Crossbow killer feared mom would expose lies to fiancée
A Toronto man has admitted in court that he killed his mother and two of his brothers out of fear of losing his fiancée three weeks before their wedding.
Brett Ryan, 36, pleaded guilty to firstdegree murder in the death of his oldest brother, Christopher, and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, Susan, and his younger brother, Alexander. He also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder his older brother Leigh.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for 25 years.
Ryan’s guilty plea Friday put an end to the mystery of why a man on the verge of getting married killed three family members with crossbow bolts at their family home in Scarborough on Aug. 25, 2016.
According to an agreed statement of facts submitted to court, Ryan planned to kill his mother, 66, out of fear that she would expose the lies he had told his fiancée, and that his fiancée would then call off the wedding.
Back in 2009, Ryan pleaded guilty to committing eight bank robberies. He was sentenced to five years in prison but, due to pretrial custody, served only three years and nine months.
In June 2016, Ryan got a job at an IT company, but before he could start he was fired after his employer found out he had a criminal record.
Days before the murders took place, Ryan admitted to his mother that he didn’t have a job and that he was lying about it to his fiancée, telling her he was working from home while he stayed inside their Queens Quay condo throughout the summer.
According to the statement of facts, Susan Ryan told her son to admit the truth to his fiancée and that if he did so, she would continue to financially support him for a short time. However, Ryan was worried that his fiancée would break off the relationship if she found out.
As part of his plan, Ryan placed a crossbow in the garage of their family home on 10 Lawndale Rd.
Then he set up electronic devices in the apartment he shared with his fiancée.
The devices, a laptop and an iPad and an iPhone, were setup to be activated to create an internet footprint that would serve as an alibi.
Police later said that they were never activated.
On Aug. 25, 2016, Ryan arrived at the family home before 1p.m. to confront his mother.
According to the statement of facts, Ryan only intended to confront his mother about the threats of exposing him and to convince her to continue supporting him financially until the wedding and until he got a job.
However, the argument between the two quickly became heated. Susan called her son Christopher, 42, to come and help her.
During the argument, Ryan retrieved the crossbow and crossbow bolts from the garage.
Susan followed him to the garage. As the argument continued, Ryan stabbed his mother with a crossbow bolt and strangled her to death using a yellow nylon rope.
When Christopher arrived, Ryan shot him in the back of his neck using the crossbow. He moved their bodies into the garage and hid them under a tarp.
As Ryan exited the garage, he was confronted by Alexander, 29, who had arrived at the house. As the brothers fought, Ryan fatally stabbed Alexander with a crossbow bolt.
Leigh, 38, who was at home in his bedroom during the altercation, came outside to see what was happening. After seeing Ryan standing over Alexander’s body, Leigh ran back inside the house and called for help.
Ryan followed Leigh into the house, where he assaulted Leigh in an attempt to stop him from calling police.
After managing to escape, Leigh ran to a home across the street, where the residents called 911.
Police arrived at the scene around 1:03 p.m. They found Ryan standing near the steps of the home covered in blood.
Ryan told police where his mother and three siblings were. He was later charged with three counts of firstdegree murder and one count of attempted murder.
Autopsy reports say Susan died of ligature strangulation, while one of the brothers, Christopher, died from a perforating trauma of head and neck caused by a crossbow bolt and the other brother, Alexander, died from trauma of the neck by a crossbow bolt.
On top of the life sentence for firstdegree murder, Ryan was sentenced to life in prison in the second-degree murders of his mother and his brother Alexander, and given a 10-year sentence for the attempted murder of his brother Leigh. The sentences will run concurrently. With files from Star staff