WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.700 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I'm glad you're 00:00:01.700 --> 00:00:04.320 here, but I have to give you a bit of a warning 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:07.780 up front. Today, we are opening a file that is, 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:11.380 honestly, it's difficult. It's dark. It really 00:00:11.380 --> 00:00:14.080 is. But it is also incredibly important because 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:17.219 it reveals so much about how our cities work, 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:21.140 how investigations work, and unfortunately, how 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:23.500 they fail. It really does. We are looking at 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:26.050 the Toronto Village murders. Yeah. The serial 00:00:26.050 --> 00:00:28.449 homicides committed by Bruce MacArthur between 00:00:28.449 --> 00:00:31.929 2010 and 2017. Yeah. And I think for a lot of 00:00:31.929 --> 00:00:33.750 people, especially if you're not from Toronto, 00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:36.700 you might know the headline. The landscaper killer. 00:00:36.859 --> 00:00:39.140 Right. That's the one. But the layers to this 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:42.039 story go so, so much deeper than just the gruesome 00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:44.159 headlines. Absolutely. And just to set the stage 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:46.560 here, the contrast of the perpetrator is what 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:48.240 always sticks with me. It's the thing I can't 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:49.939 quite reconcile. I know what you mean. We're 00:00:49.939 --> 00:00:51.719 talking about Bruce MacArthur. At the time of 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:53.820 his arrest, he was a 66 -year -old grandfather. 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:57.820 He was a self -employed landscaper. And... Get 00:00:57.820 --> 00:01:00.439 this. He was an occasional mall Santa Claus. 00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:03.960 That image is so jarring. Yeah. It's almost unbelievable. 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:07.640 You have this figure who represents safety, jolliness, 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.379 literally Santa Claus at the Agincourt Mall. 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.180 Right. Hiding in plain sight. Yeah. And meanwhile. 00:01:13.659 --> 00:01:15.819 He's operating in the church in Wellesley neighborhood, 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:18.239 the gay village, which is supposed to be a sanctuary 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:20.560 for the LGBTQ community. And that's really the 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:23.859 mission of this deep dive today. We want to unpack 00:01:23.859 --> 00:01:27.319 exactly how a serial killer operated undetected 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:30.060 for seven years in a major modern metropolis. 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:32.840 We need to look at the systemic failures that 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:34.900 allowed him to slip through the cracks. And we 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:36.939 need to understand the specific vulnerabilities 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:39.879 of the victims that he exploited. Right. And 00:01:39.879 --> 00:01:42.840 to do that, we've gone through a comprehensive... 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:44.920 compilation of facts. We're looking at the investigation 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:47.620 timelines, the victims' backgrounds, the legal 00:01:47.620 --> 00:01:50.400 proceedings, and the very, very critical community 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.459 reviews like Project Houston and Project Prism 00:01:53.459 --> 00:01:55.340 that came later. So let's start with the man 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:58.519 himself, part one, the perpetrator. Because when 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:01.159 you look at his bio, it doesn't scream monster. 00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:05.200 No. It screams boring. It does. It's the classic 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:09.080 banality of evil that people talk about. Bruce 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:12.439 McArthur was born in 1951. He was raised on a 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:15.599 farm in Argyle, Ontario. A small town. Very small 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:17.580 town. Very traditional religious upbringing. 00:02:18.060 --> 00:02:21.400 You know, Irish Catholic mother, Scottish Presbyterian 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:23.960 father. It was a very straight -laced environment. 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:26.060 And he followed the script, right. I mean, for 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:28.639 a man of that generation, he did what he was 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:30.840 supposed to do. Exactly. He married a woman named 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:33.659 Janice Campbell in his early 20s. They had two 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:35.379 kids, a son and a daughter. He worked in the 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:37.800 clothing trade for years. Right. He was literally 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.879 a traveling sock salesman for... McGregor socks. 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:43.639 A sock salesman. It's just so mundane, isn't 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:45.740 it? But you have to wonder about the psychology 00:02:45.740 --> 00:02:47.879 there. Being a traveling salesman, I mean, that's 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:50.199 a lonely life. It is. Lots of time on the road, 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:52.340 lots of time in hotels. It creates an opportunity 00:02:52.340 --> 00:02:54.400 for a double life, for sure. And we know that 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:56.939 underneath this suburban working man exterior, 00:02:57.139 --> 00:02:59.680 there was a lot of turmoil. He was struggling 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:01.740 with his sexuality in a time and place. We're 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:04.639 talking rural Ontario in the 50s and 60s, where 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.360 that wasn't just frowned upon, it was. Completely 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:09.500 hidden. It was completely hidden. It was dangerous. 00:03:09.699 --> 00:03:12.599 So he suppresses it for decades. When does the 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:16.199 mask start to slip? When does he change course? 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:19.560 Well, he separated from his wife in 1997 and 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:22.159 moved to Toronto. This is a common story for 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.099 that generation, really. Right. Moving to the 00:03:24.099 --> 00:03:26.180 big city to finally find himself, to live openly. 