Ten of the Most Famous Toronto Murder Cases of All Time

Toronto has experienced thousands of homicides over its history, but only a small number have permanently changed how the city understands crime, public safety, and its own identity.

Some cases became famous because the victims were children. Others exposed organized crime, failures in policing, violence against marginalized communities, or the growing threat of public attacks.

A few led to major changes in public policy, forensic investigation, child-safety education, or the physical design of Toronto itself.

This is not a ranking of the most violent cases or those with the highest death toll. These ten cases were selected because of their sustained public recognition, extensive media coverage, historical importance, and lasting effect on Toronto.

Content warning: This article discusses murder, child abuse, sexual violence, and other disturbing crimes.

Famous Toronto Murder Cases at a Glance

The Bruce McArthur Serial Murders

The discovery that a Toronto landscaper had murdered eight men became one of the most consequential criminal cases in the city’s history.

Bruce McArthur targeted men connected to Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community, particularly immigrants and racialized men who spent time in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood.

His known victims were Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, and Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam.

Several of the men had been reported missing years before McArthur’s arrest.

Police arrested McArthur in January 2018 after watching a man enter his apartment. Officers intervened and found the man restrained but alive.

Investigators subsequently discovered human remains inside large planters at a property on Mallory Crescent, where McArthur stored landscaping equipment. Other remains were recovered from a nearby ravine.

McArthur pleaded guilty in 2019 to eight counts of first-degree murder. He received a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

The case prompted intense criticism of how Toronto Police had responded to reports of missing men from the LGBTQ+ community.

An independent review later examined systemic discrimination, investigative practices, and the relationship between police and marginalized communities.

The McArthur case remains one of the largest serial-murder investigations in Canadian history.

The Murder of Emanuel Jaques

Few murders changed the physical and cultural landscape of Toronto as dramatically as the killing of Emanuel Jaques.

The 12-year-old son of Portuguese immigrants worked as a shoeshine boy on Yonge Street.

In July 1977, he was lured into an apartment above a body-rub parlour after being offered money to help move equipment.

Jaques was held captive, sexually assaulted, and murdered. His body was concealed on the roof of the building.

Saul Betesh and Robert Kribs were convicted of first-degree murder. Joseph Woods was convicted of second-degree murder, while a fourth accused man was acquitted.

The killing provoked enormous public outrage. Thousands of people took part in marches and demonstrations demanding that the city address the adult businesses, body-rub parlours, and criminal activity concentrated along Yonge Street.

The political response accelerated the redevelopment of the Yonge Street strip and helped transform the area around Yonge and Dundas.

The case also produced a complicated legacy because some of the enforcement campaign targeted Toronto’s broader LGBTQ+ community rather than focusing exclusively on businesses connected to exploitation and crime.

The murder of Emanuel Jaques is remembered not only as a terrible crime against a child but also as a moment when “Toronto the Good” was forced to confront what was happening on its most famous street.

The Murders of Barry and Honey Sherman

Barry Sherman, the billionaire founder of pharmaceutical company Apotex, and his wife, Honey, were found dead in their North York mansion in December 2017.

Their bodies were discovered beside the home’s indoor swimming pool. Post-mortem examinations determined that both had died from ligature neck compression.

Early reporting raised the possibility of a murder-suicide. The Sherman family strongly rejected that theory.

Toronto Police later announced that the deaths were being investigated as a targeted double homicide.

The investigation has involved hundreds of interviews, dozens of search warrants, and thousands of hours of surveillance footage.

Police released video of an unidentified person walking near the Sherman home on the night the couple were believed to have been killed. Investigators considered the person’s gait distinctive.

The case has generated numerous theories involving business disputes, family relationships, the pharmaceutical industry, and the Shermans’ considerable wealth.

None of those theories has resulted in a publicly announced arrest.

A $35-million private reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

As of July 2026, the murders remain unsolved.

The prominence of the victims, the unusual crime scene, and the apparent absence of a publicly established motive have made the Sherman investigation Canada’s best-known contemporary cold case.

The Toronto Van Attack

On April 23, 2018, a rented van was deliberately driven onto sidewalks along Yonge Street between Finch and Sheppard avenues.

