2010–2017 Toronto serial homicides

Between 2010 and 2017 there was a series of disappearances of men in Toronto. In the early part of the decade Toronto Police Services (TPS) had created Project Houston, a divisional task force which linked the disappearances of three men of South Asian or Middle Eastern origin to Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village. However, the investigation was unable to determine if the disappearances were related or if a crime had been committed. In the summer of 2017, amid public speculation of a serial killer at Church and Wellesley, evidence was gained from another missing-persons investigation which led TPS to create a second divisional task force, Project Prism. In January 2018 Project Prism investigators obtained evidence connecting two disappearances to Bruce McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed landscaper, whom they arrested on January 18, 2018.

Police say that they found evidence in McArthur's apartment leading to homicide charges, and that they found the dismembered remains of several men in planter boxes at a residence where McArthur stored landscaping equipment. McArthur and many of his alleged victims were active on online dating apps for men who have sex with men, such as Manjam.com and Silverdaddies.com, where McArthur stated that he wanted to meet submissive men. As of April 11, 2018, McArthur had been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of missing men, most of whom had been linked to Church and Wellesley. If convicted, McArthur would be the most-prolific known serial killer in Toronto.

The criminal investigation of McArthur has been described as unprecedented, involving numerous possible crime scenes, identification of skeletal remains, judicial authorizations for data hosted on foreign servers, and examination of cold cases dating back to the mid-1970s. It is expected to become the largest investigation conducted by the TPS and has also called on the resources of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and other police and forensic services. Criticisms of the TPS's handling of the missing persons investigations have led to a number of internal reviews, an external review called by the civilian Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB), and the formation of a dedicated missing persons unit.

Suspect biography

Early life

Thomas Donald Bruce McArthur was born on October 8, 1951, in Lindsay, Ontario, and was raised on a farm in Argyle, near Woodville in the Kawartha Lakes region, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Oshawa. In addition to raising McArthur and his sister, his parents fostered troubled children from Toronto, often with six to ten children coming and going, and had a good reputation around town according to a family friend.

McArthur attended a one-room schoolhouse outside Woodville. A classmate recalled him trying to be the teacher's pet and informing on the mischief of the other boys, with whom he didn't fit in. He was also known for winning singing contests. His devout parents followed different faiths, causing arguments in which McArthur supported his mother. This led to derision from his strict father, who McArthur later felt may have sensed his lack of masculinity or homosexuality. McArthur had trouble accepting his sexual orientation which would have been seen as abnormal in rural Ontario at that time.

McArthur was bused to nearby Fenelon Falls Secondary School where he met and began dating Janice Campbell, both graduating in 1970. McArthur later graduated from a program in general business and married Campbell when he was 23.

Married life

McArthur began working for Eaton's department stores around 1973, as a buyer's assistant in a downtown Toronto building later demolished for construction of the Eaton Centre. A few blocks north of where McArthur was working, a gay village was forming on Yonge Street between College and Wellesley streets, same-sex adult sexual behaviour having been decriminalized in 1969.

In the mid-1970s McArthur's father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was sent to a nursing home and McArthur became disappointed when his mother took interest in another man. McArthur grew much closer to his father at this time. His mother died of cancer in 1978 and his father died in 1981.

In 1979 McArthur and his wife moved into a house on Ormond Drive in Oshawa; they had a daughter, Melanie, and a son, Todd, born in 1981. In 1986 the McArthurs bought a home on Cartref Avenue in Oshawa. He became very active in his church, keeping himself busy to avoid examining his homosexual feelings.

McArthur left his job in the Eaton's buying department in 1978 and began working as a travelling salesman for McGregor Socks. He worked by himself, travelling from town to town, soliciting department stores to carry his merchandise. He worked territories including Northern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and as he gained more territories he employed "counters" to stock, prepare, and reorder merchandise. McArthur later worked as a merchandising representative for Stanfield's, an underwear and sportswear company, servicing GTA retailers like Hudson's Bay and Sears.

McArthur began having sexual affairs with men in the early 1990s. More than a year later he came out of the closet to his wife, but they continued living together. Sometime after 1993 McArthur's employment in the clothing trade came to an end and the couple faced financial difficulty, in part due to the legal ordeal of their then-teenaged son, Todd, who was obsessively making obscene phone calls to women he did not know. The couple mortgaged their home in 1997 and declared bankruptcy in 1999.

McArthur separated from his wife in 1997 and moved to Toronto, as there was no gay community in Oshawa at that time. He frequented the bars of Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village, and moved into an apartment on Don Mills Road while pursuing a four-year relationship with another man. When they broke up and his divorce was being finalized, McArthur saw a psychiatrist and was prescribed Prozac for several months. At about this time he was attempting to gain work as a landscaper.

Halloween assault

McArthur had met a sex worker on a chat line and later had sex with this man. Just after noon on October 31, 2001, a few weeks after his 50th birthday, McArthur was invited into the man's apartment to see his Halloween costume. McArthur struck the man several times from behind with an iron pipe that he often carried. The victim lost consciousness then called 911 and was taken to St. Michael's Hospital. He had suffered injuries to his head and body and needed several stitches on the back of his head and his fingers as well as six weeks of physiotherapy.

McArthur, who turned himself in after the attack, said he did not remember the attack or why he might have done it. He pleaded guilty to charges of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, and on April 11, 2003, received a conditional sentence of 729 days (two years less a day). A further charge of carrying a concealed weapon was withdrawn at the time. The Crown prosecutor had earlier believed jail time was warranted but agreed to a conditional sentence after psychiatric and presentencing reports suggested McArthur was a low risk to reoffend. The victim, said by the Crown attorney to have been traumatized by the incident, did not provide a victim-impact statement for the sentencing, and there were concerns that McArthur's unexplained behaviour may have been due to the combination of McArthur's anti-seizure medication with amyl nitrate, or "poppers", a drug that enhances sexual pleasure.

McArthur avoided prison, spending the first year of his sentence under house arrest followed by a 10 pm curfew for six months, and three years' probation. During the sentence, he was barred from Church and Wellesley except for work and medical appointments, had to stay at least 10 metres (33 ft) from the victim's home or workplace, and could not spend time with "male prostitutes". He was forbidden to possess firearms for 10 years. He was not to purchase, possess or consume drugs without a medical prescription, and specifically not to possess poppers. McArthur had to submit his DNA to a database and was compelled to undertake psychological and psychiatric counselling including anger management.