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.099 He moves into the gay community, eventually settles 00:03:29.099 --> 00:03:31.900 in an apartment in Thorncliffe Park, and starts 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:34.599 his landscaping business, Artistic Designs. And 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:36.340 that business is key, isn't it? Because it wasn't 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:39.580 just a job. It was, it gave him access. It gave 00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:41.580 him everything. Yeah. It gave him a vehicle. 00:03:41.819 --> 00:03:45.210 The van. The van. Yeah. It gave him tools. And 00:03:45.210 --> 00:03:47.550 it gave him a reputation. He was known as this 00:03:47.550 --> 00:03:50.009 charming man. He worked for a lot of wealthy 00:03:50.009 --> 00:03:52.449 elderly women in places like Leaside and other 00:03:52.449 --> 00:03:55.150 upscale neighborhoods who just loved him. Oh, 00:03:55.210 --> 00:03:57.250 he's the nice man who does our gardens. He was 00:03:57.250 --> 00:03:58.810 the nice guy who made their gardens beautiful. 00:03:59.110 --> 00:04:01.169 Charming. That word comes up a lot in serial 00:04:01.169 --> 00:04:04.469 killer profiles. Ted Bundy was charming. It's 00:04:04.469 --> 00:04:07.310 a tool. It's camouflage. And frankly, the mall 00:04:07.310 --> 00:04:10.550 Santa gig at Agincourt Mall. That is the ultimate 00:04:10.550 --> 00:04:13.189 camouflage. It really is. I mean, who suspects 00:04:13.189 --> 00:04:15.610 Santa? But here is the thing that frustrates 00:04:15.610 --> 00:04:17.750 me and I think a lot of people. There were cracks 00:04:17.750 --> 00:04:20.430 in the mask way before the murder started. This 00:04:20.430 --> 00:04:23.389 wasn't a guy who had zero record. We have to 00:04:23.389 --> 00:04:26.029 talk about the 2001 assault because looking back, 00:04:26.089 --> 00:04:29.550 it feels like a massive, massive neon sign was 00:04:29.550 --> 00:04:32.810 flashing. It's the critical what if of this entire 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:36.589 case. Yeah. Halloween 2001. MacArthur is 50 years 00:04:36.589 --> 00:04:38.889 old at this point. Okay. He follows a man named 00:04:38.889 --> 00:04:41.910 Mark Henderson, a model and actor, into his apartment. 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.060 Henderson had apparently invited him in to show 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:47.300 him his Halloween costume. Okay, so it sounds 00:04:47.300 --> 00:04:49.660 friendly enough on the surface. A bit flirty, 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:52.120 maybe. Seemed that way. But MacArthur was carrying 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:54.540 an iron pipe. Wait, wait. He was just walking 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:56.519 around with an iron pipe. He had it with him. 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:59.519 And once he was inside, he struck Henderson from 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.439 behind. Multiple times. See, that's not a crime 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:04.540 of passion in the heat of the moment. If you're 00:05:04.540 --> 00:05:06.899 carrying the weapon with you into the apartment, 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:09.990 that's premeditated. That's a plan. Absolutely. 00:05:10.269 --> 00:05:13.149 And Henderson actually fought back. He lost consciousness 00:05:13.149 --> 00:05:16.290 for a bit, but he woke up and called 911. It 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:19.689 was a brutal, brutal attack. How badly was he 00:05:19.689 --> 00:05:23.250 hurt? He needed stitches in his head and fingers 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:26.189 and weeks of physiotherapy to recover. It was 00:05:26.189 --> 00:05:28.490 a serious assault. So MacArthur turns himself 00:05:28.490 --> 00:05:31.089 in. What happens then? He did. He turned himself 00:05:31.089 --> 00:05:33.790 in and he claimed he had no memory of the attack. 00:05:34.050 --> 00:05:37.149 Oh, come on. He basically pleaded temporary insanity 00:05:37.149 --> 00:05:41.889 or confusion. He pleaded guilty to assault with 00:05:41.889 --> 00:05:44.810 a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. OK. 00:05:44.949 --> 00:05:49.069 Assault with a weapon. An iron pipe. A planned 00:05:49.069 --> 00:05:52.069 attack from behind. That has to mean prison time, 00:05:52.149 --> 00:05:53.930 right? You would think. You would absolutely 00:05:53.930 --> 00:05:56.149 think so. But this is where the legal system 00:05:56.149 --> 00:05:59.329 starts to show its cracks. He received a conditional 00:05:59.329 --> 00:06:01.430 sentence. Break that down for us. What does a 00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:03.470 conditional sentence actually mean in Canada? 00:06:03.529 --> 00:06:05.009 I think a lot of people don't know the specifics. 00:06:05.230 --> 00:06:06.970 It's effectively a jail sentence served in the 00:06:06.970 --> 00:06:09.250 community. So house arrest. Exactly. It's house 00:06:09.250 --> 00:06:11.930 arrest. He had a curfew. He had probation. He 00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:13.790 couldn't leave his home without permission except 00:06:13.790 --> 00:06:16.860 for work or medical reasons. But the key point 00:06:16.860 --> 00:06:20.360 is he wasn't behind bars. And why such leniency 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.240 for such a violent, unprovoked attack? The psychological 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:26.199 reports at the time deemed him a low risk to 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.740 reoffend. The theory was that he had a bad reaction 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:32.879 to a mix of his anti -seizure medication and 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:35.560 Popper's amyl nitrite, which he was using. So 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:38.639 they blamed the drugs. They framed it as a one 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:40.980 -off medical or psychological episode rather 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:43.819 than a pattern of violence. They also put a condition 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:45.759 on him that he was banned from the gay village 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.480 and banned from possessing paupers. Low risk. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:52.439 That assessment aged horribly. I mean, just tragically. 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:54.879 It did. But here is the most damaging part, the 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.199 systemic failure that really, you could argue, 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:00.339 paved the way for the murders. In 2014, MacArthur 00:07:00.339 --> 00:07:03.529 was granted a record suspension. I want to pause 00:07:03.529 --> 00:07:05.089 on this because I think there's some confusion 00:07:05.089 --> 00:07:06.930 about what that actually is. Is that the same 00:07:06.930 --> 00:07:09.310 as a pardon? Essentially, yes. It's the same 00:07:09.310 --> 00:07:11.389 thing. In Canada, we used to call them pardons. 