‘Canada tycoon, wife murdered’:

Private investigators hired by the children of late Canadian pharmaceutical tycoon Barry Sherman concluded that he and his wife were murdered, the Toronto Star reported Saturday.

The 75-year-old chairman of Apotex and his 70-year-old wife Honey were found dead in their Toronto home on Dec 15. Apotex is the largest maker of generic drugs in Canada, and the Shermans’ fortune was estimated at more than $3 billion.

Toronto’s homicide unit, which took over the investigation into the “suspicious” deaths, earlier said that they had been strangled to death, but stopped short of calling them homicides. The Shermans’ bodies were found hanging from a railing around a basement pool, the theory being that the Apotex chairman killed his wife Honey, hung her body and then hanged himself by the pool’s edge, Canadian media reported in December, citing a police source.

Sherman’s four children however said that a murder-suicide made no sense, and hired criminal lawyer Brian Greenspan to help, the Star reported.

Greenspan in turn hired private detectives and asked for a second autopsy, which was carried out by a forensic pathologist on Dec 20, just before the funeral.

The pathologist and the detectives, which included former Toronto homicide investigators, found markings on the victims’ wrists indicating that their hands had been tied with cord or a plastic zip tie.

When the bodies were found the wrists were untied, and no rope or cords were found, the newspaper said. Furthermore, toxicology tests on the bodies showed no abnormal sign of drug use. (AFP)