The investigation Police on the scene at homes in Scarborough and Madoc
Accused killer in deaths of two men did landscaping at home that recently sold
A Toronto police forensics team was at a Scarborough home Friday evening as part of the investigation into the accused killer of two missing men from Toronto’s Church and Wellesley area.
The home at 227 Conlins Rd. is owned by Brendan and Patricia Horan, property records show. A neighbour told the Star he had seen Bruce McArthur, 66, the man charged in the deaths of Andrew Kinsman, 49, and Selim Esen, 44, visit the home.
Brendan Horan also owns a property in Madoc, Ont., that police are investigating in connection with the case.
A neighbour said the home at 227 Conlins Rd. recently sold. A cached page on the real estate site Century 21 shows the home was for sale for $1.15 million in December.
Madelon Gardea, who lives a few houses down from the Conlins Rd. house police searched this week, said she was “shocked” and “really upset” when she realized McArthur was the same man she’d had conversations with this summer.
While she didn’t know McArthur by name, she’d seen him gardening at 227 Conlins several times.
There were always landscaping trucks out front, she said.
She and her 11-year-old daughter Olivia would often walk by the house and stop to enjoy the beautiful gardens. They spoke to McArthur, a landscaper, while he was gardening.
“He was very nice,” she said. “You wouldn’t suspect him of anything.”
Gardea moved to her Conlins Rd. house in 2015. She said it took time to feel comfortable in a new neighbourhood. Now, she said, it will take some time before she’s willing to let her 11 year old walk to school alone.
“With time you allow yourself to feel comfortable, and now, I don’t,” she said.
Meanwhile, a Toronto forensics team and OPP were on scene of a rural property in Madoc, about two hours northwest of Toronto.
Toronto police Det. Barry Radford, who arrived at 2598 Cooper Rd. early in the afternoon on Friday, said the entire nine-acre property is being investigated. Buildings include a house and a garage.
When asked if the investigation is connected to Bruce McArthur’s arrest, Radford said, “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.”
He confirmed it was part of Project Prism, the name of the police investigation. “We have to determine what is going to be relevant.”
He said six police officers, including two OPP officers, have been on the scene since McArthur’s arrest Thursday.
“We don’t know what we’re gonna find,” Radford said. “We don’t know anything at this point in time.
“There’s no secrets, there’s nothing,” he said, though he added that it’s part of a continuing criminal investigation.
A neighbour said the person who lives in the house is Roger Horan, who appears to be a landscaper. An ‘Open Garden’ newsletter from 2011 points to the home as a destination to view an impressive garden, and lists Roger Horan’s name.
A man with that name is listed as a member of the Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society, and is scheduled to give a presentation at the Toronto Botanical Gardens in March. With files from Fatima Syed and Alex McKeen