00:07:11.389 --> 00:07:13.449 Now they were called record suspensions. The 00:07:13.449 --> 00:07:16.209 logic behind it is rehabilitation. The idea is 00:07:16.209 --> 00:07:18.389 that if you complete your sentence and you wait 00:07:18.389 --> 00:07:20.769 a certain number of years, usually five or 10, 00:07:20.829 --> 00:07:23.850 depending on the severity of the crime, and you 00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:27.439 keep the peace and be of good behavior. you can 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:29.920 apply to the Parole Board of Canada to have your 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:32.339 record set aside. So it's not that he was found 00:07:32.339 --> 00:07:34.860 innocent. That's a key distinction. It's that 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:37.060 the government decided he had been good enough 00:07:37.060 --> 00:07:40.000 for long enough that the crime shouldn't haunt 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.860 him anymore. Precisely. And the practical effect 00:07:42.860 --> 00:07:45.100 of a record suspension is that the conviction 00:07:45.100 --> 00:07:48.420 is removed from the CPIC database. That's the 00:07:48.420 --> 00:07:50.660 Canadian Police Information Centre. The main 00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:53.860 police database. Right. It is sealed. So later... 00:07:53.980 --> 00:07:56.180 If a police officer pulls him over or runs a 00:07:56.180 --> 00:07:57.800 standard background check on Bruce MacArthur, 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.459 this violent assault with an iron pipe simply 00:08:00.459 --> 00:08:02.680 doesn't show up. It comes back clean. That is 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:05.459 terrifying. It literally created a massive blind 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:07.860 spot for investigators later on. He's walking 00:08:07.860 --> 00:08:09.360 around with what looks like a clean sheet of 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:11.579 paper, but the reality is he bludgeoned a man 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:14.079 with a pipe. Exactly. It made him invisible to 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:16.519 the system right when he was becoming most dangerous. 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:18.899 It allowed him to operate with a presumption 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:21.160 of innocence that his history should have completely 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:24.250 negated. So the slate is wiped clean. The system 00:08:24.250 --> 00:08:27.689 says, you're good. And by 2010, the disappearances 00:08:27.689 --> 00:08:30.949 begin. And this brings us to the victims. And 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:32.830 it's so crucial we understand that these weren't 00:08:32.830 --> 00:08:35.450 random attacks. MacArthur was hunting. He was 00:08:35.450 --> 00:08:38.649 hunting a specific profile. Yeah. Over seven 00:08:38.649 --> 00:08:42.320 years, eight men disappeared. And there are striking 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.220 commonalities between them. Physically, they 00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:46.179 looked alike for the most part. They did. Most 00:08:46.179 --> 00:08:48.659 were middle -aged. Most had facial hair beards 00:08:48.659 --> 00:08:51.840 or goatees. They fit the physical type of the 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.200 bear subculture in the gay community. And for 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:56.019 listeners who might not know, could you explain 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:58.399 the bear subculture? It's pretty distinct from 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:01.620 the sort of mainstream stereotype of the twink 00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:04.340 or the gym fit gay man, right? Right, yeah. The 00:09:04.340 --> 00:09:06.759 bear community celebrates a bigger, hairier, 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:09.340 more traditionally masculine aesthetic. It's 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:11.879 a very specific scene. often centered around 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:14.860 this idea of brotherhood and acceptance of different 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.419 body types. So a community within a community. 00:09:17.779 --> 00:09:20.500 Exactly. And MacArthur identified as a bear, 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:23.580 and he was attracted to bears. They frequented 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:26.639 specific bars, like the Black Eagle in Toronto, 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:29.200 which was a known spot for that crowd. But the 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:31.399 targeting, it wasn't just physical, was it? There 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:33.480 was a demographic targeting happening here that 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.840 is much, much darker. That's the key insight. 00:09:36.250 --> 00:09:38.669 That is the thing that makes this case so chilling. 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:42.250 Six of the eight victims were of South Asian 00:09:42.250 --> 00:09:44.350 or Middle Eastern descent. Six out of eight. 00:09:44.470 --> 00:09:47.470 Yes. And many were closeted. Some were immigrants 00:09:47.470 --> 00:09:50.210 or refugees. Some were struggling with substance 00:09:50.210 --> 00:09:53.549 abuse. So he was targeting men who are marginalized 00:09:53.549 --> 00:09:56.269 even within the marginalized community. Precisely. 00:09:56.509 --> 00:09:58.129 Criminologists have a term for this. They call 00:09:58.129 --> 00:10:00.909 it targeting the less dead or the missing, missing, 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:04.250 missing, missing. He picked men whose disappearances 00:10:04.250 --> 00:10:06.309 might be explained away by their families or 00:10:06.309 --> 00:10:08.289 the police. You know, oh, he probably just went 00:10:08.289 --> 00:10:10.409 back to his home country or he's hiding from 00:10:10.409 --> 00:10:13.110 his family. Excuses that delay a real investigation. 00:10:13.610 --> 00:10:16.269 Let's walk through the timeline because the police 00:10:16.269 --> 00:10:19.309 response or the lack of response is a huge part 00:10:19.309 --> 00:10:22.210 of this story. The first era is what became known 00:10:22.210 --> 00:10:25.110 as Project Houston. This is from 2010 to 2012. 00:10:25.250 --> 00:10:27.769 Right. Three men vanished in this period. First, 00:10:28.269 --> 00:10:31.049 there was Skandaraj Navratnam, known as Skanda. 00:10:31.570 --> 00:10:34.409 He went missing in September 2010. And Skanda's 00:10:34.409 --> 00:10:36.169 story is just heartbreaking. He was a refugee, 00:10:36.269 --> 00:10:37.970 right? He was a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka. 00:10:38.169 --> 00:10:40.710 He had built a life in Toronto. He actually worked 00:10:40.710 --> 00:10:42.929 for MacArthur's Landscaping Company. Oh, wow. 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:45.649 And they had a romantic history. Oh. But the 00:10:45.649 --> 00:10:47.870 thing that stuck with his friends, the thing 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:50.950 they knew was wrong immediately. He had a dog. 00:10:51.129 --> 00:10:52.830 And you don't just walk away from your dog. Never. 