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WORLD NEWSFriday 2 February 2018
Canada police dig for clues after landscaper tied to deaths
By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) — Vian Ew-
art quickly figured out why
police showed up at his el-
egant town house with a
cadaver dog to search the
waist-high stone planter at
his doorstep.
Ewart had for five years
hired a burly landscaper
named Bruce McArthur,
who is suspected of being a
serial killer, and police have
set out on a grim search
for clues that may be hid-
den across Canada’s larg-
est city. Like other clients of
the landscaper, Ewart finds
himself struggling to com-
prehend how the man who
tended his planters and
gardens could be some-
one the police say violently
preyed on his sexual part-
ners and killed at least five
men over the span of near-
ly a decade.
“I can’t put the two togeth-
er,” the 75-year-old Ewart
said Wednesday, three
days after the police visited
his home.
Many others in Toronto also
find it hard to reconcile the
accusations with their im-
age of McArthur, a father
of two adult children who
occasionally worked as a
Santa during the holidays
at a Toronto mall.
“He looked all so normal
and business-like,” said
Parker Liddle, who lives
near a home in uptown To-
ronto that McArthur used as
storage for his landscaping
business and often saw him
dropping off large planters.
“To know that something as
macabre as this was trans-
piring over the years is pret-
In this file photo dated Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel drinks water during a press
conference in Ankara, Turkey. items found on European
In this Jan. 29, 2018 photo, a police officer investigates outside a home on Mallory Crescent in in April. After some drinks,
Sgromo said, McArthur led
Toronto, Canada where Bruce McArthur did landscape work. him to the back of his van,
which was empty except
Associated Press for a single seat in the back.
The two started to have sex
ty astounding.” McArthur other places where McAr- In his SilverDaddies profile, and at one point, Sgromo
said, the burly landscaper
was arrested Jan. 18 and thur was known to have McArthur described himself suddenly grabbed him by
the neck. “He was sec-
charged with two counts worked, including some of as 5 feet 10 inches tall and onds away from snapping
it,” he said. “I really thought
of murder in connection Toronto’s wealthiest neigh- 221 pounds and primarily my neck was going to be
snapped the way he twist-
with the disappearance of borhoods. Police said they interested in younger men. ed it.” Sgromo, also 5 feet
10 inches and about 225
Andrew Kinsman and Selim expect to find more re- “I can be a bit shy until I get pounds, said he grabbed
the other man’s elbow and
Esen, two men last seen in mains in the 12 planters to know you, but am a ro- ended the encounter. He
didn’t report the incident to
the “Gay Village” district they’ve retrieved. mantic at heart,” he wrote. police. But after learning of
McArthur’s arrest he talked
of Toronto. On Monday he Investigators also plan to On his Facebook page, he to an investigator.
“I never thought of Bruce as
was charged with the mur- also excavate part of the posted pictures of his cats, a rough sex guy. I thought
of him more of a gregarious
ders of three more men lawn at the home McAr- children and grandchildren jolly guy,” he said.
In 2003 McArthur was con-
and police said they were thur used as storage. Po- and of himself dressed as victed for attacking a man
with a metal pipe in Toron-
on a wide search for other lice have set up a tent and Santa Claus. to. The sentence required
that he abstain from us-
possible victims. heaters on the property But at least one acquain- ing the drug poppers — or
amyl nitrite — not be in the
“This case is in its infancy. to keep the ground from tance recalled a darker company of male prosti-
tutes and stay away from
I’m not going to com- freezing. Investigators have side. Peter Sgromo, a a section of the downtown
that included the city’s
ment,” said Edward Royle, not yet released complete 52-year-old part-time uni- Gay Village for two years.
The five homicides would
a lawyer for McArthur, who details, but the 66-year- versity teacher, said he met make McArthur the most
prolific known serial killer in
is due back in court on Feb. old McArthur is believed to McArthur through an ac- Toronto.
The other three known vic-
14. He has yet to enter a have met his victims cruis- quaintance who attended tims are 58-year-old Ma-
jeed Kayhan, who went
plea.mThe lead investiga- ing around the city in the a support group for gay fa- missing in 2012, Soroush
Marmudi, 50, who went
tor said the remains of at van he used for work and thers with the landscaper. missing in 2015 and Dean
Lisowick who went missing
least three victims were on gay dating apps for They had known each other between May 2016 and
July 2017. q
buried inside two large older and large men with for about 10 years when he
planters and authorities names such as “SilverDad- agreed to meet McArthur
were checking at least 30 dies” and “Bear411.” at a bar in the Gay Village
Turn on the tap: EU acts to
improve water, reduce plastic
BRUSSELS (AP) — access to drinking water Tap water in Europe costs
The European Union is re- a fraction of a euro cent
vamping its water quality and better inform citizens per liter, sharply less than
rules to address possible bottled water.
new health hazards and about water quality, be it Commission Vice Presi-
limit plastic waste by dis- dent Frans Timmermans
couraging people from from taps or bottles. says
drinking bottled water. “if people know what is
The European Commis- It hopes the move will cheaper for them and
sion said Thursday the not hazardous to their
rules will oblige the bloc’s improve confidence health, they might make
28 countries to improve a different choice.”q
in local tap water and
wean people off bottles,
which are among the
most common plastic
Associated Press beaches.