# Canadian landscaper serial killer
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 29, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752 "2018-01-29T19:00:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/1 "2018-01-29T19:00:19Z")
How unsettling would it be to have the police knock on your door and ask if you had any large potted plants in your backyard?
> [@](#):
>
> Toronto police said Monday they are hunting through backyard gardens and planters across the city for possible victims of a landscaper accused of murdering at least five people and suspected of killing more.
>
> Bruce McArthur was charged Monday with the first-degree murder of three missing men, adding to two cases filed earlier.
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> Toronto Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga said at a news conference that the dismembered remains of at least three victims were found hidden in the bottom of large planters in the backyard of a Toronto home that McArthur, 66, used as storage for his landscaping business. He said the remains have not been identified.
>
> Police have or plan to search about 30 properties where McArthur worked, Idsinga said, and he urged the man’s customers to contact police.
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> “We believe there are more remains at some of these properties that we are working to recover,” Idsinga said.
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> “We have seized quite a few planters from around the city and we will continue to do that."
> [@](#):
>
> Members of the LGBTQ community were pushing for answers last year in light of the disappearances of 44-year-old Esen and 49-year-old Kinsman. Officers investigated McArthur for months but could not make a definitive link to the disappearances until this month, police said.
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> Idsinga has said McArthur had a sexual relationship with Kinsman.
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> “The city of Toronto has never seen anything like this,” Idsinga said. “It is unprecedented and draining. He’s an alleged serial killer and he’s taken some steps to cover his tracks.”
:eek:
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/2 "2018-01-29T19:11:46Z")
I’ve been reading about this - very unsettling.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/3 "2018-01-29T19:50:52Z")
‘The roses are blooming so well!’
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/4 "2018-01-29T20:10:42Z")
Jeesh. And I learned about it here first.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/5 "2018-01-29T20:42:06Z")
Tangentially, here is a [list of Canadian serial killers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_country#Canada):
[ul][li]Paul Bernardo: also known as “the Scarborough Rapist”; a Toronto man who killed three teenage girls (including his wife’s sister) with the aid of his wife Karla Homolka[/li][li]Wayne Boden: also known as “the Vampire Rapist” killed 4 women between 1968 and 1971; died in prison 2006[/li][li]John Martin Crawford: convicted in 1996 for the murders of three women[/li][li]Léopold Dion: also known as “Monster of Pont-Rouge”; raped and killed four young boys in 1960; murdered in 1972 by a fellow prison inmate[/li][li]William Patrick Fyfe: convicted of killing five women in Montreal; suspect in several other murders[/li][li]Gilbert Paul Jordan: also known as the “Boozing Barber”, killed between 8 and 10 women by alcohol poisoning in Vancouver; died in 2006[/li][li]Cody Legebokoff: one of Canada’s youngest serial killers, convicted of murdering three women and a teenage girl around Prince George, British Columbia between 2009 and 2010[/li][li]Allan Legere: also known as “Monster of the Miramichi”; killer of five individuals[/li][li]Michael Wayne McGray: killed 7 people, including a woman and child and a cellmate, claims to have killed 11 others[/li][li]Clifford Olson: murdered 11 children in British Columbia; died in prison 2011[/li][li]Robert Pickton: Port Coquitlam, British Columbia man charged with the first degree murders of 26 women; allegedly confessed to 49 murders; convicted December 9, 2007 of six charges; reduced to second degree murder[/li][li]Elizabeth Wettlaufer: murdered eight senior citizens in Ontario with fatal injections of insulin, and gave non-fatal injections to six others, between 2007 and 2016[/li][li]Peter Woodcock: murdered three children in 1956 and 1957 in Toronto and a fellow psychiatric institute patient in 1991; died while incarcerated in 2010[/ul][/li]
Robert Pickton, ‘The Pig Farmer Killer’, is the one I first heard of. Not on the list is David Russel Williams, a former Canadian Forces Colonel. He only killed two women, I think, but he plead guilty to 80 or 90 charges.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/6 "2018-01-29T20:54:15Z")
It looks like this guy has been active for a long time. I wonder what tipped the police off?
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/7 "2018-01-29T20:58:25Z")
So he was turning them into [plant](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) food. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/8 "2018-01-29T21:02:45Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#):
>
> It looks like this guy has been active for a long time. I wonder what tipped the police off?
From other stories, it’s possible that it was the LGBTQ community’s pressure that kept the investigation ongoing and police eventually discovered a connection between McArthur and at least two of the deceased via dating apps. [Cite](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bruce-mc-arthur-properties-search-toronto-1.4497067):
> [@](#):
>
> On Thursday, police said McArthur had been active on several dating apps, as were both of the missing men. Homicide Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga also revealed that McArthur and Kinsman were involved in a sexual relationship for “some time.”
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> ‘I get shivers’
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> He said police don’t know if McArthur had a relationship of any kind with Esen.
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> A Facebook profile associated with McArthur also lists him as friends with another man who went missing from the Village.
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> Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, known online as Skanda Nava, is one of three other men who vanished between 2010 and 2012. After he disappeared in September 2010, Abdulbasir Faizi,44, vanished from a location just blocks away three months later. Then, in October 2012, Majeed Kayhan, 58, was reported missing as well, last seen in the Gay Village.
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> For months, Toronto’s LGBT community had expressed concerns that a serial killer might have been responsible for the disappearances, but police did not acknowledge it as a possibility until McArthur’s arrest.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/9 "2018-01-29T21:49:35Z")
I think, when describing finding body parts in planters, I would have avoided the use of the word “draining”.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/10 "2018-01-29T22:29:04Z")
You know, Canadians have this reputation of being polite… but politeness often hides some dark, twisted things. Cabin fever is only the beginning.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/11 "2018-01-29T22:36:20Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> You know, Canadians have this reputation of being polite… but politeness often hides some dark, twisted things. Cabin fever is only the beginning.
I don’t think murder is very polite. ☹
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/12 "2018-01-29T23:15:08Z")
Bodyscaping. [bodyscape - Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bodyscape)
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/13 "2018-01-29T23:26:37Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> You know, Canadians have this reputation of being polite… but politeness often hides some dark, twisted things. Cabin fever is only the beginning.
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> I don’t think murder is very polite. ☹
Oh, but they can be quite polite. (Warning: Kids in the Hall sketches)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7DKHlxU2j4
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/14 "2018-01-30T01:41:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “The city of Toronto has never seen anything like this,” Idsinga said. “It is unprecedented and draining.
It’s also composting. Very green-friendly.
They shouldn’t stop at searching planters. Has he put in any raised beds? Berms? Retaining walls?
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/15 "2018-01-30T20:22:34Z")
[url=]More info!
> [@](#):
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> Toronto Police may have saved the life of a man who was “tied up” on a bed in accused serial killer Bruce McArthur’s apartment at the time they arrested him, the Toronto Sun has learned.
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> Police officers, who had McArthur under surveillance around 10:25 a.m. on Jan. 18, did not take any chances when they saw a “young man” enter McArthur’s 19th-floor Thorncliffe Park apartment.
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> “They had to make a decision,” said a police source.
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> The decision was to go and arrest local landscaper McArthur, 66, who now faces five charges of first-degree murder, on suspicion of killing Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen.
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> “They kicked down the door,” said a source. “They stormed in and arrested McArthur.”
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> Inside, they found many items that have become relevant to the case but nothing more pressing than a man tied up on the bed in McArthur’s room.
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> “They cut him loose and checked him out medically,” said a police source. “He was OK.”
Might have been that guy’s luckiest day, eh.
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2018, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/16 "2018-01-31T05:25:28Z")
Not an actual serial killer, but when I think of evil Canadians, I always include [Vince Li](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean), better known as the guy who chopped a man’s head off on a Greyhound bus.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/17 "2018-02-08T23:36:23Z")
[The count is now _at least_ 6](https://apnews.com/6d50bff8d1d6447bbd993cc55c7bb94f/Toronto-police:-remains-of-6-found-in-serial-killer-probe):
> [@](#):
>
> Police in Toronto have recovered the remains of at least six people from planters on a property connected to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur, officials said Thursday.
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> Detective Sgt. Hank Idsinga said the remains, found on property McArthur used as storage in exchange for doing the landscaping, included some from one of the five men McArthur is already charged with killing, Andrew Kinsman.
> [@](#):
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> Investigators are still working to determine who the other alleged victims are from the property. They haven’t determined yet if they are the same men or other people.
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> Authorities have checked at least 30 other places where the landscaper was known to have worked, including some of Toronto’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Police have said they expect to find more remains in the planters they’ve retrieved from around the city. Idsinga said they have about 15 planters now, but he declined to say where they are in examining them.
They’re digging up at least one lawn, too.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/18 "2018-02-09T00:23:51Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#):
>
> Not an actual serial killer, but when I think of evil Canadians, I always include [Vince Li](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean), better known as the guy who chopped a man’s head off on a Greyhound bus.
Don’t worry he’s fine now.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/19 "2018-02-09T01:32:59Z")
He suffered from mental illness.
He has undergone very successful treatment. I thought we were more willing to appreciate mental illness as a real, and treatable condition in this day and age.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-landscaper-serial-killer/807752/20 "2018-02-09T04:15:43Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> He suffered from mental illness.
>
> He has undergone very successful treatment. I thought we were more willing to appreciate mental illness as a real, and treatable condition in this day and age.
My biggest concern with Vincent Li is that he had been on medication before the Bus thing and just chose to stop taking it.
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