Ten people died in the immediate aftermath, and a severely injured survivor died in 2021. Fifteen other people were injured.

The victims came from different cultural and professional backgrounds, but most were women.

The attack unfolded in broad daylight along one of North York’s busiest commercial corridors.

Alek Minassian was arrested near the scene following a confrontation with a police officer. The officer did not fire his weapon and took Minassian into custody.

At trial, Minassian admitted committing the attack but argued that he should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.

The judge rejected that defence and found him guilty of ten counts of first-degree murder and sixteen counts of attempted murder.

After the death of an additional victim, the legal record was adjusted to reflect eleven murder victims.

Minassian received a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

The case drew international attention to online incel communities and misogynistic violence.

It also led Toronto and other cities to reconsider how sidewalks, gathering places, and public events could be protected from deliberate vehicle attacks.

The Murder of Holly Jones

Ten-year-old Holly Jones disappeared on May 12, 2003, after walking a friend home in Toronto’s west end.

Her disappearance triggered an urgent search involving police, neighbours, and volunteers.

Parts of her body were found the following day in bags near the Toronto waterfront.

The investigation became one of the largest and most closely followed murder cases in the city’s history.

Police asked men living in the area to provide voluntary DNA samples.

Michael Briere attracted investigators’ attention after declining to participate. Officers placed him under surveillance and recovered a discarded drink container carrying his saliva.

DNA and fibre evidence connected Briere to the crime.

He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2004 and received a life sentence.

The case became a landmark example of how discarded DNA could be legally obtained and used during a criminal investigation.

It also raised questions about voluntary DNA canvasses, privacy, and the assumptions police may draw when someone refuses to provide a sample.

The murder devastated Holly’s family and brought residents of the Junction and surrounding neighbourhoods together through searches, vigils, and public memorials.

The Boxing Day Murder of Jane Creba

Fifteen-year-old Jane Creba was shopping with her sister on Yonge Street on December 26, 2005, when gunfire erupted between rival groups.

Creba was struck and killed. Six other bystanders were wounded.

The shooting occurred on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, near the Toronto Eaton Centre and surrounded by holiday crowds.

Its location and the apparent disregard for innocent bystanders made it a defining moment in Toronto’s debate over gun violence.

The killing came near the end of what became known as the “Year of the Gun,” during which Toronto recorded an unusually high number of firearm homicides.

Multiple people were charged in connection with the gun battle.

The prosecutions were complicated because investigators could not conclusively determine which weapon had fired the bullet that killed Creba.

Several men were eventually convicted of offences connected to the shootout, including murder and manslaughter convictions.

Creba’s death became a major issue during the 2006 federal election campaign.

It also intensified demands for action on illegal firearms, street gangs, criminal sentencing, and community violence prevention.

Her name continues to symbolize the human cost of public gun battles in Toronto.

The Abduction and Murder of Cecilia Zhang

Nine-year-old Cecilia Zhang was taken from her North York home during the early morning of October 20, 2003.

Her parents discovered that a kitchen window had been opened and that Cecilia was missing from her bedroom.

Her disappearance led to an extensive search and intense media coverage across Canada.

For months, her fate remained unknown.

Cecilia’s remains were found in a wooded area near the Credit River in Mississauga in March 2004.

Investigators eventually arrested Min Chen, a former international student who had previously visited the Zhang home.

Chen intended to kidnap Cecilia and demand money from her family.

According to the agreed facts presented in court, Cecilia died after Chen covered her mouth and nose while removing her from the house.

Chen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2006 and received a life sentence.

The case was especially frightening because Cecilia was abducted from inside a family home while her parents were sleeping.

It challenged the assumption that a locked or occupied house offered children complete protection from an outside offender.

The Murder of Sharin’ Morningstar Keenan

Nine-year-old Sharin’ Morningstar Keenan disappeared from Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood on January 23, 1983.

She had been playing outside near Queen Street West when she vanished.

Her body was discovered days later inside a refrigerator in an abandoned building.

Police identified a man who had been staying in the building as their principal suspect.

He left Canada soon after the killing, beginning an international search that continued for years.

No one has been convicted of Sharin’s murder.

