IDSINGA: It's a serial killer, alleged serial killer.
The investigation into Bruce McArthur is unprecedented.
IDSINGA: We've never seen anything quite like this.
Unimaginable...
IDSINGA: The bodies are from large planters.
Unrelenting...
IDSINGA: I would say it's going to go into the years.
From small-town obscurity to big city infamy, the road is hardly obvious.
Woodville Ontario is the quiet farming community where Bruce McArthur grew up.
Where in the 1950s, he attended a one-room schoolhouse now refurbished into a home.
Ronald MacEachern was in his workshop when he heard the news about his former classmate
MACEACHERN: You grew up with the guy and it freaks you out.
Back then, MacEachern says, Bruce McArthur was the kid who never got into trouble
MACEACHERN: I just remember him being a tattletale to the teacher, that's all I can remember him.
MACEACHERN: You just can't imagine him doing something like that because he wouldn't get into trouble at school with us
MACEACHERN: When we were doing s--t we weren't supposed to be, so.
Police have spoken to MacEachern and others from McArthur's past
To trace the life trajectory of an accused serial killer
It continues here. In the 1960s, McArthur goes to high school in nearby Fenelon Falls
It's where he meets his future wife.
Soon after they graduate in 1970, they leave the area.
It's not clear where the MacArthurs go, but by the mid-80s, they settle into a suburban home in Oshawa
and raise a daughter and son.
All the stuff we have with the database coming in from the DNA...
Those decades are now under intense police scrutiny
For the grim reason most serial killers begin killing when they're young.
Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga is in charge of the McArthur investigation.
IDSINGA: We're looking at occurrences from the 1970s where he would have been in his mid-20s
IDSINGA: mid to late 20s. As a generality, you can say that people don't start this when they're in their 60s.
IDSINGA: We are definitely looking, yes.
The late 90s and early 2000s is when McArthur's past life as a suburban husband and father starts to unravel.
McArthur declares bankruptcy. His marriage falls apart.
Shortly after he becomes a regular in Toronto's gay village and moves into an apartment in the city.
A dark side emerges.
In 2001 MacArthur is charged with assault after attacking a man with an iron pipe.
He turns himself in.
At his sentencing hearing two years later, the court hears he suffers from depression
McArthur tells the judge his life has been "kind of a mess"
"... not knowing what's going to happen and what happened to me."
MacArthur doesn't go to jail but the conditions of his release includes staying away from the gay village for
two years the judge's parting remarks now seem chilling it sounds to me like
you're a pretty good person and it sounds to me like you're not going to be
back here anyway of course McArthur would be back in court but only years
after his first alleged victim went missing years after rumors started
swirling that a serial killer was stalking the gay village
September 2010 the disappearances begin first Skanda never rot now then Abdul
bassier phasing two years later Majeed kahan police set up a task force Project
Houston to find any links between the missing men they find none but MacArthur
is hiding in plain sight he even gets questioned by police for an unrelated
matter reportedly an alleged assault meanwhile the disappearances continued
in 2015 Suroosh mack moody is reported missing
by his family in April 2017 Saleem Essen disappears a couple of months later so
does Andrew kinsman police create another Task Force project prison again
it ends with no hard proof and no talk of a serial killer we're human beings of
course are we thinking is that a possibility yes it's a possibility but
it would be reckless of me to come out and say perhaps there's a serial killer
unless I have evidence that there is a serial killer
no evidence but police are increasingly suspicious and what they don't say
publicly at this point is that Bruce McArthur is on their radar and has been
under surveillance for the last three months while police are watching him
they spot a man arriving to meet MacArthur for a sexual encounter fearing
for his safety they move in and find the man in restraints that's when finally
police make an arrest nearly eight years after men started
disappearing this morning at approximately 10:25 a.m.
police arrested 66 year old Bruce MacArthur of the City of Toronto he has
been charged with two counts of first degree murder
in relation to mister kinsman and mr. assam and when we believe he's
responsible for the deaths of other men who have yet to be identified in other
words we believe there are other victims police reveal MacArthur had relations
with both men detectives won't say how they linked MacArthur to those murders
but they had already seized his van MacArthur had sold it to this auto parts
dealer outside the city police also had a list of MacArthur's landscaping
clients and had some of those locations under surveillance
including this Toronto home that would become ground zero forensic teams also
begin to scour MacArthur's apartment and his digital footprint soon they find
more evidence 11 days after his arrest MacArthur is charged with three more
counts of first degree murder the total is now five these new charges
are in a relation to the murders of Majid que Han Suroosh Maher moody and
Dean Lissa wick most of the men MacArthur is accused of killing are
among the same men police had been looking for years before except one dean
lassoo a homeless man who was never even
reported missing police now openly say what they had
suspected for years and what had been feared all along it's a serial killer
alleged serial killer he's taken some steps to cover his tracks but not well
enough and the details are horrific over the next week and a half
police find six sets of dismembered skeletal remains in the planters at a
Toronto home where MacArthur stored his landscaping tools but at this point the
lead detective can only put a name to one of them we've identified that some
of the body parts as belonging to one of the victims whom we charge mr. McArthur
with the murder of and that's Andrew kinsman meanwhile a twisted portrait of
MacArthur begins to emerge the mall Santa the doting grandfather the
voracious thrill seeker who was on several dating apps including ones
geared to rough sex Peter's gramo had known MacArthur for
years as a friend but last spring after drinks they shared an intimate encounter
as suddenly became violent so we were kissing and I'm kissing tuned into some
petting he undid my shirt he ended his shirt then he grabbed me by the neck and
first by the head and kind of pushed me down to his crotch and wasn't quite
there and kind of popped back up and then he really grabbed my neck violently
twisted it I literally thought one one more second he would have snapped and
broken my neck and I was a dead man scroll mo managed to free himself
but after MacArthur's arrest more eerily similar and disturbing stories continue
to surface Jeffrey Davis knew one of the victims and has heard other survivor
stories it was choking my friend was being choked by Bruce
Davis is a local designer who's lived in the community for years two friends had
frightening experiences with McArthur both have since spoken with police I
think the part that was really killing our community the most was the the
unknowing and the apparent well it wasn't even apparent it was it was the
perceived lack of care from Toronto Police Services amid the grief that
simmering resentment lingers that police didn't take the disappearances seriously
enough that lives could have been spared all while the horror continues to grow
back at Ground Zero of the investigation evidence is building and with every
police update a gruesome rising tally of body parts and murder charges it's very
disturbing a month after his arrest police charged MacArthur for a sixth
murder for the death of Skanda navaratna police identify his remains as well as
the remains of another victim Suroosh Matt moody six people in the
planters we've been through all of the planters so we have seized we haven't
found any other remains words spoken too soon just ten days later police find a
seventh set of remains in those same planters and take the extraordinary step
of releasing a photo of a dead man I do not want to release this picture and I'm
doing so as a last resort they don't know who he is
but believe he is another victim how extraordinary is it
put a fold like this up at a news conference I've never done this and I I
I do it with great hesitation sources tell CBS e News the photo was just one
in a cache of images of MacArthur's alleged victims that he kept on his
computer police hoped to identify the men so they can lay another murder
charge the tally now six charges of
first-degree murder four sets of unidentified remains and the expectation
there could be more won't keep going as long as we keep on covering evidence
whether that's weeks down the road months down the road or years down the
road but we're not going to leave anything uncovered