A criminal defence lawyer found the list of conditions uncommon and suggested that the judge was concerned that McArthur was a danger to all male prostitutes. However, a retired homicide detective noted that the parole conditions were unenforceable, that they are not published or made public knowledge and that parole violators get caught only if they come to the attention of police.

At some time after April 2008, McArthur applied for and was granted a pardon on the conviction which was wiped clean from his record, and would not have appeared in criminal background checks during subsequent investigations. Most records and exhibits were destroyed in 2010, in compliance with Toronto Police Service (TPS) retention policy. The only surviving documents were the transcripts of the guilty plea and sentencing hearing, the psychiatric report and pre-sentencing report ordered during the trial, and pictures of the victim's injuries and the weapon.

Gay bachelor

In 2002, while the assault case was still before the courts, McArthur registered with Recon, a gay fetish dating app for men into BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) where his profile noted his interest in submissive men. He was active on numerous gay dating websites including Silverdaddies, Manjam, Grindr, Bear411, BearForest, Scruff and DaddyHunt. McArthur joined Facebook in 2011 and catalogued his nightlife with pictures of parties, vacations, birthday dinners and concerts. Younger men of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent show up in several pictures. By this time he had become a part of the gay village community and was a regular at its bars. Since 2007 or 2008 he was living in a 19th-floor apartment at Leaside Towers in Thorncliffe Park, a neighbourhood populated mainly by immigrants about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northeast of Church and Wellesley.

McArthur's 2003 banishment from Church and Wellesley remained well-known and he had developed a reputation for BDSM, rough sex and an explosive temper. In 2011 Robert James had been spending time with McArthur, who told him about an incident in a coffeehouse: when he had been asked to leave, McArthur's temper burst and he knocked all the glass jars off the counter. James decided to heed advice to stay away from McArthur, explaining that he had heard disturbing stories about him. According to James, McArthur turned red and screamed about "f---ing f---ots [sic] telling stories about me!" and "You're just like the rest of them, you think I'm crazy."

A.J. Khan remembered McArthur as a friendly regular at his restaurant, Church Bistro 555. Towards the end of 2013 Khan asked when McArthur came in alone instead of with his usual companion. McArthur said his boyfriend was on vacation, and when Khan noted he had seen the man the previous day, McArthur angrily left and never returned.

McArthur had become a self-employed landscaper operating under the name Artistic Designs. A colleague who installed water features on three of his projects in 2011 described McArthur as more of a gardener, operating out of a little van with old tools. He said that McArthur was always accompanied by an older white man, who appeared to be romantically involved with him, and a day labourer, usually of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Most of McArthur's clients were wealthy elderly women who found him charming, and he had built a client base through personal recommendations. During the off-season, McArthur portrayed Santa Claus at Agincourt Mall and made floral gifts for charities.

McArthur's separation from his wife was initially heated, though they later reconciled. His son Todd was reported to have difficulty accepting his father as a homosexual. In 2014 Todd McArthur was sentenced to 14 months in jail for making multiple obscene phone calls. He was released on bail, ordered to stay with his father at his Toronto apartment and assist with McArthur's landscaping business. A former friend of Todd's visited one night and discovered the wall of McArthur's bathroom was decorated with photos of naked men with erections. He said that most of the men appeared to be "East Indian" and that Todd said that they were men whom his father knew. McArthur did not hide the fact, laughing over it at breakfast.

Missing persons investigations

Project Houston

Project Houston was an 18-month Toronto Police Service (TPS) investigation which began in November 2012, initially looking at the September 6, 2010, disappearance of Skandaraj "Skanda" Navaratnam. The task force was formed in response to a tip about an "online cannibalism ring". Detectives at 51 Division, which included Church and Wellesley, brought their evidence to the homicide squad and Hank Idsinga was seconded to Project Houston for six months until the tip was ultimately discounted. By June 2013, the task force had identified two other missing-persons cases linked by geography and lifestyle: those of Abdulbasir "Basir" Faizi and Majeed "Hamid" Kayhan. All three were middle-aged immigrants of South Asian origin and had disappeared between 2010 and 2012. Faizi and Kayhan were each married and leading double lives; police linked them to Church and Wellesley where they had all disappeared.

A source with knowledge of the investigation later told The Globe and Mail that McArthur had been linked to two of the missing men through his dating apps. An anonymous tip led police to interview McArthur in 2013 as a possible witness.

James Alex Brunton, a person of interest in Project Houston, was cleared as a murder suspect in 2013 but pleaded guilty to possessing, making and distributing child pornography. Brunton, 69, who has much in common with McArthur, had entered into a cannibalistic sexual contract with a teenager from Colorado.

Project Houston concluded with no evidence to link the disappearances, that a crime had been committed or to identify a suspect. According to a 2016 case summary, there was still nothing to explain what had happened to these men.

Missing Rainbow Community

Andrew Kinsman disappeared from Cabbagetown on June 26, 2017, the day after Pride Toronto, the city's gay pride festival, and was last seen in the area of his residence on Winchester Street. On the evening of June 28, learning that no one had seen Kinsman in a couple days, Ted Healey and other friends gained access to his apartment. They found no sign of disturbance, though his 17-year-old cat was out of food and water. They reported Kinsman's disappearance to police the following day.

Unlike the other missing men, Kinsman was openly gay and had deep roots in the community. He had worked as a bartender, was a long-time volunteer with the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation and a superintendent of his building. He was known as a stable and responsible man, and friends felt he would not suddenly leave, and certainly not leave his cat and his prescription medicine behind. Kinsman was active on social media but investigators found his cell phone was turned off the day he disappeared. The 49-year-old was 1.93 metres (6 ft 4 in) tall, 100 kilograms (220 lb) and street-savvy, facts which made him seem an unlikely victim of violence.

Greg Downer, a friend and colleague of Kinsman, was at the centre of community-driven efforts to find Kinsman and other missing men. He founded and moderated the Facebook groups Find Andrew Kinsman and Toronto's Missing Rainbow Community, which had about 600 members each. These groups shared information about the missing men and organized volunteers for search parties. They also raised public awareness with missing-persons posters for Kinsman.

Another picture with twelve missing persons presumed to be gay, later reduced to eleven, spread on social media. However, the information was outdated: five of the men had already been found alive and well, and a sixth had been discovered dead and ruled a suicide. The other pictures included the three missing men from Project Houston, Kinsman, and Selim Esen who disappeared April 14, 2017. The Internet meme suggested that the disappearances were all connected and fed fears in the community, with some suspecting a serial killer.

