Human remains were discovered near a Leaside property linked to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur mere hours after investigators resumed a search for evidence, police say.
Toronto police Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga, the lead investigator on the case, said the remains were found Wednesday afternoon in “what’s essentially a compost pile” in a ravine located at the rear of the property.
Police previously uncovered the dismembered remains of seven men hidden in large planters situated on the 53 Mallory Crescent property, where McArthur worked as a landscaper and stored his landscaping equipment.
This is the first time in the investigation that remains have been found in a location outside of the planters.
Idsinga said extensive identification work needs to be completed before investigators can determine who the remains belong to. He said it’s possible that the remains belong to more than one person.
“We have to rely on identifying those remains first and see where that takes us… (To see) whether they’re the remains of someone else who hasn’t been identified yet,” he said.
“We’re going to have some work to do linking (the remains) to the McArthur investigation, but I think geographically where the remains were found, we’re not going to have much of an issue with that.”
Police resumed excavation work after cadaver dogs sniffed out several new places of interest when they were brought back to the property on May 31. The home had previously been turned back over to its owners after a lengthy search that stretched through the winter months.
Idsinga said crews went into the second search “cautiously optimistic” as the dogs had led them to “false positives” in the past. But hours after shovels and rakes hit the ground on Wednesday, police loaded what they described as “items of interest” into a coroner’s van.
He said the quick discovery surprised him.
“We anticipated being here for weeks, quite frankly, digging,” he said. “The dogs are here on site… They are brought out sporadically to search different areas as we go through it.”
Following the brief news conference, Idsinga led reporters through the property to the wooded area where the discovery was made.
Investigators from Project Prism – the police investigation that led to McArthur’s arrest – are working alongside members of Ontario Forensic Pathology Services, Toronto police’s K9 unit and excavation experts with Durham and Ontario Provincial Police. The crew of about 20 could be seen meticulously digging through dirt in hot early afternoon temperatures of 30 C.
Some crew members were fastened to ropes which were tied to trees at the top of the hill, in order to stand upright on the steep incline, while others stood nearby sifting through the earth by hand.
Idsinga said the area is maintained by the City of Toronto and that environmental factors had to be considered before crews could start excavating.
“They’re digging further up in what’s essentially a compost pile and loading what they find into buckets, bringing it down to the tables and sifting through it, looking for any further human remains,” Idsinga said. “It is leaves, brush, dirt and human remains.”
He anticipates that the efforts at Mallory Crescent will continue until at least next week depending on what, if anything else, is found.
Earlier this year, investigators completed an exhaustive search of McArthur’s Thorncliffe Park apartment where thousands of pieces of evidence were seized.
Nearly 100 other properties scattered across the Greater Toronto Area connected to McArthur’s landscaping business were also searched. “Minor excavation” work was completed at a few of those properties, Idsinga said, but no new evidence was recovered. Mallory Crescent is expected to be the last spot officers will search.
McArthur was first charged in connection with the deaths of two men who went missing from Toronto’s Church-Wellesley neighbourhood, known as the Gay Village, in January 2018.
To date, the 66-year-old has been charged in the deaths of eight men – Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam. Police believe the men were killed between 2010 and 2017.
The remains of Majeed Kayhan have never been found.
Many of them had ties to the LGBTQ community, according to police, friends and family.
At one time, police were combing through cold cases dating as far back as the 1970s involving Toronto’s LGBTQ community.
Idsinga confirmed Thursday that no evidence has been found to link the accused serial killer to any of the outstanding cases.
McArthur is due back in court on July 23.
