More human remains found in ravine near property linked to Bruce McArthur

TORONTO – Toronto police Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga says more human remains were found on Thursday in a ravine near a property connected to Bruce McArthur.

Human remains were also found on Wednesday when the digging near the ravine began. Police had returned to the area after cadaver dogs indicated possible locations to excavate.

Idsinga said he wasn’t surprised they found more remains.

When asked whether the human remains were in a similar state as the ones found in the planters on the property, Idsinga said he will be able to provide an update on Monday when the post-mortem on the remains is conducted.

Investigators will be using a number of different ways to try to identify the human remains including fingerprints if possible, dental if there are skulls and teeth and DNA, which takes the longest.

Yesterday, Idsinga said it was too early to tell if the remains belonged to one of the previously identified victims, someone else or even multiple people.

About a dozen workers have been working since the digging began. The path they are currently digging along was already there when investigators began the search.

They won’t be working over the weekend but Idsinga anticipates they could be there another two weeks depending on the cadaver dogs.

He said they are making progress and digging further, but there is a tremendous strain on the officers.

The Leaside property has been a focal point of the investigation for several months.

At the start of the year the remains of seven men, believed to be killed by McArthur, were located in planters that were stored on the property. After weeks of intensive investigation, police cleared the property in February.

Officials conducted searches at 100 properties linked to McArthur, who worked as a landscaper. No evidence of human remains were found at any of those properties.

McArthur is facing eight charges of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, and Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam.

Most of the men had connections to Toronto’s Gay Village.