At the end of July 2017, police created a new task force, Project Prism, to investigate the disappearances of Kinsman and Esen, and to look for any links with the unsolved disappearances investigated under Project Houston. Downer organized an August 1 community safety meeting in which police gave an overview of the task force and thanked the community for "the abundance of information" that they had received. Queer refugees, transgender and Two-Spirit people spoke of their vulnerabilities, experiencing disproportionate violence within the LGBTQ community. The Missing Rainbow Community provided strategies for staying safe when meeting people from dating apps.

Realizing the difficulty police faced with judicial authorizations for data from servers located outside Canada, which caused delays in the crucial early days of the missing-persons investigations, Downer appealed to dating apps to provide an option for users to consent to have their data released to police if they went missing. Safety hotlines were also set up for those reluctant to speak to police.

Volunteers searched Toronto's ravine system on a weekly basis. By the end of October, searches were scheduled daily before being called off for snow and ice in early December.

Fears of a predator stalking Church and Wellesley grew on November 29 when the body of Tess Richey was found by her mother in an alleyway four days after she was reported missing. The following day police announced that the body of Alloura Wells, a homeless transgender woman, had been identified, her body having been discovered in a Rosedale ravine in August. Because of fears in the community, TPS Chief Mark Saunders held an unprecedented December 8 news conference on the three separate investigations into the homicide of Richey, the death of Wells, and the disappearances of Kinsman and Esen. Although the cases occurred in close proximity, police did not believe they were related and Saunders said they had no evidence of a serial killer.

Project Prism

Project Prism was a TPS task force created at the end of July 2017 to investigate the disappearances of Kinsman and Esen, and to look for any links with the unsolved disappearances investigated under Project Houston. The task force was overseen by Detective Sergeant Michael Richmond and led by Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga who had served on the homicide squad for over thirteen years and had been assigned to Project Houston for six months. The task force also included an officer from the sex crimes unit and six officers from Police 51 Division, three of whom had been members of Project Houston. The investigation was difficult because of the lifestyle of the subjects, who used dating apps and frequently met people that they had not met before. It was noted to be unlike Kinsman or Esen to go anywhere without notifying friends or family.

Kinsman's disappearance was central to the creation of Project Prism because of a lead obtained at the end of July. Idsinga later said that "a crucial piece of evidence" was recovered because Kinsman's disappearance had been reported within 72 hours, evidence which could have been lost. By late August or September, McArthur was linked to the Kinsman disappearance.

Redacted warrants and police documents, partially released by a judge in mid-2018, revealed that in August and September 2017, police investigators had obtained production orders compelling the release of data from Google, Rogers, Bell, Telus, Royal Bank and Manulife Bank. Around September, tracking warrants had been obtained for vehicles and phones. In October, further orders were granted for information from Yahoo!, Air Canada, additional banks and Pink Triangle Press, an LGBT publisher. McArthur was named in a September 8 request to place a judicial seal on the warrants, and a later request to seal warrants issued from September to November noted "the investigation into Bruce McArthur."

On October 3, plainclothes police officers arrived at Dom's Auto Parts in Courtice, Ontario, 70 kilometres (43 mi) northeast of Toronto. They were canvassing businesses for McArthur's 2004 Dodge Caravan, which owner Dominic Vetere confirmed he had purchased on September 16. The police were excited to find it intact and had it towed away, also copying surveillance video of McArthur visiting the shop. Vetere said that officers later told him that they had found trace amounts of blood in the vehicle.

Investigators received a general warrant for McArthur's apartment on December 4. According to a source with knowledge of the investigation, police then covertly entered McArthur's residence and cloned his computer's hard drive. On December 5, after consultation with the community, Project Prism issued a warning about dating apps, urging users to exercise caution when meeting someone.

In a December 8 news conference, Project Prism investigators said they had completed 62 witness interviews, 28 judicial authorizations and assigned 308 actions of which 225 had been completed. Police had also conducted searches, utilizing resources from the mounted and canine units; on one occasion a drone was used. They said that they had no evidence to link the disappearances.

The investigation picked up in January 2018 when Idsinga noted they had many 15-hour days and a 72-hour stretch of intensive investigation in mid-January. On January 17, two pieces of evidence came to light directly connecting McArthur to the disappearances of Esen and of Kinsman. Round-the-clock surveillance was put on McArthur, with instructions that McArthur should be immediately arrested if observed "alone with anyone".

Arrest

Police officers surveilling McArthur decided to apprehend him shortly after they saw a young man enter his Thorncliffe Park apartment on January 18, 2018, believing the man's life was at risk. A source told CTV News that the police officers found the young man tied to a bed when they entered McArthur's apartment. The man was shaken but not injured.

According to CP24, the officers had a search warrant for the apartment, obtained after gaining blood evidence from McArthur's van. Evidence found in McArthur's apartment shortly after the arrest prompted investigators to charge McArthur with two counts of first-degree murder in the presumed deaths of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen. Their bodies had not been found, but police said that they had a "pretty good idea" of how they died. Idsinga was satisfied that there was enough evidence for murder convictions even without the bodies.

A source told CTV News that photographs of the alleged victims found at McArthur's residence led to the charges. The Toronto Sun reported that McArthur's computer had grisly photos of his suspected victims kept as trophies.

Homicide investigation

At the time of McArthur's arrest, Idsinga said that police believed he was responsible for the deaths of other men and were most concerned with identifying these victims. Doing so included coordinating with other police services, tracing McArthur's whereabouts and his online activity.

By the end of January, Idsinga said they were investigating an alleged serial killer who had concealed evidence by burying it across the city. He described the ongoing case as unprecedented, with hundreds of officers involved. Additional charges were laid and at the end of February, the investigation was expanded to outstanding murder cases, hundreds of missing-persons cases and sudden death occurrences, coordinating with other Canadian and international forces.

Apartment and Leaside home

Police executed search warrants on January 18 at five properties associated with McArthur and his landscaping business: four in Toronto and a 9-acre (3.6 ha) property about 200 kilometres (120 mi) northeast in Madoc, Ontario. The Madoc property and a home on Conlins Road were residences of Roger Horan, a landscaper and long-time friend of McArthur. Another property searched was the condominium of McArthur's former boyfriend on Concorde Place. These three properties were released back to their owners by January 23. Of greater concern to investigators were McArthur's high-rise apartment in Thorncliffe Park and a Mallory Cresent residence in Leaside.