The case remained in the public consciousness through renewed media investigations, including David Ridgen’s CBC documentary Sharin.

The documentary followed efforts to locate the principal suspect and determine whether he was still alive.

Sharin’s killing became one of Toronto’s most notorious unresolved child murders.

It also reflected the serious economic and social problems affecting Parkdale during the early 1980s, when abandoned buildings and poorly maintained rental properties created dangerous spaces throughout the neighbourhood.

The case remains unsolved.

The Murder of Alison Parrott

Eleven-year-old Alison Parrott was an accomplished young runner who had qualified for an international track meet in 1986.

A man called her Toronto home and claimed he wanted to take photographs of her and her teammates.

Because Alison’s name and athletic achievement had appeared in a newspaper, the caller had enough information to make the request sound credible.

Alison travelled by subway to what she believed was a legitimate photo session at Varsity Stadium.

Her body was found two days later in a wooded area near the Humber River.

The investigation involved thousands of interviews but remained unresolved for more than a decade.

Police eventually used DNA evidence and computer-assisted link analysis to identify Francis Roy.

He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1999.

The case became a lasting warning about how publicly available information can be used to gain a child’s trust.

Alison’s murder helped inspire child-safety education campaigns that taught children to verify unexpected messages and recognize that dangerous adults do not always approach as obvious strangers.

The Murders of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour

Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour were murdered in separate Toronto homes in 1983.

Tice, a 45-year-old social worker and mother of four, was killed in her Bickford Park home in August.

Gilmour, a 22-year-old aspiring fashion designer, was killed in her Yorkville apartment four months later.

Both women were sexually assaulted and stabbed.

DNA testing eventually established that the same man had killed them, but his identity remained unknown for decades.

Investigators reopened the cases as genetic genealogy emerged as a viable investigative technique.

By comparing the unidentified offender’s DNA with profiles connected to distant relatives, researchers narrowed the family tree and directed police toward Joseph George Sutherland.

Sutherland was arrested in 2022.

He pleaded guilty in 2023 to two counts of second-degree murder.

In 2024, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 21 years.

The resolution of the Tice and Gilmour murders demonstrated that even a person who had never emerged as a conventional suspect could be identified decades later through preserved DNA, genealogical research, and traditional police work.

Other Famous Toronto Murder Cases

Several other cases could reasonably appear on this list.

The unsolved 1975 subway murder of Mariam Peters prompted safety changes throughout the TTC.

The 2007 murder of student Jordan Manners inside C. W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute became a major turning point in the discussion of violence and safety inside Toronto schools.

The 2018 Danforth shooting killed two people and injured thirteen others before the gunman died by suicide.

The disappearance and presumed murder of University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain remains one of the city’s best-known unresolved cases.

The 2001 killing of University of Toronto professor David Buller inside his office also remains unsolved.

Paul Bernardo is one of Canada’s most infamous killers and has a major connection to Toronto through the Scarborough sexual assaults. However, the murders of Tammy Homolka, Leslie Mahaffy, and Kristen French took place outside Toronto, primarily in St. Catharines and Burlington. For that reason, this article does not treat the Bernardo and Homolka case as a strictly Toronto murder case. A separate in-depth article will examine Bernardo’s Scarborough crimes, the murder investigation, the delayed DNA match, Karla Homolka’s plea deal, and the policing failures that allowed the crimes to continue. More here.

How These Cases Changed Toronto

The most famous Toronto murder cases are remembered for more than their immediate horror.

The murder of Emanuel Jaques accelerated the transformation of Yonge Street.

The killing of Mariam Peters led to physical and operational safety changes on the subway.

The murders of Holly Jones, Alison Parrott, Susan Tice, and Erin Gilmour demonstrated the growing importance of DNA evidence.

The Bruce McArthur investigation exposed deep problems in the relationship between police and Toronto’s LGBTQ+ communities.

The Jane Creba murder and the Toronto van attack reshaped discussions about gun violence, extremism, misogyny, and public-space security.

Anyone with information about an unresolved Toronto homicide can contact the Toronto Police Service Homicide and Missing Persons Unit.

Anonymous information can be provided through Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS.