Bruce McArthur, the alleged serial killer charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, will reportedly plead guilty on Tuesday morning, according to the National Post, citing a source close to the investigation.
The Toronto Police released a statement on Monday saying that a “significant development in this case” is to be expected at his next court appearance in Toronto. Neither the Toronto Police nor McArthur’s lawyer immediately responded to VICE’s requests for comment on Monday afternoon regarding the Post’s story.
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McArthur currently faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Soroush Mahmudi, Kirushna Kanagaratnam, and Abdulbasir Faizi. The 67-year-old former landscaper has been accused of preying on men with ties to the city’s Gay Village who went missing between 2010 and 2017. The men were between 37 and 58 years old.
McArthur was first arrested last January and has been held in custody ever since. Police officers had discovered the remains of seven men among garden planters at a Toronto home where he worked. The remains of the eighth victim were located in a ravine near that property.
McArthur eventually waived his right to a preliminary hearing, meaning his case would go immediately to trial. That trial was scheduled for January 2020, and was expected to take three to four months.
Christie Blatchford, of the National Post, reported that lawyers are expected to have a formal agreed statements of facts, which usually provides previously undisclosed information, and that his sentencing will be put over for several weeks.
The case against Bruce McArthur highlighted tensions between the Toronto Police and the city’s LGBTQ+ communities, as they had long believed a serial killer was preying on men in the Village. An independent investigation into how the Toronto Police deal with missing persons cases was struck last year and plans to complete its review in 2020.
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