The owners of the Leaside residence had an agreement with McArthur who tended to their yard in exchange for storage space in their garage for his landscaping equipment. They were barred from their home January 18 so that forensic investigators could search it. The search of the property was extended to an adjacent ravine, aided by cadaver dogs and members of the heavy urban search and rescue team. A large planter box was wrapped and taken away on January 22.

On January 29, police announced that they had found the dismembered skeletal remains of at least three people in two of twelve large planter boxes seized from the Leaside residence. Though the remains had not been identified, police had gathered enough evidence to charge McArthur with three additional counts of first-degree murder in the presumed deaths of Majeed Kayhan, a Project Houston subject, Soroush Mahmudi, who disappeared in 2015, and Dean Lisowick, a homeless man who was never reported missing.

Idsinga said that they were investigating what they thought was a serial killer who had concealed evidence by burying it across the city. He described the ongoing case as unprecedented, with hundreds of officers involved and 30 properties to be searched. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the province's forensic pathology services and the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) were aiding with the searches of McArthur's apartment and the Leaside property.

Former homicide detective Mark Mendelson said the investigation would become "the largest Toronto has undertaken". Criminologist and Western University professor Michael Arntfield said that the alleged method of disposal suggested a sophisticated killer who had developed his craft and, as most serial killers begin in their 20s, the crimes could go back several decades and represent the longest run of a serial killer on record. McArthur's past as a travelling salesman suggested to John Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist and expert on serial murders, that police might have a province-wide investigation ahead of them. Toronto crime journalist James Dubro said the allegations suggest McArthur was the deadliest known serial killer in Toronto and the "most prolific" gay serial killer in Canada.

On February 8, police announced that they had found the remains of three more people in planters from the Leaside home, and that one of the six sets of remains belonged to Andrew Kinsman, identified through fingerprints. Investigators said that it could be months before all the remains were identified.

Additional planters were seized from across the city including one from the Danforth neighbourhood and two properties in North Rosedale were searched. Cadaver dogs were having trouble detecting scents due to the cold weather and frozen ground.

Beginning on January 19, heaters in a large tent were used to gradually thaw the frozen ground in the backyard of the Leaside home at a location indicated by both cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar. A forensic pathologist was expected to take at least 10 days to excavate for remains by hand. However, forensic anthropologist Dr. Kathy Gruspier, who arrived to oversee the excavation, did not find any sign of soil disturbance by previous digging. Excavation of two sewage lines at the home was conducted on February 13, and a section of one line was removed for testing.

The police investigation had a continuous presence at the Leaside home, often described as "ground zero", and police established a command post on the property. On February 10–11 the search of the house was completed and it was released to its owners after more than three weeks. The owners requested that police keep crime-scene tape up around the yard to deter reporters by whom they were feeling increasingly harassed.

Police believe that some of the murders took place at McArthur's apartment, where they conducted a four-month search.

Forensic investigators spent hundreds of hours searching every inch of McArthur's apartment and believed that they had found blood from four of the victims, Idsinga suspecting that some of the murders happened there. It took them several weeks before searching McArthur's bedroom, where they expected to find the bulk of their evidence. The search concluded on May 11, having occupied ten forensic officers for nearly four months. They took more than 18,000 photographs and collected over 1,800 items. Idsinga noted the thoroughness required as the first murder was believed to have occurred eight years previously. The searches of the Leaside home and McArthur's apartment made up the largest forensic investigation conducted by the TPS.

On February 23, McArthur was charged with a sixth count of first-degree murder in the death of Skandaraj Navaratnam, a subject of Project Houston. Navaratnam's remains and those of Mahmudi were identified through dental records, and had been recovered from planters at the Leaside home.

On March 5, police held a press conference and released a photo of an unidentified deceased man alleged to be another of McArthur's victims. They had exhausted their options in identifying the man and hoped the public could help. Police later received over 500 tips regarding the photo and were checking on 22 potential identities. They also announced that a seventh set of remains had been recovered from the Leaside planters. Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario's chief forensic pathologist, said his organization had never before been involved in an investigation with such scope, drawing on the skills of each member for many unique challenges, such as scientific issues related to decomposition and post-mortem dismemberment.

On April 11 McArthur was charged with a seventh count of first-degree murder in the death of Abdulbasir Faizi. He was, at this point, charged with the deaths of all five men from the Project Houston and Project Prism investigations. The charge came as Faizi's remains were identified from the Leaside planters, along with those of Esen and Lisowick. Investigators had finished searching the Leaside planters, from which the remains of all but Kayhan had been identified; they had one set of unidentified remains. They had also searched eight additional planters from elsewhere in the city, which had contained no human remains.

On April 16 McArthur was charged with an eighth count of first-degree murder in the death of Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, whose remains were the seventh set identified from the Leaside planters. Police said his name had not come from the many tips generated by the release of his post-mortem photograph but that he had been identified with help from an undisclosed international agency. Kanagaratnam was a Tamil asylum-seeker who was under a deportation order and had not been reported missing. Police said they would look into why his name was not on a list of missing persons. He had last had contact with his family in August 2015, and police believe he had been killed between September 3 and December 14, 2015.

Expanded investigation

The scope of the investigation was expanded at the end of February 2018, looking at outstanding murder cases, hundreds of missing-persons cases and sudden death occurrences and coordinating with other Canadian and international forces. Police had received tips from around the world, including countries where McArthur had vacationed. Idsinga said that the investigation would take years.

A police source told the National Post that McArthur had covered his tracks, using aliases online, using pay phones instead of cellphones and avoiding areas with surveillance cameras. The source suggested that McArthur had targeted vulnerable men who did not have a fixed address or had not told their families that they were gay.

Detective-Sergeant Stacy Gallant of the TPS homicide squad's cold-case unit said that active crime scenes of the investigation took precedence over revisiting cold cases. Each of 600 cold cases was being looked at for consideration of further attention. They drew up a list of 15 homicide cold cases linked to the gay village, and fitting the general profile of the alleged victims identified thus far. Investigators began reviewing these cold cases, dating between 1975 and 1997, for a possible connection to McArthur. By mid-July, forensic testing related to the cold cases was underway, searching for links to McArthur. The cold cases include some of a series of brutal murders in the gay village between 1975 and 1978, when McArthur would have been 23–26 years old and working just a few blocks south of the gay village. The victims of these crimes, all gay men, were found in their homes, naked, tied to beds, and stabbed or beaten to death in a manner described as "overkill".

