Unexpected victim may have revealed Canada's 'Gay Village' serial killer

For years, rints of the Village, an LGBTQ-iendly enclave Toronto, spected there was a serial killer their midst. From 2010 to 2017, several men the neighborhood vanished. Missg persons posters plastered the siwalks. A sense of unease pervad the Village, acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur,” a new special on Oxygen. Dpe the rash of disappearanc and the siari between the missg men — many were of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern scent, all were gay, all vanished wh the same area — Toronto police refuted the ia of a serial killer even jt several weeks before the arrt of Bce McArthur, a 60-somethg landsper and ocsnal mall Santa who was eventually nvicted of murrg eight men. "We follow the evince, and the evince tells that's not the se right now. The evince today tells there's not a serial killer,” Police Chief Mark Snrs said December 2017, the Toronto Star reported at the time. The Toronto police was heavily cricized by the public for this cisn, wh many claimg racism and homophobia hampered the vtigatn, and others sayg uld’ve saved liv if thori hadn’t downplayed the ia there was a serial killer the area, as seen the special. In fact, June 2018, an pennt review began of how Toronto police review missg persons s, and whether police’s vtigatns uld have been “tated by systemic bias or discrimatn,” acrdg to a 2019 Toronto Star article. Sasha Reid, a Universy of Toronto PhD ndidate specializg statistil analysis of missg persons and sexually motivated killers, told CTV News 2018 that she had warned Toronto police a serial killer was preyg on men the Village a year earlier. While creatg her own missg persons database she noticed strikg siari between some of the vanished men. “At a certa pot, you know that there is a serial killer operatg. Studyg serial homici for over 10 years now, you learn not to ignore patterns,” Reid said. “I got terted maybe creatg a reverse profile. So I ed victim data to create a crimal profile for the police, and armed wh that data, I gave them a ll.” Authori thanked her for the data, but that was the end of the nversatn, said Reid. Universy of Toronto associate profsor of soclogy Jooyoung Lee also spoke about the possibily of a serial killer an terview wh 2017, sayg the disappearanc have “all the signs of what we typilly see” serial murrs. “Any time you have a llectn of missg persons s … that ually is a kd of warng sign. And sort of fs to the narrative of a lot of other [serial homici] s,” Lee said. “Jefey Dahmer, for example, ed to hunt for his victims gay bath ho and gay bars Milwkee.” Police acknowledged they were gettg many lls reportg spicns a serial killer was stalkg the area, the outlet noted, but did not label the missg persons s as a strg of serial killgs until McArthur’s pture. Why? Well, Toronto thori have long mataed there was no actual evince potg toward a serial killer, which is they never told the public one may exist. "We've always had that feelg," Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsga told CBC News 2018. "Until I have that evince, I n't say . And that's what we dig for […] It's easy to say hdsight now 'well, you should have known somethg is up.' Well, we did know that somethg was up, we jt didn't know what was and we didn't have any evince of what was gog on.” There wasn’t even any evince, Idsga emphasized to the Toronto Star that same year, a crime had been mted. After all, there were no bodi found. The men were simply gone. Two other people who had vanished around that time ame weren’t victims of foul play at all — one died by suici and the other eventually turned up jt fe. “You never know what the end rult is gog to be. Jt bee somebody’s missg don’t mean they’ve been murred. First you have to tablish that there’s been a crimal offense and then ci what his role is that offense beg vtigated. Was he a spect, was he a wns, was he a victim?” Idsga said. Police Chief Snrs mataed that fense, tellg CP24 2018, "As soon as that evince was received that had the abily to make an arrt we exercised what we had to do […] “The evince was prented to at that particular moment was very accurate. In the urtroom the storyl will play out and will articulate exactly what happened, what we knew and what we did wh and based on that did we do the right thg or the wrong thg. I’m fortable wh the vtigatn.” However, he then sparked fury wh ments ma that same year when he told reporters, “We knew that people were missg and we knew we didn’t have the right answers, but nobody was g to wh anythg,” acrdg to a 2018 The Guardian article. Some took his remark as blamg the muny for not stoppg McArthur’s attacks, stead of acknowledgg police error. Outrage was further stoked when was eventually revealed McArthur, who had already been nvicted of asslt wh a weapon 2001 after attackg a sex worker wh a pipe, had been acced of stranglg a man durg a sexual enunter 2016, acrdg to the Toronto Star. McArthur had turned himself to the police after the victim lled 911 and he was then released whout charg, the outlet reported. McArthur had been spoken to by thori already the se when he was acced of vlence 2016 — 2013, police had found a nnectn between him and the first three men to go missg: Skandaraj "Skanda" Navaratnam, Abdulbasir "Basir" Faizi, and Majeed "Hamid" Kayhan, CBC News reported 2019. McArthur was then terviewed as a wns, where he admted to havg had a sexual relatnship wh Kayhan and a social relatnship wh Navaratnam, but nied knowg Faizi. Sgt. Pl Gthier, who was the officer who let McArthur go, was later h wh disciplary charg of subordatn and neglect of duty relatn to his handlg of the accatn, CTV News reported 2019. He has sce pled not guilty and is awag the oute of the se. In June 2018, amid the anger and tratn wh the Toronto Police, an pennt review led by retired judge Gloria Epste to the way the partment handled missg persons s began. The review end November 2020 after speakg wh over 1,200 people, and the full report as well as Epste’s remendatns will be released some time early 2021, Toronto Cy News reported at the time. McArthur was sentenced to life prison 2019 for the murrs of Selim Esen, Soroh Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Andrew Ksman, Kishna Kanagaratnam, and Majeed Kayhan. For more on this se, watch Oxygen’s new special, “Catchg A Killer: Bce McArthur.” * missing gay village *

