‘I’ve never done this’: police release image of suspected seventh victim of Toronto serial killer as ‘a last resort’
Bruce McArthur is charged with killing eight men linked to Toronto’s Gay Village
WARNING: Story contains graphic images
An image of the suspected seventh victim of Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur has been released as “a last resort” to identify the victim.
The gruesome image – which shows the deceased man, who is dark-haired and bearded – had to be “cleaned” up by the police to remove some more “artefacts.”
The force used the eraser tool 56 times to clean up the image before releasing it to the public.
“I do not want to release this picture and am doing so as a last resort,” said Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga in a press conference in Toronto on Monday.
“I’ve never done this. I do it with great hesitation.”
Police have released this image of the seventh victim in the hope of identifying him (Toronto Police Service)
“We need to put a name to this face and bring closure to this man’s loved ones,” Idsinga said, stressing that anyone with information should come forward to police,” added the detective.
It is believed that McArthur potentially kept photographs of his victims as “trophies”, reports The Toronto Star.
Four sets of remains have been discovered in the grounds of Mallory Crescent, the home of an elderly couple where the landscape gardener hid his victims’ remains.
They have not yet been identified with any of the victims to date, suggesting that there could be more than seven victims of the killer.
The police have stepped forward to apologise for their failure to capture McArthur sooner, said Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga.
“We knew something was up. … We did not have the evidence,” Chief Saunders said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
“If anyone knew before us, it’s people who knew him very, very well. And so that did not come out,” added the police Chief.
To date, McArthur has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder of Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Majeed Kayhan and Skandaraj Navaratnam.
The serial killer’s spree can be traced back to 2010.
The police are returning to older, unsolved cases to see if they are linked to the killer.