Investigators had planned to return to the 30 properties associated with McArthur in April or May, when the frozen ground had thawed, allowing cadaver dogs to operate with greater accuracy. Idsigna said he was particularly interested in excavating at 3 properties, which included revisiting the Leaside residence where remains had been found. Additional tips saw the number of properties to be searched grow to 75 then 100, some of them outside the city. A team of seven cadaver dogs, some on loan from other GTA police forces, were searching the properties by the second week of May. These searches had concluded by the first week of June. Follow-up investigations had then considered whether additional searches would be required.

Between July 4 and 13, twenty police investigators conducted excavations in the forested ravine behind the Leaside property. They began sifting through a large compost pile, then proceeded with the guidance of canine assistance and a forensic anthropologist. They collected human remains almost every day of this search. On July 20, it was announced that the remains belonged to Kayhan, and that the remains of all of McArthur's alleged victims had been identified. Idsinga said that they had no evidence suggesting McArthur was connected to any other deaths, though the investigation into cold cases was continuing.

Waterloo Regional Police contacted Ontario's serial predator crime investigations coordinator to inquire about McArthur in the November 2002 disappearance of David MacDermott from downtown Kitchener. Jon Riley of Meaford, Ontario, is another possible victim. He had gone to Toronto to find work in landscaping, planning to stay in a shelter at Church and Wellesley, and disappeared in May 2013.

Alleged victims

Alleged victims of McArthur

Name	Age	Last seen		Reported missing	Charges laid	Notes
		date	location
Abdulbasir "Basir" Faizi	42	2010-12-28	gay village	2010-12-29	2018-04-11	Afghan immigrant leading double life
Majeed "Hamid" Kayhan	58	2012-10-18	gay village	2012-10-25	2018-01-29	Afghan immigrant leading double life
Skandaraj "Skanda" Navaratnam	40	2010-09-06	gay village	2010-09-10 or 11	2018-02-23	Sri Lankan Tamil refugee with no family in Canada, sexual and employment ties to McArthur
Soroush Mahmudi	50	2015-08-12	South Cedarbrae	2015-08-??	2018-01-29	refugee from Iran
Andrew Kinsman	49	2017-06-26	Cabbagetown	2017-06-29	2018-01-18	sexual and employment ties to McArthur
Selim Esen	44	2017-03-20	gay village	2017-04-20	2018-01-18	Turkish citizen with history of drug use
Dean Lisowick	43–44	2016-04-21	Scott Mission	not reported	2018-01-29	homeless, former drug user and sex worker
Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam	37	2015-08-??	unknown	not reported	2018-04-16	Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seeker under deportation order

All dates are yyyy-mm-dd. All information should be properly sourced below and is accurate as of June 23, 2018. Notes are intended to briefly show commonalities, vulnerabilities and connections to McArthur.

Skandaraj "Skanda" Navaratnam, 40, was last seen in the early morning of September 6, 2010, leaving Zippers, a former gay village bar, with an unknown man. A friend who saw Navaratnam the day before said he was excited about having a dog; he left this pet behind at the bar when he disappeared. He was reported missing September 10 or 11, 2010. Navaratnam was romantically involved with McArthur, whom he met in 1999. Navaratnam also worked for McArthur's landscaping business and friends said that they were still involved in 2008. Navaratnam was a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka and had no family members in Canada.

Abdulbasir "Basir" Faizi, 42, was last seen December 28, 2010, leaving his workplace in Mississauga, though banking records later placed him at Church and Wellesley. His last night out included a stop at the Black Eagle bar and the Steamworks bathhouse. He was an immigrant from Afghanistan. While living in Iran, a childhood friend had cautioned him on coming out as gay, advising that he should "find God or leave." That conflict remained with Faizi, who kept his gay life hidden from his family, including his wife and children. A colleague said that he had been working overtime to ensure that his two daughters got everything that they wanted for Christmas. He was reported missing on December 29 to Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto. His 2002 Nissan was found abandoned on Moore Avenue, steps away from the Beltline Trail, a small ravine which is a popular cruising spot for gay men. Moore Avenue connects to Mallory Crescent and the Leaside home where McArthur stored his landscaping equipment. On April 11, 2018, police charged McArthur with the murder of Faizi on or about December 29, 2010.

Majeed "Hamid" Kayhan, 58, was last seen October 18, 2012, in the gay village near Yonge Street and Alexander Street. He was reported missing by his adult son on October 25. Kayhan was an immigrant from Afghanistan, who fled to Canada with his wife and children in the late 1980s. Kayhan and his wife divorced in 2002 but, as the son of a Muslim cleric, he had not come out to his entire family. He suffered PTSD from the Soviet–Afghan War and was a heavy drinker. According to a bartender, Kayhan had been active in the gay village since the mid-1990s and would stay at an apartment kept by his partner, who had also not come out to his family. Following the death of his partner, Kayhan romantically pursued McArthur whom he knew from the Black Eagle. Police believe McArthur killed Kayhan on or about October 18, 2012. His remains were found on July 20, 2018, outside McArthur's home during a 9-day search that the Toronto Police had conducted.

Soroush Mahmudi, 50, was last seen alive on August 14, 2015, by his home near Markham Road and Blakemanor Boulevard in the South Cedarbrae neighbourhood. He was a manufacturing plant worker who lived with his wife. Police believe that McArthur killed Mahmudi on or about August 15, 2015. He was reported missing by his wife in August. Mahmudi had come to Canada as a refugee from Iran and did not have any family in Canada until he met his wife. They moved from Barrie to Toronto to be closer to his wife's family. He was not known to openly associate with Toronto's gay scene, though before his marriage he had been in a four-year relationship with a transgender woman he met in a bar in Church and Wellesley.

Andrew Kinsman, 49, was last seen June 26, 2017, the day after the Pride parade, near his Winchester Street residence in Cabbagetown, south of the gay village. He was reported missing on June 29. A friend who last saw him said that Kinsman was "happy and upbeat". Kinsman was known as a stable and responsible man, a superintendent of his building and a community volunteer. Kinsman had known McArthur for at least a decade, back to when Kinsman was a bartender at the Black Eagle. Kinsman was seen carrying bags of debris on one of McArthur's landscaping projects in 2011 and had been in a sexual relationship with McArthur for some time.