A serial killer hidg bodi planters is horrifyg and mabre enough — but the early vtigatn to what beme the Bce McArthur se went off on a pletely different, and twisted, tangent. From 2010 to 2017, several men disappeared om Toronto’s predomantly gay neighborhood The Village. In 2018, the killer was unmasked: 66-year-old Bce McArthur, a genial landsper who ocsnally moonlighted as a mall Santa. McArthur eventually plead guilty to murrg eight men, mostly gay men of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern scent. He is Canada’s most prolific serial killer ever. The story is a chillg one, and as seen the Oxygen special “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur,” the vtigatn to the strg of murrs actually first foced on the possibily of a nnibal killer. On Sept. 6, 2010, Skandaraj Navaratnam left a gay bar The Village wh an unknown man. He was never seen aga. A few months later, on Dec. 29, 2010, Abdulbasir Faizi told his wife he was headg out to meet a iend. Instead, he was last seen equentg a lol bathhoe The Village. Then, 2012, Majeed Kayhan was reported missg by his son. He had last been seen alive on Oct. 8, 2012. All the men vanished wh blocks of each other, acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur.” However, the missg men did not ially receive much attentn om thori. It was only when they were ntacted by Interpol (the Internatnal Crimal Police Organizatn) 2012 that they realized somethg was serly amiss. Interpol ntacted Toronto thori bee a source Swzerland had a nversatn wh a person on a nnibal fantasy webse lled Zambian Meat, where ers discsed torturg and eatg people, CTV News reported 2018. This er particular claimed he had killed and eaten a man Toronto. “When you’re first told that, ’s unbelievable, ’s like, ‘A nnibal, really?’” Det. Sgt. Hank Idsga wh the Toronto Police Service told “Catchg A Killer: Bce McArthur.” “Then, hold up, well, actually we do have a missg man om Toronto that fs the profile this person is talkg about.” Authori believed the victim the er was referrg to was Skandaraj Navaratnam, as the er allegedly referred to “Skanda” durg nversatns, CBC News reported 2019. They also realized they had a few other men who matched the scriptn — Majeed Kayhan and Abdulbasir Faizi — and after flyg to Swzerland to terview the source and termg the tip credible, they lnched an vtigatn to the three missg men, dubbed Project Hoton, after the famo phrase, “Hoton, we’ve got a problem,” acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur.” Invtigators were able to trace the er qutn — “Chefmate50” — and learn his real inty: Jam Alex Bnton, a married former hospal technician livg Peterborough, Ontar, CTV News reported. Those workg on Project Hoton lled him “Spect Zero.” For seven months, they surveilled Bnton as they vtigated his potential volvement. They also nsired a possible lk between him and another notor Canadian killer: Le Magnotta, a young man who rerd a vio of himself murrg and dismemberg llege stunt Jun L 2012, acrdg to CBC News. Magnotta mailed the victim’s hands and feet to schools and polil party headquarters, and he ate some of the body parts, the New York Daily News reported 2017. Magnotta, who also posted several onle vios where he tortured ts, was recently the foc of the doceri “Don’t F—k Wh Cats.” Magnotta was ctody durg the vtigatn, and the possible nnibal nnectn, as well as several other clu, drove thori to see if Bnton and Magnotta had any lks. While chattg wh other young men onle about nnibalism, Bnton often mentned a nnibal named “Nathan,” who worked as a dancer at a club lled Remgton’s, CBC News reported. Magnotta had also once worked as a dancer at that club and had lled himself “Nathan” text msag, acrdg to the outlet. Magnotta had even put up onle ads lookg for Middle Eastern men only a few months before Navaratnam, the first victim, vanished. Pl, when Magnotta was a teenager, he lived only a few blocks away om Bnton. All of the cinc alarmed vtigators, but the evince was clear: They nclud Bnton’s nnibalism fantasi were jt that — make believe. Neher Magnotta nor Bnton were ever nnected to the aths o Navaratnam, Faizi and Kayhan. Project Hoton was over. Bnton, however, was nvicted of child pornography charg 2014, CBC News reported. In the end, the man behd all the murrs was Bce McArthur. And while would take several more years for Toronto thori to tch him, Project Hoton did first surface McArthur’s name to vtigators, CBS News reported. A ername and email addrs, "silverfoxx51,” was found Navaratnam and Faizi’s puter data. After fdg a rrpondg number to the email addrs Navaratnam’s ntact list, tectiv were able to intify silverfoxx51 as McArthur. McArthur was terviewed as part of Project Hoton 2013 as a potential wns, acrdg to CBC News, but not as a spect. Six years later, McArthur was sentenced to life prison for murrg eight men. For more on this se, watch Oxygen’s special “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur” here. * missing gay village *

The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Preventn (ASAAP) issued an open letter llg for the Toronto Police Service to review whether the racial or sexual backgrounds of the men who disappeared the Gay Village affected the amount of rourc or effort put to vtigatns. * missing gay village *

* missing gay village *

Andrew Ksman's fay is still searchg for answers a day after a Toronto man was charged wh first-gree murr his disappearance and that of another man near the cy's Gay Village last sprg. * missing gay village *

A iendly garner and mall Santa, McArthur may also have been the worst ever serial killer of gay men. Did police turn a bld eye? * missing gay village *

The murr vtigatn of missg gay men Toronto has raised qutns of equali. A long view of police relatnships wh LGBTQ muni Canada show that much progrs has been ma. * missing gay village *