5 key details about Bruce McArthur's brutal crimes

Oxygen's Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur explores in detail the chilling case of one of Canada's deadliest serial killers, Bruce McArthur. Between 2010 and 2017, Toronto’s Gay Village was gripped by fear due to unexplained disappearances.

The man responsible for this was Bruce McArthur, who was a seemingly ordinary landscaper and part-time shopping mall Santa Claus. McArthur murdered eight men and hid their remains in planters, but his crimes went unnoticed for years.

The case not only shocked the nation but also deepened long-standing tensions between Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community and police. The chilling story will be revisited tomorrow on Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur.

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Bruce McArthur's crimes: 5 details explored

1. The double life of Bruce McArthur

Toronto native Bruce McArthur lived a jovial life, working as a landscaper and, during the holiday season, as a mall Santa at Agincourt Mall. However, beneath this facade lay a chilling persona.

McArthur’s violent tendencies first came to public attention in 2001 when he attacked a male s*x worker with an iron bar. He received a conditional sentence and probation for this and was banned from Toronto’s Gay Village for a period of time. However, after being pardoned, he returned to the community and began frequenting dating apps under the name “Silver Fox."

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2. The disappearance of men from Toronto’s Gay Village

Between 2010 and 2017, eight men disappeared from Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community. Many of them were immigrants from South Asia and the Middle East, living a double life owing to religious and social pressures. Several of them were married men with children.

The victims were Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, and Soroush Mahmudi. Following their disappearance, the Toronto Police launched Project Houston in 2012 to investigate the case, but after eighteen months, it was dropped.

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3. A breakthrough with the Kinsman case

The turning point came in June 2017 with the disappearance of Andrew Kinsman, a well-known LGBTQ+ activist and community figure. When detectives searched his apartment, they discovered the name “Bruce” written in his calendar, and forensic testing revealed traces of Kinsman’s blood inside a van linked to McArthur.

McArthur's murders explored on Oxygen (Representative image via Getty)

By January 2018, police had McArthur under close surveillance. When officers saw him bring another man into his apartment, they arrested him and rescued the man, who was going to be his ninth victim.

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4. Discovery of the Evidence

Following his arrest, one of the biggest forensic investigations in Toronto’s history was launched. Police scoured properties where McArthur had worked as a gardener, and they discovered human remains buried inside more than a dozen large planters.

Investigators recovered 1,800 pieces of evidence, including hundreds of photographs Bruce McArthur had kept as gruesome trophies. These included pictures of his victims posed in fur coats, both before and after death.

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5. Trial and sentencing

In 2019, McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The case also reignited the debate about police relations with Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community, where many argued that warnings about a serial killer had been ignored for years, as the victims were mainly gay men of color. In response, the Toronto Police reopened 25 cold cases dating back to 1975, many involving missing or murdered gay men. They also established a dedicated Missing Persons Unit in 2018.

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Catch more about the case tomorrow.