Selim Esen, 44, was last definitively seen on March 20, 2017, near Yonge Street and Bloor Street, just west of the gay village, though there have been reports that he was seen as late as April 14 near Bloor Street and Ted Rogers Way in the gay village. He was reported missing by a friend on April 20. Police initially described Esen as a man of no fixed address who often pulled a wheeled suitcase. A friend disputed this, saying that Esen was in an "unhealthy relationship" and would at times stay with friends. Esen was a Turkish citizen who had first come to Canada to be with a partner that he had met in Turkey. According to the friend, he struggled with addiction but was getting control of his problem and had completed a certificate course in peer counselling from St. Stephen's community house just before he disappeared. McArthur was also a client of St. Stephen's and very trusted within the community support organization.

Dean Lisowick, 43 or 44, was not reported missing. He was a resident of Toronto's shelter system. He had periodically stayed at The Scott Mission on Spadina Avenue since 2003 and was last recorded there on April 21, 2016. He had faced struggles including issues with substance abuse but was remembered as being very respectful. He was trying to work more, as a cleaner or labourer, having previously worked as a prostitute. Police believe he was murdered by McArthur between May 2016 and July 2017.

Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37, last had contact with his family in August 2015. He was not reported missing. He was one of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka who had arrived in Canada on the MV Sun Sea in August 2010. When his deportation order was given, he went into hiding in the Tamil community in Ontario and worked as a cleaner and mover. Police believe that Kanagaratnam was murdered by McArthur between September 3 and December 14, 2015.

Legal proceedings

In January 2018 a publication ban was ordered on court proceedings, limiting what can be reported in the media.

McArthur was detained at the Toronto South Detention Centre. Torstar News Service reported on March 19 that McArthur was being held "in segregation and under constant suicide watch". As of June 27, 2018 McArthur remains held at the Toronto South Detention Centre.

He made his first court appearance on January 19, 2018, represented by lawyer Marianne Salih. He made another brief courtroom appearance on January 29 and subsequently attended via video link, represented by W. Calvin Rosemond of the legal defence firm of Edward H. Royle & Partners. Rosemond's biography on the firm's website states that he believes "guilty pleas ought only be entered as a last resort".

Rosemond noted at a February 14 hearing that it was McArthur's third court appearance without disclosure. Crown attorney Mike Cantlon said his office received disclosure from police on February 13 and was in the process of vetting and screening it. In mid-March, Cantlon said one package of disclosure had been made to McArthur's lawyers, with more to be expected in the following weeks, some in excess of 10,000 pages owing to the case's complexity. On April 25 Cantlon said more evidence would be turned over to the defence before the next scheduled court date, May 23, at which time defence counsel said that they were continuing to receive disclosure. On June 22 the Crown stated that it had disclosed all evidence to the defence.

A judicial pre-trial was scheduled for June 20. The closed-door meeting with the Crown and defence attorneys and judge was to address issues such as resolving the case without a trial (such as by entering a guilty plea), trial length, and procedural and evidentiary issues. Daniel Lerner, a Toronto defence lawyer and former Crown prosecutor, suggested that the Crown would consider severing charges. Lerner noted that a long and complicated trial could put a burden on the jury and create a risk of mistrial. Kevin Bryan, a former detective with York Regional Police's forensics unit, considered the amount of evidence to be catalogued and disclosed and believed a trial was "years away". However, a Supreme Court of Canada decision set new rules which would require McArthur's trial to be concluded within 30 months of his being charged, outside of exceptional circumstances.

Several media outlets had applied for the release of the psychiatric and presentencing reports from McArthur's 2003 assault conviction. James Miglin, an attorney for McArthur, argued that this could risk his fair trial rights but Justice Leslie Chaplin felt the reports were generally positive toward McArthur and released them on June 27, 2018. Chaplin also allowed the media to view, but not publish, photographs of the victim's injuries and the weapon used, citing fair trial rights and the victim's privacy.

Controversies

The high-profile investigation and media coverage have drawn a number of controversies including accusations of indifference towards LGBTQ, racialized and homeless persons.

Use of the term serial killer

In mid-November 2017 Richmond said that there was no evidence to establish or exclude that a serial killer was responsible for the disappearances. Saunders told the community on December 8 "The evidence today tells us there's not a serial killer". Police first said that they were dealing with an alleged serial killer on January 29, 2018, confirming what some in the community had feared for years. Some questioned whether police had been taking their concerns seriously. Nicki Ward, a director of the Church-Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, asked "Why weren't we listened to earlier? Perhaps some lives could have been saved if that was the case."

Saunders responded that police were not being "coy" about community safety, but that he had been speaking of the evidence that they had at that time. Saunders, who had been a homicide detective for nine years, was an investigator first and spoke in terms of evidence that could be presented in court. Idsinga said that police knew "something was up" with the disappearances in Project Houston, that they had hunches of a killer operating at Church and Wellesley, but that he could not say it without evidence.

James Dubro, a long-time Toronto crime journalist and past president of the Crime Writers of Canada, wrote in July 2017 that a serial killer – though not ruled out by police – was highly unlikely. Jooyoung Lee, a University of Toronto associate professor who teaches a course on serial homicides, said in November 2017 that the disappearances had the warning signs of a serial killer but that it remained unclear and that serial killers were very rare.

Sasha Reid, a University of Toronto PhD candidate specializing in statistical analysis of missing persons and sexually motivated killers, was compiling a missing-persons database when she came across the Project Houston disappearances. She noticed a pattern and concluded that a serial killer was operating in Toronto. Reid said she informed police of her findings and provided a basic criminal profile in July 2017, the month Project Prism was created. She was not contacted again by police, probably because her academic data could not be used in court. Reid's profile identified a suspect of colour in his early 30s, which excluded McArthur. Reid noted that the term serial killer was problematic as it is defined and used differently by various organizations, legal jurisdictions, researchers and the media.

Mike Arntfield, a criminologist and Western University professor, has advocated data-based approaches to augment traditional investigative work, particularly in detecting elusive criminals like serial killers. His research team developed an algorithm to perform cluster analysis on 800,000 American murders catalogued by the Murder Accountability Project, which has led to arrests in Cleveland and Chicago. There is no equivalent database in Canada, which lacks standardized reporting.

