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Suspected Toronto serial killer charged with 8th murder

Posted at 11:35 AM, Apr 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-16 14:59:13-04

Suspected Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur was charged with an eighth count of murder after police identified a Sri Lankan man whose dismembered body was found in a potted plant connected to McArthur, Toronto Police Detective Sgt. Hank Idsinga said Monday.

Last month, Toronto police released a photo of a bearded man who they believed was a deceased victim of McArthur and asked for help identifying him. Police identified the man Monday as Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, who had moved from Sri Lanka to Canada in 2010.

Idsinga said police believe he was murdered sometime between September 3 and December 14 in 2015. He was not on file as missing in Canada. He would have been 37 years old at the time of his death, Idsinga said. The identification of Kanagaratnam was confirmed with assistance from an international government agency, Idsinga said.

McArthur has also been charged with the killings of Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Skandaraj Navaratnam and Abdulbasir Faizi.

Unlike the other victims, there is no prior evidence linking Kanagaratnam to Toronto’s Gay Village, Idsinga said.

McArthur, 66, was first arrested in January on murder charges. Police say he buried his victims’ body parts in potted plants on properties where he worked as a self-employed landscaper.

Police have said that McArthur had some sort of relationship with each of his victims, some of which were sexual.