Key dates in Toronto police investigations into Gay Village disappearances
October 2001: Bruce McArthur, 50, attacks a man with a metal pipe. The future serial killer later pleads guilty to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.
September 2010: Skandaraj (Skanda) Navaratnam, 40, goes missing after he is seen leaving Zipperz, a now-closed bar at Church and Carlton Sts., with an unknown man. According to a statement of facts presented at his sentencing, McArthur kills him around Sept. 6.
December 2010: Abdulbasir Faizi, a 42-year-old machine operator at a printing company in Mississauga, is reported missing to Peel Regional Police. McArthur kills Faizi about Dec. 29.
October 2012: Majeed Kayhan, a 58-year-old Afghan immigrant, disappears and is reported missing by his son. McArthur kills him around Oct. 18.
November 2012: Toronto police in downtown’s 51 division launch Project Houston, an investigation into the disappearances of Navaratnam, Kayhan, and Faizi. Late 2012 — June 2013: During Project Houston, Toronto police find some evidence Navaratnam has been murdered. Investigators from the homicide squad join the case, pursuing evidence including the suggestion Navaratnam had been the victim of a cannibalism ring — but that evidence is found to be untrue.
April 2014: Project Houston ends. McArthur was never a suspect in the investigation, but was interviewed by police over his connections to the missing men. He is considered a witness, and is never a person of interest. August 2015: Soroush Mahmudi, a 50-year-old professional painter, is last seen alive in Scarborough. He is reported missing by his family. McArthur kills him around Aug. 15.
Late 2015: McArthur kills Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, 37, around Jan. 6, 2016. Kanagaratnam, a refugee from Sri Lanka, had never been reported missing.
June 20, 2016: Toronto police question McArthur after a man calls 911 to report that McArthur attempted to strangle him in his van during an otherwise consensual encounter. McArthur turns himself into police and is arrested. He is later let go without charges.
April 2016: Dean Lisowick checks into the Scott Mission shelter in Toronto for the last time. McArthur kills him around April 23.
April 2017: Selim Esen, a 44-year-old Turkish citizen, goes missing. McArthur kills him around April 16.
June 2017: Andrew Kinsman, a 49-year-old Cabbagetown resident, goes missing. Investigators will later confirm that Kinsman and McArthur
had a sexual relationship. McArthur kills him around June 26.
August 2017: Toronto police launch Project Prism, a probe into the disappearances of Esen and Kinsman. Investigators from downtown’s 51 Division and other units are brought in, and information is shared from Project Houston.
Meanwhile, the remains of 27-year-old Alloura Wells are found in the Rosedale Valley Road ravine. Her body, which is taken to a morgue, is not immediately identifiable.
September 2017: McArthur becomes a person of interest in Kinsman’s death. Police launch surveillance of his vehicle and a team of officers track him around the GTA.
November 2017: Police uncover evidence suggesting Kinsman has likely been murdered and McArthur is a suspect.
Meanwhile, Alloura Wells’s father reports his daughter missing first at 53 Division — where a desk officer does not make a missing-person report — and later at 51 Division, where the case is finally assigned to an investigator.
Nov. 11, 2017: Wells’s family and friends search the Rosedale Valley Road ravine, not knowing her body was being stored in the morgue.
Nov. 25: Tess Richey, 22, is killed by Kalen Schlatter and her body is left at the bottom of a Church Street stairwell where, four days later, it is found by her mother. Investigators initially treat her death as accidental, before a post-mortem reveals it to be a homicide.
Nov. 30: Alloura Wells’s body is identified.
Dec. 8: Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders downplays the suggestion of a serial killer in the Gay Village amid anger and fear over the growing list of people who have disappeared from the area. A police spokesperson says there is “no evidence — let me repeat, no evidence” linking any of the disappearances.
At the time, Toronto police investigators did, in fact, have information linking McArthur to the disappearances of five of his victims.
Jan. 18, 2018: McArthur is arrested and charged with the murders of Esen and Kinsman. During his arrest, officers find a man in his bedroom, tied up but unharmed.
January — April 2018: McArthur is charged with six more counts of first-degree murder; police uncover the remains of all eight of his victims.
June 2018: Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Gloria Epstein is tapped to lead an independent review of how Toronto police investigate missing-person cases.
October 2018: Toronto police provide details of a new, dedicated missing person’s unit, which was formed amid criticism of the handling of the Gay Village disappearances.
Jan. 29, 2019: McArthur pleads guilty to eight counts of firstdegree murder. He is later given a life sentence.
Mar. 23, 2020: Schlatter is found guilty of first-degree murder in Richey’s killing. He is also given a life sentence.
April 13, 2021: Epstein releases her report on the police handling of the missing-person cases, finding “profound systemic failures.”