Arntfield had been critical of the TPS for not admitting that there was a serial killer, suggesting that they could have made an arrest sooner if they had. He made a comparison to the Seminole Heights serial killer in Tampa Bay, Florida, where police warned the public of a serial killer in November 2017. This led to 5,000 tips being reported, one of which resulted in an arrest. However, on October 23, 2017, Tampa's interim police chief avoided the term serial killer when three victims had been killed with the same weapon; it was only used after a fourth murder in November when police obtained surveillance video of the same suspect at two crime scenes. In comparison, the TPS said they did not have evidence of a murder or that any of the suspicious disappearances were connected until January 17, the day before McArthur's arrest. The large number of tips generated in Tampa may have been influenced by a US$100,000 reward offered at that time.

Allegations of racism

Gay activists and editorial writers have suggested that police only looked at the disappearances seriously when a white man, Andrew Kinsman, was reported missing. Idsinga refuted this, noting that Project Houston was a bigger investigation. He also noted that Kinsman's disappearance in June 2017 was important to the creation of Project Prism because of evidence obtained in July, not because of race.

Jooyoung Lee suggested that there was racism within the gay community, indicated by the relatively weak responses to the disappearances of the brown-skinned men in contrast with the campaign to find Kinsman.

There have also been suggestions that McArthur was initially overlooked as a suspect because he is white. In 2017 Reid theorized the killer was a person of colour like the victims, later stating this was because serial killers tend to target familiar communities.

Victim blaming

While defending the Project Houston investigation and responding to criticisms that police should have recognized the alleged serial killer sooner, Chief Saunders expressed his frustrations to The Globe and Mail that some sources were reporting incidents after McArthur's arrest which could have changed the course of the investigation had they been reported at the time. He was quoted as saying "We knew that people were missing and we knew we didn't have the right answers. But nobody was coming to us with anything." This was run on the front page of the national newspaper on February 27, 2018, under the headline: "Toronto police chief says civilians failed to help investigation into alleged serial killer".

The story was widely cited by other media outlets and caused a backlash against Saunders, with his comments taken by LGBTQ leaders and the community as victim blaming. One group held a rally outside police headquarters calling for Saunders's resignation. In a later interview with CP24 Saunders apologized if his comments to the Globe's editorial board were "misconstrued or taken in the wrong context" and that he had not intended to single out the LGBTQ community. Saunders had expressed gratitude toward the community for their help in the investigation in earlier instances, on one occasion saying he was "proud of the fact that the community did help us out in this." Mayor John Tory defended Saunders as a leader who could repair relationships with the city's communities, despite his "awkward language" in the interview.

One widely covered story in the media was the account of a 52-year-old part-time university teacher from Thunder Bay who had known McArthur for about ten years. According to the man, McArthur had contacted him on the Bear411 app and suggested that they meet for dinner at Church and Wellesley. After dinner the man got into the back of McArthur's van where they began kissing, petting and undressing. At this point the man claims that McArthur grabbed his neck and violently twisted it, forcing his face into McArthur's crotch. "I really thought my neck was going to be snapped the way he twisted it." The man grabbed McArthur's elbow, squeezing the joint until he was able to make McArthur let go. The man did not report the alleged incident to police until after McArthur's arrest, yet felt police could have arrested him sooner. The man alleges this happened in April 2017, about the time that Esen disappeared.

Another man claimed to have been invited through a dating app to McArthur's apartment for a liaison involving "bondage and submission role-playing" in late July 2017. McArthur did not want to go to the man's apartment because of security cameras in the area. McArthur made a GHB cocktail for the man, who requested a dosage to relax and "heighten the sexual encounter". However, the man soon began sweating heavily, suggesting he had been overdosed. The man alleged that McArthur ignored his limits and safe words and blocked his airway "with his penis, with his hands, with his body weight sitting on my chest". The man said he lost consciousness and was saved by the return of McArthur's roommate. The man said he was contacted by police the day after McArthur's arrest, and from their questions realized McArthur had photographed him bound in what was described as "a kill position".

Alleged 2016 assault

In March 2018 Idsinga learned of "concerning information" in the case which he immediately reported to the professional standards unit; they began an internal investigation on March 5. Police did not release any details but Idsinga said it was serious enough to affect the careers of officers involved.

The media roughly described an incident alleged to have occurred in 2016, in which McArthur and an unidentified man whom he met through a dating app were masturbating each other in the back of McArthur's van in a McDonald's restaurant parking lot. McArthur allegedly began throttling the man who broke free and said he would report what happened to police. Sources then vary, with McArthur following the man to a police station or driving to a police station while the man phoned police. McArthur either claimed it was the man who had choked him or that the man had asked to be choked then panicked and fled. No occurrence report was filed and McArthur was not charged. Homicide investigators only became aware of the alleged incident after McArthur's arrest, when the man came forward again to bring it to their attention.

Handling of missing persons cases

The TPS receives over 4,000 missing-persons reports each year, with most resolved within a few days. 51 Division, which includes Church and Wellesley, had 600 missing persons between 2014 and 2018 and about 30 cases remained open in March 2018. According to Lusia Dion, who runs the website Ontario's Missing Adults, missing men are taken less seriously as "We tend to think they can take care of themselves."

The circumstances of a disappearance are considered by TPS before committing resources to a search, especially for an adult. The city had been working to reduce the TPS budget which exceeded $1 billion in 2016. In July 2017 the Toronto Police Association (TPA) claimed that there was a staffing crisis with working conditions at "a breaking point", noting that staff had been reduced by 500 officers since 2010 while a budgetary task force recommended a hiring freeze. An unexpected number of early retirements were attributed by the TPA to stress and morale, and TPA President Mike McCormack noted "when we have a stressed-out officer, when we have people who are burned out, it really does impact public interaction".

On December 8, 2017 Saunders announced an internal probe to assess the TPS's response to Richey's disappearance, to determine if there was a procedural, training or other issue. He specifically noted the importance of call uptake and absorbing the circumstances of a reported disappearance. At a February 29 Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) meeting Tory moved to have the internal report made public – or as much as could be released given the ongoing investigation and legal proceedings. The board and Saunders agreed to hear public input on the report.

Wells's family claimed Toronto police officers told them that her case "was not high priority" because she was homeless for a number of years. Her disappearance was reported by her father in early November 2017, four months after her Facebook account went dormant. Her body had been found on August 5, but was badly decomposed and was not identified until November 23.

