Toronto Police confirm officers have found more human remains near a Leaside property linked to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.
The lead investigator on the case, Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga, said in a hastily-arranged news conference today that the remains were found on Thursday.
Investigators also found human remains on the scene on Wednesday.
Idsinga said the two sets of remains were found “essentially in the same area.”
“The officers are down there, they are digging through the area by hand, so it’s a very slow process. It’s a very meticulous process,” he said.
It is not clear who either set of remains discovered this week belong to.
Idsinga said a post-mortem will be conducted on Monday.
“Best-case scenario is those remains we’ve recovered are matched up to remains we’ve already recovered, and if there are new remains, they get identified pretty quickly,” he said.
Idsinga noted that if the remains belong to a person who has already been identified, it will become part of the case already before the courts.
The property located at 53 Mallory Crescent, where McArthur worked as a landscaper and stored his equipment, has been a focal point in this investigation. Police found the remains of seven men inside planters on the property earlier this year.
Investigators returned to the area this week, after cadaver dogs found several areas of interest in a city-owned ravine behind the property.
On Thursday, Idsinga took media down to the search site and pointed out a compost pile where the search has centered.
Investigators from Toronto police, Durham Regional Police and Ontario Provincial Police, as well as experts from The Centre of Forensic Sciences, were seen sifting through dirt and sand, looking for new evidence.
“It is leaves, brush, dirt and human remains,” Idsinga said.
McArthur faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of eight men -- Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam. The remains of all the men, except Kayhan, have been found.
When asked about other missing person cases, Idsinga said that police did not want to speculate on who the remains may belong to.
“I don’t want to get anyone’s hope up,” he said. “We’ve laid eight charges and at the end we may only have eight victims.”
“We are making progress and hopefully there is some closure and an eventual end to this investigation.”
Idsinga expects the excavation in the Leaside ravine to continue at least to the end of next week, although work will be suspended this weekend. Police say the area will be kept secured, but investigators will wait until the post-mortem is completed before returning to the site on Tuesday.
