Police find ‘items of interest’ at home linked to accused killer Bruce McArthur

Police had already found the remains of seven men buried in planters at the property in midtown Toronto, but resumed digging at the property on Wednesday. (Photo: Mike DeBiasio/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Toronto police say “items of interest” yet to be identified have been found at a property where accused serial killer Bruce McArthur worked as a landscaper.

Police had already found the remains of seven men buried in planters at the property in midtown Toronto, but resumed digging at the property on Wednesday.

McArthur, 66, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of eight men with ties to Toronto’s gay village.

Police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray says investigators originally did a dig at the property over the winter and nothing was found.

She says it was decided to revisit all the properties where McArthur worked again when the springtime hit and the thaw was done.

Gray says canine units found “a number of different spots” of interest on the property when they returned in the spring.

“We did find … items of interest,” Gray said Wednesday evening.

“They have been taken away by the coroner’s office where they will undergo testing and, until the coroner has been able to do their testing, I’m unable to confirm exactly what it is,” Gray said.

Police dogs also searched about 100 other properties with links to McArthur’s landscaping business but found nothing, she said.

The excavation began Wednesday and is expected to last multiple weeks, Gray added.

McArthur, currently in custody at a western Toronto jail, is alleged to have killed Selim Esen, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Andrew Kinsman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kanagaratnam.

His case is scheduled to return to court on July 23.