The person who found Wells's body informed both police and The 519 community centre, but 519 staff failed to follow up with police or transgender-focused organizations. Wells's friends say that this resulted in her body being unidentified for months. In mid-December, 519 executives apologized for their "mishandling of information" but placed full blame on the police. A petition started that month called for the resignation of the 519's executive director, alleging prejudice against transgender and homeless people. The 519 board called for an independent fact-finding review of the allegations.

Tory has been supportive of police while acknowledging legitimate questions about the investigation that would be answered in due course. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose ward includes Church and Wellesley, supported police at the time of McArthur's arrest when she expressed gratitude and noted that it was a complicated case. But by the end of February she said that the police relationship with the community had to be rebuilt and in early March that she was "no longer surprised" by obvious incompetence in the investigation.

Pride Toronto had been in closed-door talks about the TPS returning to the parade after controversially being banned in 2017. Progress was made but criticisms following McArthur's arrest led to an April 2 statement by Pride's executive director and five LGBT organizations asking the TPS to withdraw its application to march in uniform. The statement cited community feelings that investigations were "insufficient" and that concerns were "dismissed". Saunders had hoped that participation would demonstrate a "shared commitment to progress and healing", and considered the many TPS members who identify as LGBTQ and wished to march in the event built on inclusiveness.

In a March 9 statement, Saunders said that he understood the public's frustrations with the limited information that had been released during the investigation. He announced finalized plans for a dedicated missing persons unit, community outreach, and a professional standards review of the Richey and Wells cases. He also stated that he believed there were serious issues of systemic bias which required an independent external review, and that he had been working with other officials on how to hold such a review without affecting investigations and prosecutions.

External review

In January 2018,the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) demanded that the TPSB commission an external review of the investigation. In late February Saunders came to the conclusion that the public could not get clear and credible answers without an independent external review, and suggested as much to Tory and Andy Pringle, chair of the TPSB. He further suggested that the review consider systemic bias in the force. Tory's March 7 call for a public provincial inquiry was reviewed by Ontario's attorney general, who cautiously suggested that it wait until after criminal proceedings.

In mid-March a group of LGBTQ advocates demanded an immediate inquiry. Legal experts suggested that criminal investigations and prosecutions be protected by a publication ban on witness testimony, or by preserving records and taking witness statements under seal until the trials were over. Protocol for an external review was debated on March 22 by the TPSB, which voted to back an external review that would exclude the McArthur serial murder investigation.

In mid-April the board unanimously approved a working group to define the specifics of the external review. The group consisted of TPSB member Ken Jeffers, ASAAP board member Shakir Rahim, sex-worker advocate Monica Forrester and lawyer Sara Mainville who specializes in cases involving indigenous peoples. The TPSB named Breese Davies, vice-president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, in a facilitator role. The TPSB had to request $25,000 from the city's budget committee for the working group and its legal consultation fees. The working group reported on June 15 that the missing-persons investigations of McArthur's alleged victims could be examined up to the point at which the investigations involved McArthur. They estimated that the inquiry would take 15 months and cost $2.5 million. Tory was adamant that the community be adequately consulted and increased this figure to $3 million, which would go before city council.

The review is to examine TPS handling of missing-persons reports, biases within the service, and any obstacles that prevented Lisowick and Kanagaratnam from being reported missing. Specific investigations to be examined will include Project Houston, Project Prism, and the investigations into missing persons Alloura Wells and Tess Richey. Past reviews are also to be examined including the review into the 1981 bathhouse raids, the city auditor's report following the Balcony Rapist investigation, and the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry following Vancouver police's Robert Pickton case.

On June 25, on the recommendation of the working group, the TPSB announced that it had retained Justice Gloria Epstein, who would retire as a part-time Ontario Appeal Court judge on September 1 to lead the review. Epstein had been appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 1993 and made a prominent ruling that the Ontario Family Law Act definition of spouse was unconstitutional because it discriminated against homosexual couples. Epstein asked Mark Sandler to serve as the review's legal counsel.

Media use of photos

The media have drawn criticism for the imbalance in images of McArthur and his alleged victims. One widely published picture is of McArthur smiling at the camera as he posed at Niagara Falls. Lisowick, in comparison, was mostly known by a police mug shot. TPS spokesman Mark Pugash explained that they only release pictures if there is a "valid investigative purpose".

Media outlets with tight deadlines obtain photos from the Internet, and copied pictures from McArthur's Facebook page and online dating profiles within minutes of his arrest. Flattering pictures that he had used to define himself thus became his image in the media. The slain men who had Facebook accounts posted fewer pictures and Lisowick, a homeless man, had no digital footprint; so the first available picture was a police-released mug shot.

Editor Kathy English said that the Toronto Star would continue to publish Facebook photos of McArthur as a journalistic duty to report reality. Editor Sylvia Stead of The Globe and Mail stated that "true news photos" should be recent, like courtroom sketches, and that the balance should be in favour of the victims.

Nikki Ward, a director of the Church-Wellesley Neighbourhood Association and graphic artist, obtained a photograph of Lisowick at a vigil which she cleaned up and shared with media outlets so that his mug shot would not have to be used.

Another controversial photo was that of a dead man which police released in hopes that the public could help identify him. The Toronto Star chose not to publish the photo because of its disturbing nature. A version cleaned up by Ward to better represent the man in life and a sketch by a TPS forensic artist were released at an April 11 news conference.

#LoveWins

A free concert called #LoveWins was initiated by Kristyn Wong-Tam, the only openly LGBTQ member of city council. In production since December 2017, the event went public on March 7 through a news release and Facebook page, described as "part vigil, part celebration". The proposed March 29 event drew a number of criticisms, from logos of corporate sponsors to holding a celebration when the unnamed dead were still in forensic laboratories. The event was chaired by Salah Bachir, president of Cineplex Media, who identified as a "queer Arab man" and was both sad and angry about the crimes, having known some of the victims personally while his sister was a landscaping client of McArthur's.

Sara Malabar, who produced the opening and closing events for 2014 World Pride, started a Facebook page titled "Stop Love Wins Concert" and threatened to organize a protest if it was not cancelled. Another critic noted that events are pressured to go mainstream when attracting corporate sponsors, and overlook the needs of the community that they are meant to address. It was also noted that marginalized communities could make better use of the resources than by throwing a party.

On March 10, Wong-Tam's website announced that the event would be postponed to address concerns, admitting that the event had sparked unnecessary division at a historic moment for the community. Malabar offered to help in creating a more appropriate event, with more LGBTQ performers.