CANADA Canada - Barry, 75, & Honey Sherman, 70, found dead, Toronto, 15 Dec 2017 #17

[Bobbi Pearl]

I thought HS's cell phone was found in the bathroom ....

Could be I have read in the area of the powder room and that the powder room is at the front entry.

 

[FromGermany1]

I thought HS's cell phone was found in the bathroom ....

"Powder room".

 

[FromGermany1]

Now, I also find this interesting:

"Almost immediately after the Shermans’ death, Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai announced he would step down. A Teva lawsuit had accused Desai of accepting the Israeli drugmaker’s trade secrets from his girlfriend. Apotex vice chairman and former CEO Jack Kay replaced Desai and the company promoted global generics president Jeff Watson to president and chief operating officer.

Despite resigning, Desai denied the allegations against him and filed a countersuit in March 2018. Teva and Desai settled the lawsuits in April 2018, and Desai now serves as president and CEO of Mandara Pharma, a cannabis-based research company."

FYI: I am the one that bolded this article. But isn't it interesting Desai is now CEO of a Cannabis company?????

The hits keep coming: Apotex loses 31 drug approvals after FDA cites plants for 'inadequate' controls

Afaik, his wife is further working for Apotex.

 

[Bobbi Pearl]

I thought HS's cell phone was found in the bathroom ....

Could be I have read in the area of the powder room and that the powder room is at the front entry.

 

[FromGermany1]

It would be interesting for them to have started with people who entered Canada and then rather quickly turned around and left again, within a defined and rather narrow date range. imo. A previous poster suggested scrutinizing the entries via passports, rather than by plane tickets/specific airports. It's possible that arrivals from certain countries may be of more interest to LE than other countries.

What, if a private jet even??

 

[FromGermany1]

Could be I have read in the area of the powder room and that the powder room is at the front entry.

So did I.

 

[FromGermany1]

In the case of the Shermans, I believe somebody had to make a decision to have them murdered. I will call this person the Perpetrator.

In solving murders, it is not necessary to know the motive for the killing, but it can be useful. In this case, I think what is more salient is when and why the decision was made to kill the Shermans. Because from that decision, follows, recruiting a hit team, a method of paying a hit team, the hit team doing surveillance and so on.

Was there a event, that caused the perp, to say, "Okay that is it, the Shermans have to go"? Can we ascertain some specific action on the Sherman's part either individually or together, that would trigger the murder plan. It might have been a slight at a social event, or the result of a lawsuit, or rejection of an investment proposal. It might have been be the cumulation of several previous perceived indignities or disrespects. Literally the straw that broke the camel's back.

It had to be significant to the Perpetrator though. Since murder is very often based on a personal emotion it might, to us, appear an illogical choice to have them killed, but at the time, to the Perp it appeared as the only possible action.

If we can find something that the Shermans did to somebody, that was so egregious that the Perp wanted them dead, we might have a path to a solution.

Whatever this event or action was, initiated by the Shermans, I believe it likely occurred, no earlier that the Spring of 2017. It could have occurred in the summer or fall, but likely no later.

Think, specifically what did the Sherman's do or not do in this time period that would result in initiating a murder plan?

Unfortunately, there was a lot going on in the months before, with family/private things like the new home and business/es. We won't find THE only reason, IMO.

 

[branmuffin]

Would those other "perps" be on the same camera or neighborhood cameras that caught this suspect entering and leaving the area of the Sherman property?

Did LE collect more video evidence from the neighborhood for Thursday? I think about the Thursday visitor who may have entered & exited the residence a few times in a 45 min timeframe (one report stated they went to door and did not enter, another state they entered the home and were inside for up to 15 mins straight, then came out to car, then went back in for a total of 3 visits)

If Shermans had no appointments scheduled for this Thursday how often do strangers come to your door, knock, and if no answer try the door and enter, especially with cars out front? I thought a contractor but reports are they had no plans on this Thurs and no one missed them.

Reports are out that LE knew of this individual and had spoken with them. But they never revealed the purpose of the visit and share why you would go to the entry area and return to your car that was on the road not the driveway multiple times over 45 minutes. (why you would not use driveway - contractor it is against some company rules, your car leaks oil or fluids, what other reasons?)

Did LE check cell tower communications for the time the car was in the area? Were they calling HS cell that was on the floor in the general area of the front door.

Again no alarm bells were raised by this person, if they did go in, would they have seen a cell phone on floor?

