Bruce McArthur pleads guilty to eight murders with ties to Toronto’s Gay Village; two victims were Tamil


(Clockwise from left) Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Marmudi, Selim Esen and Andrew Kinsman.
All photos: Toronto Police

SERIAL killer Bruce McArthur, a self-employed landscaper, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in a Toronto courtroom on Tuesday.

He was charged with the first-degree murders of Andrew Kinsman, 49; Selim Esen, 44; Majeed Kayhan, 58; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Dean Lisowick, 47; Skandaraj (Skanda) Navaratnam, 40, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, and Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, 37, who all disappeared from Toronto’s Gay Village between 2010 and 2017.

Abdulbasir Faizi.

According to court documents, the murders were planned and deliberate and six of them were sexual in nature. He also kept some of their possessions.

The dismembered parts of seven victims were found in gardening planters at a house where McArthur had been permitted to store his tools in the garage. The remains of the eighth victim were recovered from a nearby ravine .


Skandaraj Navaratnam
Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam
Bruce McArthur

A sentencing hearing will be held next week and the proceedings will be translated into Farsi, Tamil, and French, for the victims’ families.