Bruce McArthur faces seventh murder charge

Toronto police, meanwhile, announced that the remains of three of his alleged victims have now been identified.

The Crown announced the new murder charge in a city courtroom where McArthur appeared via video this morning.

The 66-year-old landscaper is already facing six murder charges in connection with the deaths of men having ties to the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood. McArthur spoke just once during the appearance to state his name.

The latest charge is related to the death of 42-year-old Abdulbasir Faizi, a married father of two who vanished on Decemeber 29, 2010. Faizi’s final whereabouts were traced to a burger joint in the city’s gay village near Church and Wellesley Streets. His car was discovered six days later just around the corner from a midtown Toronto house from where human remains were recovered.

Lead investigator Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga told a news briefing that pathologists have succeeded in identifying three more sets of remains belonging to Selim Esen, Dean Lisowick and Faizi. He added that a seventh set of remains is yet to be identified.

Idsinga said the probe has expanded to include 15 homicide cold cases from 1975 to 1997, adding that most of the cases involve gay men or victims with links to the gay village.

Police have also increased the number of properties on their search list from 30 to 75. Idsinga said they’re hoping to start looking into these additional properties associated with McArthur in early May. 

Forensic teams are still in the process of collecting evidence from McArthur’s apartment in the city’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood. Idsinga said they have succeeded in obtaining “quite a few exhibits” from the property and expects they will be there for a couple of weeks more. 

“We’ve quite frankly never seen anything like it,” the police officer said.

(Reporting by Sayantan Banerjee)