2010–2017 Toronto serial homicides
Between 2010 and 2017, a total of eight men disappeared from the neighbourhood of Church and Wellesley, the LGBTQ village of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The investigation into the disappearances, taken up by two successive police task forces, eventually led to Bruce McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed Toronto landscaper, whom they then arrested on January 18, 2018. On January 29, 2019, McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in Ontario Superior Court and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for twenty-five years. McArthur is the most prolific known serial killer to have been active in Toronto, and the oldest known serial killer in Canada.
The criminal investigation of McArthur became the largest ever conducted by the Toronto Police Service and also called on the resources of the Ontario Provincial Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police and forensic services. Criticisms of the TPS's handling of the initial missing persons investigations led to several internal reviews, an external review called by the civilian Toronto Police Services Board and the formation of a dedicated missing persons unit.
In April 2021, the external review commissioned by the TPSB — known as the Independent Civilian Review into Missing Person Investigations — delivered its final report. The Review found systemic discrimination by the TPS in its investigations and concluded "the Service’s practices, if not culture and structure, prevented it from most effectively investigating the disappearances of these missing men” and made 151 recommendations for change. Interim TPS Chief James Ramer apologized for the "inexcusable" investigative shortcomings and agreed to implement all of the recommendations.
Perpetrator
Early life
Thomas Donald Bruce McArthur, or Bruce McArthur, was born on October 8, 1951, in Lindsay, Ontario, and was raised on a farm in Argyle, in the Kawartha Lakes region. In addition to raising McArthur and his sister, his parents fostered troubled children from nearby Toronto, often with six to ten in their care at any given time, and reportedly had a good reputation in the area.McArthur's mother was Irish Catholic and his father a Scottish Presbyterian; both were devout, causing religious arguments in which McArthur supported his mother. This led to derision from his father, who McArthur suggested in retrospect may have sensed his homosexuality. McArthur had trouble accepting his sexual orientation, which would have been seen as abnormal in rural Ontario at that time.
In primary school, a classmate recalled that McArthur did not fit in with other students. For his secondary education, 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 aged 23.
Married life
Around 1973, McArthur began working at an Eaton's department store in downtown Toronto as a buyer's assistant. He left this employment in 1978 and began working as a travelling salesman for McGregor Socks, soliciting department stores to carry his merchandise. McArthur later worked as a merchandising representative for Stanfield's, a garment company.In the mid-1970s, McArthur's father was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was sent to a nursing home. McArthur became disappointed when his mother took interest in another man, and 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; by 1981 they had a daughter, Melanie, and a son, Todd. In 1986, the family bought a home on Cartref Avenue in Oshawa. McArthur became very active in his church, keeping himself busy to avoid examining his homosexual feelings.
McArthur began having affairs with men in the early 1990s. He eventually came out to his wife, but they continued living together. Sometime after 1993, McArthur's employment in the clothing trade came to an end. The couple faced financial difficulty, in part due to legal issues connected to their then-teenaged son, Todd, who had been prosecuted for making obscene phone calls to women. 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 only a small 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 began his career as a landscaper.
Halloween assault
Just after noon on October 31, 2001, McArthur followed actor and model Mark Henderson into his apartment after being invited inside to see his Halloween costume. McArthur struck Henderson several times from behind with an iron pipe that he often carried. Henderson fought back before losing consciousness. After waking he called 9-1-1 then was taken to St. Michael's Hospital, where he needed several stitches on the back of his head and his fingers, as well as six weeks of physiotherapy.McArthur turned himself in after the incident, claiming not to remember the attack on Henderson. He pleaded guilty to charges of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, and received a conditional sentence of 729 days on April 11, 2003. A further charge of carrying a concealed weapon was withdrawn at the time. The Crown had earlier believed jail time was warranted but agreed to conditional sentence after psychiatric and pre-sentencing reports suggested McArthur was a low risk to reoffend. Henderson was traumatized by the incident, and did not provide a victim impact statement for the sentencing. There were also concerns that McArthur's behaviour may have been due to the combination of his anti-seizure medication with amyl nitrite, a muscle relaxant which is sometimes taken recreationally before sex.
McArthur avoided incarceration, spending the first year of his sentence under house arrest, followed by a six-month curfew and three years of probation. During the sentence, he was barred from Church and Wellesley except for work and medical appointments, had to stay at least from Henderson's home or workplace, and could not spend time with male prostitutes. McArthur was forbidden to possess firearms for ten years; was not to purchase, possess or consume drugs without a medical prescription; and was specifically barred from possessing amyl nitrite. He also had to submit his DNA to a database and was compelled to undertake psychological and psychiatric counselling, including anger management. A defence lawyer found the list of conditions uncommon and suggested that the judge was concerned that McArthur still posed a danger. A retired detective noted that parole conditions at the time were unenforceable, were not publicized, and that parole violators were caught only if they attracted police attention.
In 2014, McArthur was granted a record suspension on the 2003 conviction, which was subsequently expunged from his record and would not have appeared in criminal background checks. Most records and exhibits pertaining to the case were destroyed in 2010, in compliance with Toronto Police Service retention policy. The only surviving documents were the transcripts of the guilty plea and sentencing hearing, the psychiatric report and presentencing report ordered during the trial, and pictures of Henderson's injuries and McArthur's weapon.
Additional background
In 2002, while the assault case was still pending, McArthur registered with Recon, a gay fetish dating website for men into BDSM. McArthur's profile noted his interest in submissive men. He was also active on numerous gay dating websites including Silverdaddies, Manjam, Grindr, Bear411, BearForest, Scruff, DaddyHunt, Squirt and Growlr. McArthur joined Facebook in 2011 and catalogued his participation in local nightlife, with younger men of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent in several photos. By this time McArthur had reestablished himself in Toronto's gay community and was a regular at gay bars. By the late 2000s he was living in a 19th-floor apartment in Thorncliffe Park, about northeast of Church and Wellesley.McArthur's banishment from Church and Wellesley over the 2001 assault remained well known, and he had developed a reputation for BDSM and rough sex. In 2011, he told an acquaintance named Robert James about an incident in which he had reacted violently after being asked to leave a coffeehouse. 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 " telling stories about me!" and, "You're just like the rest of them, you think I'm crazy." A. J. Khan, a Toronto restaurant owner, recalled questioning McArthur in 2013 when he came in alone instead of with his boyfriend. McArthur said his boyfriend was on vacation, and when Khan noted he had seen the man the previous day, he angrily left and never returned.
McArthur's landscaping business operated under the name Artistic Designs. A colleague who installed water features on three of his projects recalled 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, he 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 was reported to have difficulty accepting his father's sexuality. In 2014, after Todd was sentenced to fourteen months in jail for making multiple obscene phone calls, he was released on bail and ordered to live with his father and assist with his 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 "East Indian" men. Todd told him that they were men whom his father knew. McArthur did not hide the fact, laughing over it at breakfast.