A staff member stated on Friday the alarm was not on, it was off, I think she meant that the doors did not chime when they entered the home. You need a code to "disarm" the alarm system, do you need that for the window and door chimes? Or is it just a switch on the keypad you use for that? I assume this was an older system.

This and the 911 call, will we ever know if it was HS that dialed 911 from her phone? Thoughts that it was LE knocking on the door checking up on a 911 call on that Thursday have crossed my mind.

The odd thing about this unknown (to us) person who entered the home several times on Thursday, December 14 is that he was in no hurry to leave. He stuck around for far too long if he had anything to do with the murders.

My theory is that he may have been another realtor who had an appointment to show the home. He probably knew in advance that he could have entered the home at a specific time. Maybe after the Sherman's had left for the day (which may have been their usual routine if still alive). He may have gone into the home to see if his clients had already arrived and did a cursory check to see if they were there. It doesn't explain the other times he went into the home, though.

However, if he was a realtor where were his clients? Would they have shown up separately? Some realtors drive their clients to the house being shown. The realtor who discovered the Sherman's had clients from out of the country so it made sense to drive them to the house.

The other theory I have is that he was somehow connected to the murders. That his initial entrance to the home was to verify the murders. He went back to his vehicle to relay that information to some unknown individuals. And that posed a quandary for the unknown individuals. The Shermans were dead, but why hadn't the alarm been rung? Where were the family, the cops, the concerned people who wondered why appointments had been missed, etc? Why wasn't Old Colony Road crawling with LE?

But why did he return to the house? Was he looking for something else?

I understand why LE didn't release the name of the individual, if they eliminated him as a suspect. However, the current situation of four years without any relevant progress suggests to me LE should be starting from square one again.

I usually support LE but when reviewing the evidence or lack thereof, the slow walk investigation, the follow-ups, the lackadaisical manner in which this murder investigation moved forward I get the impression LE were always a day late and a dollar short. They were reactive instead of proactive.

It is egregious to me that neighbours almost hassled the police to review their security tapes and were met with complete indifference or woeful lack of information from the investigating officers.

A recap from 2018 still baffles me.
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[Bobbi Pearl]

This may have been discussed early on in the threads, but wouldn't there be DNA under BS and HS nails? If someone was strangling me with their hands or a belt I would be trying to fight them, scratch them etc....
Has the police or anyone ever mentioned any evidence of a struggle such as DNA under their nails etc?

Not if their hands were bound/tied or constricted by the winter coat, they could not fight back

 

[Gina20]

It would be interesting for them to have started with people who entered Canada and then rather quickly turned around and left again, within a defined and rather narrow date range. imo. A previous poster suggested scrutinizing the entries via passports, rather than by plane tickets/specific airports. It's possible that arrivals from certain countries may be of more interest to LE than other countries.

A search could be more limited if the passport(s) used were known to be false.

Canadian passports: The disguise of choice for international dirty deeds

 

[Bobbi Pearl]

Could be I have read in the area of the powder room and that the powder room is at the front entry.

bathroom / powder room, same thing (a powder room is normally just sink and toilet)

 

[Gina20]

Unfortunately, there was a lot going on in the months before, with family/private things like the new home and business/es. We won't find THE only reason, IMO.

True, a lot was going on in the neighborhood and in their lives. For example:

On January 1, 2017, a nearby mansion under construction burned to the ground. It was nearing completion, but nobody got the chance to move in.

UPDATE: Video shows demolition of North York mansion ravaged by fire New Year's Day

The new property at 91 Old Forest Hill Road was purchased in November 2016, and knocked down, but I do not know when the demolition was completed. That property was in Honey's name only.

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[Bobbi Pearl]

How could you get a warrant for that? That sounds like a fishing expedition and a lot of work; what would you do with thousands of names of people that arrived and maybe left Toronto on those dates? Who would they ask each airline, the governments of these airlines? What airports, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo? All are near enough to be used.

Is it still private information once a flight has landed? The privacy is for security purposes, possibly flight manifests are public knowledge after flights are complete? Air disasters do share manifests so maybe they are available to anyone without a warrant.

adding the security camera footage at airports would be interesting if they can find anyone with the same gait/walk-in that timeframe.

 

[WINDSOR]

How could you get a warrant for that? That sounds like a fishing expedition and a lot of work; what would you do with thousands of names of people that arrived and maybe left Toronto on those dates? Who would they ask each airline, the governments of these airlines? What airports, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo? All are near enough to be used.

