Toronto serial killer used victims as landscaping material

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The house on Mallory Crescent was a gray two-story shotgun with brown trim, its garage just a few steps up from the sidewalk.

In the summer months, vegetation spilled out from the flower beds running along the driveway, but by the time investigators from the Toronto Police Service marched up to the address on Jan. 18, the raw Canadian winter had scraped away the landscaping. Police turned their attention to large flower planters stored at the back of the property.

They had arrived at Mallory Crescent because a self-employed landscaper named Bruce McArthur regularly worked on the lawn and stored equipment there. That same day, he was charged with killing two people. Police had reason to believe there might be additional victims. And they believed they knew where they might find them.

Indeed, inside the planters were hidden the dismembered remains of at least three people.

On Monday, McArthur, a bulky-framed pink-cheeked 66-year-old who regularly donned a Santa Claus costume at a local mall during the holidays, was charged with three additional homicides.

Police believe there are more bodies still. Right now, investigators are undertaking the macabre task of visiting the 30 other properties where McArthur worked, collecting more than a dozen planters that police believe contain additional remains.

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