SIX DAYS LATER, POLICE CONFIRM STAR STORY. THEY WERE MURDERED, AND IT WAS TARGETED
The shocking deaths of billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman ignited six weeks of speculation and controversy. On Friday, Toronto police finally said they are investigating the deaths as homicides — and that ‘much more work’ lies ahead
“From the outset of this investigation we have followed the evidence.” DET. SGT. SUSAN GOMES TORONTO POLICE
Murdered, by persons unknown.
Toronto homicide detectives have confirmed Barry and Honey Sherman were targeted and killed six weeks ago, strangled, then held upright by leather belts looped around the smooth stainless steel railing of their home’s indoor pool.
From first-day reports in December that it was a murder-suicide to Friday’s stunning announcement of double homicide by the Toronto police lead investigator, Det. Sgt. Susan Gomes, the case has captured international headlines.
Barry Sherman was the founder of the cutting-edge generic pharmaceutical firm Apotex, and he had many friends and acquaintances around the world. His wife, Honey, was well known for her charity work and community involvement. As to who their enemies might be, the police hope to learn from hundreds of interviews, by filing search warrants for corporate and personal information, and by digging through cellphone, computer and other electronic records.
“I believe they were targeted,” Gomes told reporters packed into a news conference at police headquarters. Police have readily obtained some electronic and other information but are having difficulty retrieving everything they want from the Apotex head office.
Those close to the Shermans alternate between sadness and anger when they talk about the couple’s murders.
“Some piece of crap, some murderous garbage destroyed someone with so much energy, who was so good,” said Frank D’Angelo, a Toronto businessman and filmmaker who had known Barry Sherman for 17 years. Sherman, D’Angelo said, was the executive producer of all of his movies and his best friend. D’Angelo said both Shermans were helpful, supportive and friendly to many people, including him. “He was a guy who could calm me down. He was my camomile tea.”
Shortly after Toronto police confirmed they were treating the case as a homicide, the Sherman family released a statement saying that they had “anticipated” the police would reach the same conclusion as the private investigation team they assembled. That private team was given access to the Sherman home just prior to the press conference.
“The family continues to support the Toronto Police Service in their efforts to seek justice for their parents and pursue those responsible for these unspeakable crimes,” the statement read.
To explain the complexity of the case facing the police, Gomes described the three theories that she and her team were presented with when they walked into the Shermans’ home on Old Colony Rd. in North York: double suicide, murdersuicide and double murder.
She told reporters that, to date, her team has spent more than 1,000 hours investigating, and scoured the crime scene for six weeks. One hundred twenty-seven witness statements have been taken. Four terabytes of video surveillance seized. They have also requested from judges and justices of the peace 20 search warrants or production orders (production orders are for such things as banking or cellphone records). Gomes did not say how many warrants have been executed and what, if anything, police learned.
Classified as “suspicious deaths” since Dec. 15, the Shermans are now officially homicides Nos. 64 and 65 in 2017.
The veteran detective would not reveal any information about suspects, persons of interest or possible motives. She did reiterate that there was no sign of forced entry into the home, information consistent with what police said in the hours after the bodies were found.
The house was for sale in December and police are in the process of speaking to anyone who had access to the home. It is no longer for sale.
“We haven’t developed any suspects, outside of understanding that people are outstanding for — or a person is outstanding for — this offence.”
Sources say a turning point in the case was the second autopsy, arranged by the family, and performed by Dr. David Chiasson, formerly Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist. As the Star reported earlier, Chiasson put particular weight on markings on the wrists of both Shermans, indicating they had been tied up. The first pathologist noted them as well, but appears not to have put as much weight on them in coming to a conclusion. No ties or ropes were found at the scene.
Also, Chiasson was able to determine that the men’s leather belts were the cause of the strangulation, likely done by someone holding and tightening the belt. Looped around the poolside railing, the belts kept the couple in a seated position. Earlier media reports that the couple was found “hanging” conjured up an image that was incorrect, giving fuel to the notion that this was a case of suicide. At the press conference, Gomes explained that the Shermans were found “hanging by belts from a poolside railing in a semi-seated position on the pool deck.”
At Friday’s press conference, police said Barry and Honey Sherman’s last contact with friends, family or business associates was late in the day Wednesday. The bodies were not discovered until just before noon on Friday, Dec. 15.
They were found in a semi-seated position, legs facing away from the pool. Gomes confirmed that both Shermans were found wearing their clothing but revealed few other specifics. The detective would not comment when asked if investigators believe the Shermans were killed in that location, or whether their bodies had been placed there.
Both autopsies concluded they died from “ligature neck compression.”
“From the outset of this investigation we have followed the evidence,” Gomes said. She noted that police have seized 150 bulk or packaged items from a detailed sweep of the Shermans’ three-storey home in North York.
But police have been stymied in some situations where they have sought warrants.
“Legal complexities in some executions have been challenging given the litigious nature of Barry Sherman’s businesses, in particular the search and seizure of electronics in Barry Sherman’s workspace at Apotex,” Gomes added.
At the Sherman home on Old Colony Rd., near Bayview Ave. and Sheppard Ave. E., on Friday morning, the scene appeared to be virtually the same from when the investigation began in mid-December. Withered, dried-up flowers remained where they were left weeks ago.
That changed at 11 a.m. when officers began removing the police tape that had stretched around the property since Dec. 15. Shortly after, at 11:06 a.m., a police car that had been parked in the front of the house left the scene.
A former Toronto police detective, part of the team assembled by Sherman family lawyer Brian Greenspan and private detective firm Klatt Investigations, pulled his car into the driveway and took out a small video camera, appearing to film the outside of the house.
The former detective spoke with private security, who arrived around the time police left. The private security then put up their own caution tape around the property, replacing the police tape that the officers just removed.
Gomes said police are looking into anyone who accessed the Sherman home — which was for sale — including those who used a lock box. She said investigators have a list of people who had access to the home and it was “significant.”
“Anybody who has had access to that home in the last so many weeks and months leading up to that weekend and those days? Important to us, absolutely,” Gomes said.
Police have an “extensive” list of people they want to speak with, she added. Gomes would not say if the home was found intact, or whether any valuables were missing.
Greenspan has said that the theory of murder-suicide is “unsupportable as a matter of logic,” according to people who knew the Shermans well. They were building a new home, had winter trip plans and were very involved with their children’s and grandchildren’s lives.
Gomes said she was “absolutely not” concerned about the private investigators compromising the police probe.
“They haven’t distracted us from the get-go, and they will not distract us as we carry on.”
“(Private investigators) haven’t distracted us from the get-go, and they will not distract us as we carry on.” DET. SGT. SUSAN GOMES LEAD INVESTIGATOR
Police have yet to release the results of toxicology analysis done at the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto on the Shermans. Greenspan’s team had its own analysis done at an American lab and sources say the results were negative for anything that would have contributed to the couple’s death. Much more work lays ahead, Gomes said, saying there were 348 “investigative actions” that are being vigorously pursued. In other words, police have a long a long to-do list.
The terminology is used within the major-case management system, which helps police organize investigations. The “action” can refer to anything officers need to do or follow up on, such as a witness the police need to interview or video they need to obtain or review.
“It could be a credit card receipt they need to follow up on,” said Mark Mendelson, a former Toronto police homicide detective, adding, now is “when the hard work begins.” With files from Tamar Harris