00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:55.759 His friends knew right away. Skanda loved that 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.360 dog. When the dog was left behind, that was the 00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:01.100 first major alarm bell for them. But from a police 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:03.740 perspective, I guess, adults are allowed to go 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:05.759 missing. They're allowed to just leave. That's 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:07.919 the problem. Unless there's evidence of foul 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.779 play, it's not a crime to disappear. Then just 00:11:10.779 --> 00:11:13.779 a few months later, December 2010, Abdul Basir 00:11:13.779 --> 00:11:17.179 Faizi goes missing, known as Basir. Basir Faizi 00:11:17.179 --> 00:11:19.620 fits that profile of vulnerability we just talked 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:21.820 about perfectly. He was an Afghan immigrant. 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:24.700 married with two daughters, living in the suburbs 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:27.919 of Brampton. So a family man. A family man, but 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:29.659 he was leading a double life. He hadn't come 00:11:29.659 --> 00:11:32.059 out to his family. He would come to the village 00:11:32.059 --> 00:11:34.379 in secret. Which makes the investigation so much 00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:36.460 harder. The family doesn't know where to look, 00:11:36.580 --> 00:11:38.899 and they might not even tell the police everything 00:11:38.899 --> 00:11:41.360 because of the cultural stigma involved. Exactly. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:45.820 It creates these information silos. And on the 00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:48.740 night he disappeared, police eventually found 00:11:48.740 --> 00:11:52.059 his car abandoned. On Moore Avenue. Moore Avenue. 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:54.899 Okay, put a pin in that. That location is incredibly 00:11:54.899 --> 00:11:57.919 significant, isn't it? It's vital. Moore Avenue 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:00.360 is steps away from the Beltline Trail, but more 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:02.559 importantly, it connects directly to Mallory 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:05.419 Crescent. Mallory Crescent. And that's where 00:12:05.419 --> 00:12:07.940 MacArthur stored his landscaping equipment. It 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:10.399 was his base of operations. He had a client there, 00:12:10.539 --> 00:12:13.940 a woman, who let him use her garage and her backyard 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:17.539 for his business. So Bazier's car was found. 00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:19.879 practically on MacArthur's doorstep. But at the 00:12:19.879 --> 00:12:22.019 time, police didn't make that connection. No. 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:25.340 They saw an abandoned car. They thought maybe 00:12:25.340 --> 00:12:28.120 Bazir had just walked away from his double life, 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:30.899 maybe returned to the Middle East, or just started 00:12:30.899 --> 00:12:33.200 over somewhere else. And the third man in this 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:36.159 group? Majid Kayhan, known as Hamid. He went 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:39.779 missing in October 2012. Another Afghan immigrant. 00:12:40.350 --> 00:12:42.990 also closeted from his Muslim family, and he 00:12:42.990 --> 00:12:45.149 also had a sexual relationship with MacArthur. 00:12:45.289 --> 00:12:48.570 So you have three men, all brown, all connected 00:12:48.570 --> 00:12:50.730 to the village, all missing within two years. 00:12:50.929 --> 00:12:53.730 The police did launch a task force, Project Houston. 00:12:53.950 --> 00:12:55.870 They did. The community was raising the alarm, 00:12:55.970 --> 00:12:58.649 so they responded. It ran for 18 months. And 00:12:58.649 --> 00:13:00.789 here is the frustration that drives people crazy 00:13:00.789 --> 00:13:03.289 about this case. MacArthur was on their radar. 00:13:03.470 --> 00:13:05.269 He was interviewed. He was interviewed in 2013. 00:13:05.730 --> 00:13:07.970 Why? How did they connect him? Because looking 00:13:07.970 --> 00:13:09.929 at the phone records and employment records of 00:13:09.929 --> 00:13:12.830 Skanda and Hamid, MacArthur's name came up. He 00:13:12.830 --> 00:13:15.769 was Bruce the landscaper. He was a known associate. 00:13:16.049 --> 00:13:18.029 So he's sitting in an interrogation room with 00:13:18.029 --> 00:13:21.110 the police. What happened? He was calm. He was 00:13:21.110 --> 00:13:23.549 cooperative. He admitted he knew them. He admitted 00:13:23.549 --> 00:13:26.169 to their relationships. But, and this is the 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:28.710 difficulty of police work, admitting you dated 00:13:28.710 --> 00:13:30.830 someone isn't admitting you killed them. And 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:33.190 crucially, they had no bodies. No bodies, no 00:13:33.190 --> 00:13:36.039 crime scene, no blood. Just missing men. And 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:38.460 MacArthur, remember, he's the nice grandpa. Right. 00:13:38.539 --> 00:13:40.340 He's the landscaper. He didn't come off as a 00:13:40.340 --> 00:13:42.820 threat. So the task force concluded there was 00:13:42.820 --> 00:13:45.440 no evidence of a crime. Right. They shut it down. 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:47.919 They just gave up. They hit a wall. Without physical 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:49.820 evidence, they couldn't justify keeping the resources 00:13:49.820 --> 00:13:52.700 flowing. Project Houston was focused on finding 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:55.320 the men, but without a lead pointing to foul 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:58.440 play. It just, it fizzled out. And that closure, 00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:02.000 that silence from the police, it gave MacArthur 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.340 permission to continue. It did. We enter the 00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:07.679 gap years between 2013 and 2016. The task force 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:11.019 is gone, but the killing continues. And the victims 00:14:11.019 --> 00:14:13.460 in this period highlight that concept of the 00:14:13.460 --> 00:14:17.320 missing missing even more starkly. This is where 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:19.799 the vulnerabilities become weaponized. Who were 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:22.500 they? In 2015, Soroush Mahmoodi disappeared, 00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:27.340 a refugee from Iran. He was married. His family 00:14:27.340 --> 00:14:28.820 didn't know he was connected to the gay scene 00:14:28.820 --> 00:14:32.100 at all. So when they reported him missing. The 00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:33.580 police weren't looking for him in the village. 