Is it still private information once a flight has landed? The privacy is for security purposes, possibly flight manifests are public knowledge after flights are complete? Air disasters do share manifests so maybe they are available to anyone without a warrant.

It is my understanding based on experience, Canada Customs has greater leeway in investigations, gathering and collecting information. If you have crossed the international borders you will know, that under the Customs Act, the right to search and seizure is quite different and more encompassing than regular law enforcement has
For example, TPS will not usually seize your car if they find drug paraphernalia in it. Customs can and does.
Most non-Canadian Passports are scanned on entry and many on departure from Canada, the data bases are up to date and accurate.
How do you think they keep track of no-fly lists, terrorists, and sanctioned individuals?

 

[WINDSOR]

Unfortunately, there was a lot going on in the months before, with family/private things like the new home and business/es. We won't find THE only reason, IMO.

You got to start somewhere. There may be many reasons, but only a very few people who would make the decision to kill them.

 

[dotr]

Came across a thread i had started (regarding a nurse who was found hanging in her Hamilton home, perhaps staged as a suicide) and forgotten about, when this bit from a link posted caught my eye, fwiw.
CANADA - Patricia Paraszczuk, 26, nurse,ligature hanging/in burning house, Hamilton, Ont. 3 March 1982

Eternal Pain
Rbbm.
Eternal Pain
May 06, 2010 by Jon Wells
"It is late on the night of March 3, 1982. A young woman’s body is found in the basement of her burning home on Montclair Avenue, just east of Gage Park. She was strangled. Suicide? A hard-boiled detective on the case believes otherwise. So does the woman’s family. But there are far more questions than answers. The questions continue to this day."

"Firefighters had put out a house fire at 944 Montclair Ave. A body was inside.

At the scene, Crath, in suit and overcoat, spoke to a deputy fire chief.

“We have a dead body in the basement, “ the firefighter said.

The house still smouldered, the detectives moved down through the heat and charred stench to the unfinished basement, the floor covered in water. Crath saw a woman’s body, fully clothed, soaked. Her face was a bit dirty from the smoke, but she had suffered no damage from the fire.

He saw a thin chord, like twine: a ligature. She likely had strangled. The ligature had also somehow ridden up from her neck to her face.

Suicide? Possible, except Crath had been trained to treat every sudden death as a homicide. He grimaced. If it was a crime scene, it was a lousy one, he thought, evidence destroyed by either fire, smoke, water, firefighters trampling through the place. He didn’t begrudge the fire guys, they had to soak it, Montclair was a street of old homes, they could not risk fire spreading.

A couple of senior police officers arrived. Had to be suicide, one of them offered.

Crath knew most hangings are suicides but women usually don’t use that method. Most use pills.

The scene was odd. The fire had started in the basement, spread up to the first and second floors.

Some boxes and debris in the basement caught fire; Crath figured an accelerant of some kind had been used.

If she committed suicide, how would she have set the fire?

Then there was the hanging. She was not hanging from a rafter, kicked a bucket. No, the ligature had broken, and one severed end was still tied to a wooden post on a bearing stud wall—a joist, or firestop, part of an unfinished wall where insulation and drywall had not been added. The joist was only about three feet off the floor.

Very unusual. Crath knew some inmates in prison used a “low hang” to kill themselves, tied onto bars for leverage. But a woman in her own basement?

He also noted that her arms lay straight at her side. He knew that after a hanging, the hands are often near the neck, a sign that at the last moment they tried to save themselves. It was as though her arms had been placed in position.

Suicide?''

''They may wait a long while for a guilty conscience to take its toll. For 28 years someone has lived with the knowledge that the defining moment of his life was killing a small woman in cold blood, trying to make it look like a suicide, then leaving her to burn. He has lived like this a long time, perhaps not comfortably, but lived all the same."

 

[branmuffin]

Curious why would HS still have her winter coat on if she were home alone before Barry got home an hour or so later? Once he accidentally killed her did he then put her winter clothes back on? This is one aspect of an M/S situation that is off in my view- why do they need to be clothed in this manner and in then display this position?

Regardless of whether it is double murder or murder-suicide the crime scene is staged, but what is it staged to tell?

Violence or indication of a struggle was not hidden, evidence of the cell phone left on the floor - perps did not care about the phone at all - why not? Same for BS blackberry, it was left on the pool room floor (no reports if the phones were powered off or broken etc)
Evidence points to the fact that both were subdued shortly after entering the home (cell at HS entry point, papers, and gloves at BS entry point)

I often think the pool room was chosen to keep the bodies at a certain temp and to keep them from any outside view from a passerby. The smell of chlorine would also assist in covering any smells.

