the men was found in his van; and that he had sought out and exploited vulnerabilities in the victims that made his crimes difficult to detect.
The sentencing hearing began on February 4, 2019. Under a 2011 Criminal Code change allowing consecutive parole ineligibility periods for murders committed after that year, the Crown asked for 50 years without parole, citing the scale of the crimes, his lack of remorse and the effect on the community. The defence, led by James Miglin, called that unduly harsh given his age and noted that his guilty plea spared everyone a trial. On February 8, 2019, Justice McMahon imposed life imprisonment with no parole eligibility for 25 years. The judge said McArthur showed no evidence of remorse and would have continued killing had he not been caught, but that the sentence should not be one of vengeance given his age and plea. McArthur can apply for parole at age 91; the judge said it was highly unlikely he would be granted it. The sources consulted do not mention an appeal.
Criticism of how the TPS handled the early missing persons cases led to several internal reviews, the creation of a dedicated missing persons unit and an external review called by the Toronto Police Services Board. In April 2021, the Independent Civilian Review into Missing Person Investigations found systemic discrimination and made 151 recommendations; Interim Chief James Ramer apologized for the inexcusable shortcomings and agreed to implement all of them. A sergeant charged under the Police Act over the handling of the 2016 incident was found not guilty of insubordination and neglect of duty on August 23, 2021. The case also prompted public debate about when police should warn of a possible serial killer.
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