00:14:33.720 --> 00:14:35.700 They were looking for a missing family man from 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:38.840 Scarborough. The docks weren't connected. And 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:42.240 then there is Karushna Kumar Kanagaratnam. This 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:45.419 story, it really shows how immigration status 00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:47.679 can be a weapon for a predator. It is the most 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:49.740 heartbreaking example of vulnerability in this 00:14:49.740 --> 00:14:52.820 whole case, I think. Karushna was a Tamil asylum 00:14:52.820 --> 00:14:56.419 seeker. He arrived on the MV Sunsea. that famous 00:14:56.419 --> 00:14:58.779 ship of refugees that arrived in B .C. in 2010. 00:14:59.100 --> 00:15:02.639 OK. But his asylum claim was denied. He was under 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:04.539 deportation order. So he was living underground. 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:07.120 He was hiding. He was effectively hiding from 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.139 the government to avoid being sent back to Sri 00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:11.659 Lanka, where he feared for his life. He was off 00:15:11.659 --> 00:15:13.820 the grid. He couldn't get a legal job. He couldn't 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:15.879 get a driver's license. He couldn't open a bank 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:18.460 account. So when MacArthur killed him. No one 00:15:18.460 --> 00:15:20.779 reported him missing. No. Because reporting him 00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:23.659 missing meant exposing him to immigration enforcement. 00:15:24.139 --> 00:15:26.220 His family thought he was just laying low, staying 00:15:26.220 --> 00:15:29.500 off the radar. He was a ghost. MacArthur killed 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:31.600 him. And literally no one in the system knew 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:33.759 he was gone. And Dean Lissawick? Dean was homeless. 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:35.620 He relied on the shelter system. He was a sex 00:15:35.620 --> 00:15:37.580 worker. He struggled with addiction. He wasn't 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:39.720 reported missing either because his life was, 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:42.700 by its nature, transient. Right. MacArthur knew 00:15:42.700 --> 00:15:45.500 that if he took these men, the refugee in hiding, 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:48.110 the homeless sex worker. the clock wouldn't start 00:15:48.110 --> 00:15:49.850 ticking immediately. There would be no frantic 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:51.950 search party the next day. It sounds like he 00:15:51.950 --> 00:15:55.049 was refining his selection process, moving from 00:15:55.049 --> 00:15:57.250 people like Skanda, who had a close circle of 00:15:57.250 --> 00:16:00.169 friends asking questions, to people like Karushna, 00:16:00.250 --> 00:16:02.549 who had nobody that could ask questions without 00:16:02.549 --> 00:16:05.370 risking something. That is a very distinct and 00:16:05.370 --> 00:16:07.950 terrifying possibility. He was learning what 00:16:07.950 --> 00:16:10.629 he could get away with. But then in 2017, the 00:16:10.629 --> 00:16:13.570 clock started ticking very loud and very fast. 00:16:13.970 --> 00:16:17.539 This is part three. The turning point. Project 00:16:17.539 --> 00:16:21.200 Prism. This new task force was formed to investigate 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:24.440 the disappearance of two men, Salim Asin, who 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:27.580 went missing in April 2017, and Andrew Kinsman, 00:16:27.639 --> 00:16:29.919 who vanished in June. And we have to be honest 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:32.440 here. Andrew Kinsman's disappearance changed 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:34.980 the entire dynamic of the investigation. Why? 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:37.659 What was different about Andrew? Andrew Kinsman 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:39.860 was white. He was a very well -known community 00:16:39.860 --> 00:16:42.460 volunteer. He was the superintendent of his building 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:44.399 in Cabbage Town. He had a very stable routine, 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:47.840 a lot of friends, a big social network. So when 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:50.720 he went missing? It was instant chaos. It was 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:53.980 immediate. He went missing in June 2017, just 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:56.419 days after the Pride Parade. He left his cat 00:16:56.419 --> 00:16:59.759 without food. For his friends, that was it. That's 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:01.460 the signal. That was the signal. They knew something 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.720 was terribly wrong. Within 72 hours, there were 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:05.839 search parties organized by friends. The community 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:08.220 put immense pressure on the police. Posters were 00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:10.460 on every telephone pole from Bloor to Dundas. 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:13.000 He's just uncomfortable to say, but did his race 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:14.980 and social standing speed things up? Was that 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:17.619 the difference? That is a major point of contention 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:19.799 and a source of a lot of anger in the community. 00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:22.759 Critics argue that the perfect victim dynamic 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:25.079 flipped. Right. When a well -connected white 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:27.420 man vanished, suddenly the resources appeared. 00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:30.720 Police argue that Kinsman simply left more clues, 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:33.299 that his life was more documented. And he did 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:35.720 leave clues. The breakthrough evidence here feels 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:38.640 almost cinematic, like something out of a movie. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:40.940 It really does. And it wasn't high tech initially. 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:44.180 It was a paper wall calendar. Calendar in 2017. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:48.319 Andrew Kinsman was old school. He wrote his appointments 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:51.740 down. And on the entry for June 26th. The day 00:17:51.740 --> 00:17:54.200 he vanished, he had written the name Bruce. Just 00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:56.920 Bruce? No last name? No number? Just Bruce. But 00:17:56.920 --> 00:17:59.519 that gave them a thread to pull on. Then they 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:02.660 found surveillance video from a camera near Kinsman's 00:18:02.660 --> 00:18:05.740 residence. It was grainy footage, but it showed 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:08.160 Kinsman getting into a vehicle on the day he 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:11.099 disappeared. What kind of vehicle? A red 2004 00:18:11.099 --> 00:18:13.460 Dodge Caravan. Okay, so they have a first name, 00:18:13.619 --> 00:18:16.240 Bruce, and a specific type of car, a red Dodge 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.220 Caravan. Exactly. Yeah. Now, they ran a search. 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:22.740 How many 2004 Dodge Caravans are registered in 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:25.859 the entire city of Toronto? About 6 ,000. That's 00:18:25.859 --> 00:18:28.700 a haystack. A massive haystack. It is. But when 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:30.920 you cross -reference the name Bruce with the 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.119 registered owners of those 6 ,000 vans, the list 00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:37.420 shrank to five people. Five. From 6 ,000 down 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:39.259 to five. And one of them was Bruce MacArthur. 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:43.769 And did he still have the van? No. And this shows 00:18:43.769 --> 00:18:47.549 his consciousness of guilt, his awareness. Shortly 00:18:47.549 --> 00:18:50.089 after Kinsman disappeared, MacArthur took that 00:18:50.089 --> 00:18:53.410 van to a scrapyard, Dom's Auto Parts in Curtis, 00:18:53.549 --> 00:18:56.309 Ontario, which is east of the city. He sold it 00:18:56.309 --> 00:18:58.210 for scrap. He was trying to crush the evidence, 00:18:58.470 --> 00:19:00.589 literally. He was. He was trying to make it disappear. 00:19:00.829 --> 00:19:03.109 But the police got there just in time. The owner 00:19:03.109 --> 00:19:04.569 hadn't crushed it yet. The police seized it. 00:19:04.670 --> 00:19:06.329 And even though MacArthur tried to clean it. 00:19:06.390 --> 00:19:08.509 Forensic science is hard to beat. It's very hard 00:19:08.509 --> 00:19:10.710 to beat. They found trace amounts of blood in 00:19:10.710 --> 00:19:13.329 the back of the van. And when they ran the DNA, 00:19:13.529 --> 00:19:16.210 it matched Andrew Kinsman. That was the smoking 00:19:16.210 --> 00:19:18.609 gun. That was it. This distinguishes Project 00:19:18.609 --> 00:19:22.009 Prism from Project Houston. Houston had suspicion. 00:19:22.130 --> 00:19:25.869 They had a name. Prism had blood. Exactly. That 00:19:25.869 --> 00:19:29.750 DNA match transformed the investigation from 00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:32.769 a missing persons case into a homicide investigation. 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:35.599 Yeah. It gave them their prime suspect. So now 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:38.420 we are in late 2017. They know it's him. Why 00:19:38.420 --> 00:19:40.980 didn't they arrest him immediately? Well, they 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:43.220 needed to build the case. A DNA match in the 00:19:43.220 --> 00:19:45.420 van he used to own is strong, but they wanted 00:19:45.420 --> 00:19:47.880 more. And they wanted to see if he would lead 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:50.059 them to the bodies. So they put him under surveillance. 00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:52.980 Round -the -clock surveillance. And they did 00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:55.759 something very risky. They covertly entered his 00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:58.079 apartment when he wasn't there and cloned his 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.259 hard drive. That sounds like a spy movie. That 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:02.200 must have been incredibly tense. It's high stakes 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:04.799 police work for sure. And what they found on 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:06.599 that hard drive confirmed their worst nightmares. 00:20:06.819 --> 00:20:09.420 They found deleted photos. Photos of the victims. 00:20:09.619 --> 00:20:11.500 Postmortem photos of the victims. We'll get to 00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:13.859 the details of those photos later, but they knew. 00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:16.759 They knew they were dealing with a monster. And 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:19.859 then comes January 18th, 2018, the day of the 00:20:19.859 --> 00:20:22.880 arrest. It was a terrifying morning. The police 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:24.700 surveillance team was watching his apartment 00:20:24.700 --> 00:20:27.940 building in Thorncliffe Park. They saw a young 00:20:27.940 --> 00:20:30.480 man enter the building with MacArthur. And they 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:33.220 had a safety trigger. Right. A rule that if he 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:35.380 was alone with someone, they had to go in. They 00:20:35.380 --> 00:20:37.819 couldn't risk it. Yeah. They believed this young 00:20:37.819 --> 00:20:40.220 man was in imminent danger of becoming the ninth 00:20:40.220 --> 00:20:43.279 victim. They breached the door. They kicked it 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:45.579 in. And what did they find? They found the young 00:20:45.579 --> 00:20:49.220 man, who is referred to in court documents as 00:20:49.220 --> 00:20:52.779 John, to protect his identity restrained to MacArthur's 00:20:52.779 --> 00:20:55.440 bed. There was a bag over his head. MacArthur 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:57.099 was in the process of attempting to tape his 00:20:57.099 --> 00:20:59.579 mouth shut. My God. They walked in on an act 00:20:59.579 --> 00:21:02.339 of murder attempt. They were minutes, maybe seconds 00:21:02.339 --> 00:21:04.519 away from it being too late. They saved that 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:07.119 man's life. MacArthur was arrested on the spot. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:09.940 So they have the man. They have the killer. But 00:21:09.940 --> 00:21:12.660 they still need to find the victims to get justice 00:21:12.660 --> 00:21:15.400 for their families. And this leads to the image 00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:18.119 that I think traumatized the entire city. The 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:20.910 planters. Mallory Crescent. That home in Leaside 00:21:20.910 --> 00:21:23.049 where MacArthur stored his tools, he had done 00:21:23.049 --> 00:21:25.569 extensive landscaping for the owners there over 00:21:25.569 --> 00:21:28.490 many years. And in the backyard, there were these 00:21:28.490 --> 00:21:30.750 massive wooden planters he had built. And this 00:21:30.750 --> 00:21:33.089 was January in Toronto. The ground was frozen 00:21:33.089 --> 00:21:35.890 solid. Completely frozen. The police brought 00:21:35.890 --> 00:21:38.549 in cadaver dogs. The dogs went crazy near the 00:21:38.549 --> 00:21:41.109 planters. They kept signaling. But because everything 00:21:41.109 --> 00:21:42.829 was frozen solid, they had to bring in these 00:21:42.829 --> 00:21:45.049 massive industrial heaters. They had to build 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:48.150 a tent over the backyard and literally thaw the 00:21:48.150 --> 00:21:50.640 ground for days. It must have been such a slow, 00:21:50.660 --> 00:21:53.200 gruesome process. And inside those planters, 00:21:53.319 --> 00:21:57.299 mixed with the potting soil, they found the dismembered 00:21:57.299 --> 00:22:01.019 skeletal remains of seven men. Seven men. Hidden 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:03.200 in flower pots. He was. He was watering flowers 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:05.559 on top of them. It's the ultimate grotesque camouflage. 00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:09.170 Beauty on top, horror underneath. It speaks to 00:22:09.170 --> 00:22:11.049 a level of compartmentalization that is almost 00:22:11.049 --> 00:22:13.250 impossible to understand. The homeowners had 00:22:13.250 --> 00:22:15.869 no idea. They told police they had hosted barbecues 00:22:15.869 --> 00:22:18.809 next to these planters. That is just, it's macabre. 00:22:18.829 --> 00:22:21.809 It's beyond words. And the eighth victim. Majid 00:22:21.809 --> 00:22:25.369 Kayhan. He wasn't in a planter. His remains were 00:22:25.369 --> 00:22:28.009 eventually found later in a compost pile in the 00:22:28.009 --> 00:22:30.529 ravine behind the property. So we have the man, 00:22:30.769 --> 00:22:33.329 we have the victims, but we have to go back to 00:22:33.329 --> 00:22:36.140 the anger. Because once the initial shock of 00:22:36.140 --> 00:22:38.980 the arrest wore off, the community was furious. 00:22:39.299 --> 00:22:43.259 Mightfully so. This brings us to part five, controversies 00:22:43.259 --> 00:22:46.859 and failures. There was a massive feeling of 00:22:46.859 --> 00:22:49.799 betrayal. A huge feeling of betrayal. I remember 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:52.500 the press conference in December 2017. This was 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:54.720 just weeks before the arrest. The police chief 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:57.299 at the time, Mark Saunders, stands up and says 00:22:57.299 --> 00:23:00.740 there is no evidence of a serial killer in the 00:23:00.740 --> 00:23:03.519 village. That soundbite aged terribly. Now, to 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:05.400 be fair to the police, there is a tension here. 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:08.000 Okay. Legally, they didn't have proof yet that 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.039 they could present in court. They couldn't say 00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:12.380 serial killer in a way that would hold up. They 00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:14.779 had a strong suspicion. But to a community that 00:23:14.779 --> 00:23:18.039 had been shouting, men are disappearing for seven 00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:20.460 years. It felt like gaslighting. It felt like 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:22.180 they were being dismissed all over again. And 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:24.579 then Saunders made it even worse with that interview 00:23:24.579 --> 00:23:26.779 in the Globe and Mail. Oh, the victim blaming 00:23:26.779 --> 00:23:29.640 narrative. That was a disaster. He was quoted 00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:32.319 saying that civilians failed to help the investigation. 00:23:33.059 --> 00:23:35.799 He implied that if people had come forward sooner 00:23:35.799 --> 00:23:37.859 with more information, they could have solved 00:23:37.859 --> 00:23:40.470 it faster. That completely ignores the reality 00:23:40.470 --> 00:23:42.890 of the relationship between the police and the 00:23:42.890 --> 00:23:46.230 LGBTQ community. Exactly. You can't ask a marginalized 00:23:46.230 --> 00:23:48.250 community, many of whom have historical trauma 00:23:48.250 --> 00:23:51.049 with the police or who fear deportation or who 00:23:51.049 --> 00:23:53.410 are closeted. Yeah. You can't just ask them to 00:23:53.410 --> 00:23:55.609 come forward without building trust first. It 00:23:55.609 --> 00:23:58.509 was a massive, massive PR disaster. But beyond 00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.589 the PR, there were concrete, specific failures. 00:24:01.670 --> 00:24:04.269 We have to talk about the 2016 choking incident. 00:24:04.569 --> 00:24:06.849 This is the one that keeps investigators up at 00:24:06.849 --> 00:24:09.569 night. This is the big one. In 2016, so this 00:24:09.569 --> 00:24:11.509 is in the gap between Project Houston and Project 00:24:11.509 --> 00:24:14.289 Prism, a man reported that MacArthur tried to 00:24:14.289 --> 00:24:16.569 strangle him in his van. The escape. He managed 00:24:16.569 --> 00:24:18.109 to escape and he went straight to the police. 00:24:18.609 --> 00:24:21.650 The investigating officer, a Sergeant Paul Gauthier, 00:24:21.829 --> 00:24:24.289 interviewed MacArthur. And MacArthur claimed 00:24:24.289 --> 00:24:26.730 it was consensual rough sex that went wrong, 00:24:26.829 --> 00:24:29.849 a BDSM scene that got out of hand. And the officer 00:24:29.849 --> 00:24:32.869 just bought it. He didn't follow proper procedure. 00:24:33.369 --> 00:24:36.089 The Protocol for a Domestic Violence Allegation. 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:38.539 and this counted as a domestic relationship under 00:24:38.539 --> 00:24:41.599 the law, requires photographing any injuries 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.200 and filing a specific detailed report. And he 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:47.640 didn't do that. He didn't do it. He took MacArthur 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:49.819 at his word and released him without charge. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.200 And this was 2016. That means? That means Salim 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:55.859 Asin and Andrew Kinsman were killed after MacArthur 00:24:55.859 --> 00:24:58.400 was released from that interrogation. That is 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:00.440 devastating. Two lives could have been saved 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:02.500 if procedure had been followed that day. Now, 00:25:02.519 --> 00:25:05.559 Salim Gauthier was charged internally with insubordination 00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:07.559 and neglect of duty. He was eventually found 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.119 not guilty by the police tribunal, largely because 00:25:10.119 --> 00:25:12.460 he argued he was overworked, the system was broken, 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:15.740 and he was being made a scapegoat. But the failure 00:25:15.740 --> 00:25:18.380 of the process is undeniable. Let's move to the 00:25:18.380 --> 00:25:20.670 legal conclusion in the aftermath. MacArthur 00:25:20.670 --> 00:25:23.849 was arrested in 2018. Did this go to a long, 00:25:23.869 --> 00:25:27.009 drawn -out trial? No, surprisingly. In January 00:25:27.009 --> 00:25:29.750 2019, MacArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts 00:25:29.750 --> 00:25:32.029 of first -degree murder. Why plead guilty? Why 00:25:32.029 --> 00:25:34.109 not take his chances with the jury? It's hard 00:25:34.109 --> 00:25:36.430 to say for sure, but the evidence was overwhelming. 