Toronto man charged with murdering three gay men labelled ‘serial killer’

An extraordinary investigation continues to unfold in Toronto as police search for more victims of 66-year-old grandfather Bruce McArthur, who has been charged with the murder of five men.

McArthur was initially charged with two counts of murder, with three more added later as police continued to search the numerous properties the man worked on as a landscaper.

It is alleged that he buried his victims’ bodies in potted plants in the gardens he worked on, CNN reported.

It was believed that McArthur may have exclusively targeted gay men, with the first three victims having disappeared from around Toronto’s gay village.

A full picture of McArthur is still emerging, with it revealed that he married until around 2000, roughly the same time he began embarking on relationships with other men.

CBC News reported that prior to its deactivation after his arrest, McArthur’s Facebook page showed him sharing anti-Trump messages and posting photos of himself in costume for a job as a mall santa.

Police initially investigated the disappearances of some of the victims as part of Project Houston, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

Three of McArthur’s victims were linked by living in the village, and being of Middle Eastern descent.

Police are not yet sure how Soroush Mahmudi, 50, and Dean Lisowick, 47, fit with this initial profile, though both men also had links to the village area.

Lisowick lived at no fixed address and frequented neighbourhood shelters. His disappearance was never reported to police.

After 49-year-old Andrew Kinsman disappeared in June last year, police launched Project Prism to investigate a possible link to the disappearances between 2010 and 2012.

Kinsman was believed to have had some kind of sexual relationship with McArthur.

Rumours persisted about the possibility of a serial killer targeting men in the village as far back as 2012, leading some to question why it took the disappearance of Kinsman, a white man, for the Toronto PD to relaunch an investigation.

“We do believe there are more. I have no idea how many more there might be,” homicide Detective-Sergeant Hank Isdina said.

“We believe there are more remains. We may find more people who were never reported missing.”

Police have not yet said if the two of the other missing men who were part of Project Houston, Skanda Navaratnam and Abdulbasir Faizi, can be linked to McArthur.

Police are currently conducting DNA testing on the remains of at least three people that were recovered from one of the properties McArthur worked on.