Detective sparks internal police probe

Hank Idsinga reveals he came across ‘concerning’ information while investigating Bruce McArthur case

TORONTO — A veteran detective leading the investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur said Wednesday he has come across “concerning” information that has now triggered an internal police probe.

Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga wouldn’t provide further details.

But he said he became aware of the information after reviewing two previous police investigations into five missing men from Toronto’s gay village.

“I saw something I felt needed to be investigated further,” he said in an interview.

Last week, Idsinga prepared a report with his findings and sent it to the force’s professional standards unit.

“I think you should take a look at this because we’re accountable for what we do,” he said he told the internal investigators.

“I’m not the one to decide whether mistakes are made or not, but I think it’s something that certainly needs to be investigated. It was concerning.”

Police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said the force’s professional standards unit launched the internal investigation on Monday.

She declined to discuss the nature of the information that prompted the probe.

Two sources with knowledge of the case, but who did not want their names used because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told the Canadian Press the “concerning” information was linked to a police interview with McArthur years ago for an unrelated incident.

The sources stressed it had nothing to do with the missing men, but they said Idsinga and his team didn’t know about the McArthur interview until some time after they arrested him on Jan. 18, when they charged him with two counts of firstdegree murder.

McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed landscaper, has since been charged with four more counts of first-degree murder.

All six alleged victims had ties to the city’s gay village.

Members of the city’s LGBTQ community have complained for years that police were ignoring their concerns about a possible serial killer on the loose.

Late last year, Toronto police assured the community there was no known link between the different missing person cases.

Gray said police were aware of the concerns and willing to work with the community to find solutions.

Police have recovered the remains of seven people from planter pots found at a home in midtown Toronto where the 66year-old self-employed landscaper stored equipment.

Over the years police have launched two projects into the disappearance of men from the gay village.

The first police probe — named Project Houston — was launched in 2012 to investigate the disappearance of three men: Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, Majeed Kayhan, 58, and Abdulbasir Faizi, 42.

Idsinga said he became involved with that project when police found some evidence suggesting that Navaratnam “had met with foul play.”

The investigation involved looking into “online cannibalism groups,” he said.

“We essentially investigated that to determine if it was reality or fantasy — we determined it was fantasy,” he said.

In August 2017, police launched Project Prism, which looked into the disappearances of two men from Toronto’s gay village — Andrew Kinsman, 48, and Selim Esen, 44.

Police have since charged McArthur with murder in the deaths of Kinsman, Esen, Kayhan, Navaratnam, Dean Lisowick and Soroush Mahmudi.