00:25:36.809 --> 00:25:40.829 The DNA, the photos on his hard drive. A trial 00:25:40.829 --> 00:25:44.000 would have been a media circus. Pleading guilty 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:46.220 was likely a way to avoid the gruesome details 00:25:46.220 --> 00:25:48.519 coming out over months and perhaps to maintain 00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:50.539 some final shred of control over the narrative. 00:25:50.819 --> 00:25:53.259 But even with the plea, the details that came 00:25:53.259 --> 00:25:55.480 out in the sentencing hearing were the stuff 00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:58.259 of nightmares. They were. The prosecutor laid 00:25:58.259 --> 00:26:00.880 out the post -vidence rituals. Yes. MacArthur 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:02.940 kept trophies. He had jewelry belonging to the 00:26:02.940 --> 00:26:06.099 victims, notebooks. But the most disturbing part, 00:26:06.220 --> 00:26:09.000 by far, was the photos. The photos found on his 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:11.890 hard drive. He staged the bodies. After death, 00:26:11.890 --> 00:26:13.769 he would pose them. Sometimes he would dress 00:26:13.769 --> 00:26:16.049 them in a fur coat he owned. Sometimes he put 00:26:16.049 --> 00:26:18.589 an unlit cigar in their mouths. He would shave 00:26:18.589 --> 00:26:20.549 their heads for beers after they were dead. It 00:26:20.549 --> 00:26:23.789 sounds ritualistic. It's not just killing. It's 00:26:23.789 --> 00:26:25.609 something else. It was about absolute power. 00:26:25.789 --> 00:26:29.009 It was about possession, even after death. He 00:26:29.009 --> 00:26:31.390 also kept folders on his computer for each victim, 00:26:31.490 --> 00:26:33.670 and he kept locks of hair from the victims in 00:26:33.670 --> 00:26:37.089 Ziploc bags in his apartment. So the judge, Justice 00:26:37.089 --> 00:26:39.509 John McMahon, what was the sentence? He sentenced 00:26:39.509 --> 00:26:41.529 him to life imprisonment. With any eligibility 00:26:41.529 --> 00:26:45.210 for parole? Eligibility in 25 years. But MacArthur 00:26:45.210 --> 00:26:48.049 will be 91 years old at that point. So practically 00:26:48.049 --> 00:26:50.970 speaking, he will die in prison. The judge called 00:26:50.970 --> 00:26:53.849 the crimes pure evil. And after the sentencing, 00:26:53.990 --> 00:26:56.269 there was a major review, right? The Epstein 00:26:56.269 --> 00:26:58.730 report. The independent civilian review into 00:26:58.730 --> 00:27:01.670 missing person investigations. Led by a retired 00:27:01.670 --> 00:27:05.180 judge, Justice Gloria Epstein. It was a massive 00:27:05.180 --> 00:27:07.480 undertaking, looking at how the police handle 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:10.160 all missing persons cases, but especially in 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:11.900 relation to this one. And what did it conclude? 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:14.829 It was damning. It was absolutely damning. It 00:27:14.829 --> 00:27:16.750 found systemic discrimination in the Toronto 00:27:16.750 --> 00:27:19.390 Police Service. Systemic. So not just a few bad 00:27:19.390 --> 00:27:21.970 officers. Exactly. It didn't say individual officers 00:27:21.970 --> 00:27:24.710 were necessarily racist or homophobic, but that 00:27:24.710 --> 00:27:27.150 the system itself, the databases, the communication 00:27:27.150 --> 00:27:29.630 between divisions, the culture, was designed 00:27:29.630 --> 00:27:31.910 in a way that failed these specific marginalized 00:27:31.910 --> 00:27:34.890 communities. It treated a missing white superintendent 00:27:34.890 --> 00:27:38.259 differently than a missing Tamil refugee. That's 00:27:38.259 --> 00:27:40.279 what it came down to. And it did lead to changes. 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:42.279 There was an apology from the interim police 00:27:42.279 --> 00:27:44.900 chief and the creation of a dedicated missing 00:27:44.900 --> 00:27:47.819 persons unit to ensure cases like these don't 00:27:47.819 --> 00:27:50.099 fall through the cracks again. So as we wrap 00:27:50.099 --> 00:27:52.140 this up, what are we left with? What's the final 00:27:52.140 --> 00:27:54.839 takeaway? We're left with the legacy of the largest 00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:57.000 forensic investigation in Toronto's history. 00:27:57.660 --> 00:28:00.240 But more than that, we are left with a shattered 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.680 sense of safety in the village. For decades, 00:28:02.819 --> 00:28:05.380 that neighborhood was a sanctuary, a place you 00:28:05.380 --> 00:28:07.950 could go to be yourself. MacArthur turned it 00:28:07.950 --> 00:28:10.049 into a hunting ground. And we have to remember 00:28:10.049 --> 00:28:12.609 the victims, not just as names on a list, but 00:28:12.609 --> 00:28:16.069 as men with lives and families. Skanda, Basir, 00:28:16.170 --> 00:28:20.470 Hamid, Saroosh, Karushna, Dean, Salim, and Andrew. 00:28:20.710 --> 00:28:23.710 And we must remember the missing missing. The 00:28:23.710 --> 00:28:26.849 concept itself is chilling. Men like Karushna 00:28:26.849 --> 00:28:29.390 Kanagratnam, who didn't exist on paper in Canada. 00:28:29.930 --> 00:28:32.109 If his remains hadn't been found in that planter, 00:28:32.109 --> 00:28:34.539 we might never have known he was dead. It makes 00:28:34.539 --> 00:28:36.700 you ask, how many others are there in the margins 00:28:36.700 --> 00:28:39.440 of society who just disappear without a trace? 00:28:39.640 --> 00:28:42.740 That is a haunting thought. And here's one final 00:28:42.740 --> 00:28:45.660 thing for you to chew on. MacArthur was caught 00:28:45.660 --> 00:28:47.599 because of a paper calendar and a surveillance 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:51.099 camera. Very old school clues, right? But he 00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:53.799 used dating apps to hunt. He used the digital 00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:56.319 anonymity of the modern world to find his victims. 00:28:56.519 --> 00:29:00.039 It's a paradox. Technology facilitated his crimes. 00:29:00.299 --> 00:29:02.920 But ultimately... Digital forensics recovering 00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:05.759 those deleted photos from his hard drive helped 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:09.099 seal his fate. It makes you wonder if he hadn't 00:29:09.099 --> 00:29:11.220 kept those digital trophies, if he wasn't so 00:29:11.220 --> 00:29:14.059 narcissistic as to keep those photos, or if he 00:29:14.059 --> 00:29:16.299 had just managed to crush that van a week earlier, 00:29:16.539 --> 00:29:19.619 would he still be out there? Given his age and 00:29:19.619 --> 00:29:22.660 his ability to blend in, it is a terrifying possibility. 00:29:22.700 --> 00:29:24.700 He could have just kept going. On that chilling 00:29:24.700 --> 00:29:26.880 note, that is it for this deep dive. Take care 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:28.460 of each other out there. Stay safe. We'll see 00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:28.900 you next time.