Toronto man charged with murder in missing men case
Posted January 18, 2018 11:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (NEWS 1130) – Efforts to assuage fears that a serial killer was active in Toronto’s Gay Village came to a jarring end on Thursday when Toronto police announced the arrest of a 66-year-old man they believe murdered at least two missing men, and possibly more.
Bruce McArthur, 66, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen after police say new and “significant” evidence came to light on Wednesday.
McArthur is a self-employed landscaper who lives in the Thorncliffe Park area and ran a company called Artistic Design landscape.
“We believe he is responsible for the deaths of Kinsman and Esen,” Detective Hank Idsinga said from police headquarters on Thursday.
The bodies of Kinsman and Selim have not been found, but Idsinga said police have a “pretty good idea of what the cause of death is.”
“We do have some evidence which leads us to believe there are further victims,” he added. “We aren’t able at this time to identify those victims. We are aware of the other missing men from the village and we are trying to identify if they may have become victims of Mr. McArthur as well.”
Police had earlier said there was no evidence connecting the disappearances of the two men, or several other men who remain missing from the Gay Village area.
Chief Mark Saunders defended how police handled the case.
“What I said at the time that I said it was accurate at the time,” Saunders said, referring to how police had previously tried to downplay fears of a serial killer.
Idsinga said McArthur knew at least one of his alleged victims. “He did have a relationship with Mr. Kinsman for some time,” he said. “We don’t know what his exact relationship with Mr. Esen was leading up to his (alleged) murder.”
When asked what the nature of the relationship with Kinsman was, Idsinga replied, “sexual.”