Leaving of the papers Barry had is such a misleading clue. If this case was due to the business of the 50 Old Colony home and property then for sale over 6 million - for a home that the Shermans sued and garnered more than 80% of the home initial 1.3 million value because it was poor building design and structure - to be put up for more than they spent is like a wtf moment for the construction companies that just gave back all the money spent to build it. The perps would not leave those papers on the floor if they were staging a M/S, nor leave her phone on the powder room floor - IMO.

I think it's very possible that someone was already in the house when HS arrived home through the front door. She probably didn't have time to take her coat off. She may have bolted to the powder room to call someone, maybe 911, but maybe just BM. She was thwarted and her phone left in the powder room to ensure she couldn't access it again.

If the unknown? assailant had no idea what time Barry would be home but knew he would arrive through the garage one floor below, he decided to escort Honey down there on the spiral staircase where her injuries may have occurred to lay in wait. When Barry entered he may have been verbally warned by Honey of an assailant and dropped his papers or because another person was there to subdue him, too.

We don't know how quickly things progressed from BM arriving home. They may have been kept in the basement unable to escape while the assailant(s) searched the home, whether for useful tools of murder or to search for legal documents. It would be ironic if the murder weapon, or at least the one meant to deceive, the cheap belt from Canadian Tire, was a hidden message. Kind of a modern day 'hoisted by his own petard' a nod to BM's 'penny wise but pound foolish' philosophy which may have angered someone.

 

[BaffleMe]

Curious why would HS still have her winter coat on if she were home alone before Barry got home an hour or so later? Once he accidentally killed her did he then put her winter clothes back on? This is one aspect of an M/S situation that is off in my view- why do they need to be clothed in this manner and in then display this position?

Regardless of whether it is double murder or murder-suicide the crime scene is staged, but what is it staged to tell?

Violence or indication of a struggle was not hidden, evidence of the cell phone left on the floor - perps did not care about the phone at all - why not? Same for BS blackberry, it was left on the pool room floor (no reports if the phones were powered off or broken etc)
Evidence points to the fact that both were subdued shortly after entering the home (cell at HS entry point, papers, and gloves at BS entry point)

I often think the pool room was chosen to keep the bodies at a certain temp and to keep them from any outside view from a passerby. The smell of chlorine would also assist in covering any smells.

Leaving of the papers Barry had is such a misleading clue. If this case was due to the business of the 50 Old Colony home and property then for sale over 6 million - for a home that the Shermans sued and garnered more than 80% of the home initial 1.3 million value because it was poor building design and structure - to be put up for more than they spent is like a wtf moment for the construction companies that just gave back all the money spent to build it. The perps would not leave those papers on the floor if they were staging a M/S, nor leave her phone on the powder room floor - IMO.

Link please papers on floor.

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Link please papers on floor.

“What’s more, Barry Sherman’s gloves and papers relating to a home inspection for the house were found on the floor just outside the garage door on the way to the pool in the basement.

While police officers have said there were no signs of forced entry into the home, the Star’s investigation revealed that a window was left open in a basement room that was being painted in order to air out the smell. A door leading outside from the basement was also left unlocked when police arrived at the scene, according to the paper.

Donovan speculated that someone with knowledge of the home’s layout and who knew the door was often left unlocked would have been able to enter and exit the home undetected and leave through the neighbour’s yard.”
Murdered billionaire couple posed like 'creepy' life-sized figurines found in home: report

 

[kiwi50]

Now, I also find this interesting:

"Almost immediately after the Shermans’ death, Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai announced he would step down. A Teva lawsuit had accused Desai of accepting the Israeli drugmaker’s trade secrets from his girlfriend. Apotex vice chairman and former CEO Jack Kay replaced Desai and the company promoted global generics president Jeff Watson to president and chief operating officer.

Despite resigning, Desai denied the allegations against him and filed a countersuit in March 2018. Teva and Desai settled the lawsuits in April 2018, and Desai now serves as president and CEO of Mandara Pharma, a cannabis-based research company."

FYI: I am the one that bolded this article. But isn't it interesting Desai is now CEO of a Cannabis company?????

The hits keep coming: Apotex loses 31 drug approvals after FDA cites plants for 'inadequate' controls

I’ve always found it interesting that JD left Apotex so soon after the murders.
Wonder what BS thought of JD’s affair, wish we knew if he encouraged it or was annoyed.