Viswa Vanapalli
The second season of the successful true-crime series, ‘Catching Killers,’ is now streaming on Netflix. The last two episodes, ‘Missing Men Parts 1 & 2: The Toronto Village Killer’, delve into how the authorities used grainy surveillance footage to garner a break in one of the most high-profile cases in Canada. Bruce McArthur was eventually convicted of murdering eight men over seven years. So, if you’re wondering who these men were, here’s what we know.
How Many People Did Bruce McArthur Kill?
Bruce was arrested in January 2018 after an extensive investigation that kicked off after Andrew Kinsman’s disappearance a few months prior. By then, the authorities had amassed a wealth of evidence against him. They had conducted surreptitious searches of Bruce’s home and collected data from his computer and hard drives. The data showed that he had saved photos of his victims in separate folders and had visited them multiple times over the years.
Evidence also showed that Bruce killed eight men who disappeared from the same area in Toronto, Canada, between 2010 and 2017. He had saved missing person posters of some of his victims on his computer and had pre and post mortem pictures of some other victims. Most of the men were middle-aged and of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent. It was also determined that six of the eight murders were sexually motivated.
Who Were Bruce McArthur’s Victims?
Skandaraj Navaratnam was a 40-year-old man last seen in Toronto, leaving a bar in September 2010. An immigrant from Sri Lanka who was gay, his DNA was found inside one of Bruce’s vans. Furthermore, Bruce also kept Skandaraj’s bracelet. Abdulbasir Faizi was a 42-year-old Afghan immigrant with a wife and kids. He was reported missing towards the end of 2010 and was known to frequent the Gay Village neighborhood in Toronto. Like Abdulbasir, the third victim named Majeed Kayhan was also an Afghan immigrant and frequented bars in the Village.
Majeed was 58 years old when he went missing in October 2012. After the first three men disappeared, the authorities began a task force, but that didn’t lead to an arrest back then. Soroush Mahmudi, the fifth victim, was a 50-year-old Iranian immigrant last seen alive sometime in August 2015. While it’s unclear how Bruce met him, the serial killer admitted murdering Soroush sometime around August 15, 2015. The fur coat found in Bruce’s van had his DNA.
Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, a 37-year-old from Sri Lanka, moved to Canada in 2010, but his asylum application was rejected a few years later. Kirushna was never reported missing, with the family believing that he just went off the grid. The family’s last contact with him was in August 2015, and Bruce claimed he killed Kirushna in January 2016. The next victim, Dean Lisowick, was last seen in April 2016 when he left a shelter. The 47-year-old was never reported missing, but the authorities found his jewelry at Bruce’s home, and he admitted to killing Dean around April 23, 2016.
Selim Esen was a 44-year-old Turkish immigrant who moved to Canada in 2013 to be with his boyfriend. However, that relationship didn’t work out. Selim was reported missing in April 2017, and his DNA was found both inside Bruce’s van and on the murder weapon, a metal bar. Bruce had also held on to Selim’s notebook. The final victim, Andrew Kinsman, was a 49-year-old who went missing sometime in June 2017. His DNA was found on the metal bar and in Bruce’s van.
The authorities found almost all their remains in planters at a property that Bruce worked on. Majeed’s remains were found in a ravine behind the same property in July 2018. They could only determine the cause of death for the two most recent victims: Andrew and Selim. They died of ligature strangulation. Photographs from Bruce’s computer indicated that the two were killed when he possibly used a metal bar to tense up a cord around their necks. Only Skandaraj and Abdulbasir’s deaths were considered not to be sexual.
Read More: Where is Bruce McArthur Now?
