Stories of Murder in Toronto's Gay Village
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Majeed “Hamid” Kayhan, Abdulbasir Faizi and Skandaraj “Skanda” Navaratnam were all targets of Project Houston, a task force set up in November 2012 to investigate their disappearances. Kayhan and Navaratnam were also alleged targets of gay Toronto alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur. Project Houston did not find any evidence that the men were murdered, and … Read more
The body of Allan Lanteigne, 49, was found still dressed in his coat, face down in the front foyer of his home on March 3, 2011 just before 3:30p.m. He had been beaten to death. Lanteigne was a caterer and an accounting clerk at the University of Toronto and, when he did not show up … Read more
On December 29, 2010, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, disappeared. On April 11, 2018, Toronto police announced they charged alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur with his murder. Faizi was a married immigrant from Afghanistan, with a wife and two daughters. He was last seen leaving his work at a Mississauga printing company around 7 p.m. on the … Read more
Zipperz was a bar at the edge of the Gay Village, operating for 16 years at the corner of Carlton and Church Streets. Known for its piano players and retro dance feel, it attracted an older crowd. That’s where police believe Skandaraj “Skanda” Navaratnam, 40, met his killer. Navaratnam was last seen in the early … Read more
Christopher John Andrew Skinner was 27 when he was purposefully struck and killed by an SUV on October 28, 2009. He was killed in Toronto’s Entertainment District at Adelaide St. East and Victoria Street and police immediately began searching for CCTV and security video footage from businesses in the area. He was engaged and planning … Read more
On Monday July 14, 2008, sixty-four-year-old William Ross Magill was pronounced dead at his home on 40 Delisle Avenue. He had been stabbed. Magill, how usually went by Ross Magill, had been a gifted interior designer prior to his three-year descent into sex and drugs and alcohol. Friends said he had begun to bring home … Read more
Seventy-two-year-old Harley Walker was born in Manchester England and immigrated to Toronto in 1958 where he found employment with the CBC for 30 years. He went missing on October 13, 2006, after meeting a man, David Reid, on an internet gay chat room. The two men exchanged messages, and met for coffee for several months. … Read more
Lawrence “Larry” Roosevelt Callahan was born in Botwood Newfoundland on July 13. 1941. He died at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on June 10, 2006, after being savagely beaten in his home. It took more than a month for the police homicide unit to be called in to investigate his death. Callahan, 64, was found … Read more
On July 20, 2005, the Canadian Civil Marriage Act received royal assent, meaning persons of the same sex could legally get married in Canada.
Although it took the jury less than four hours to acquit Ivan Mendez-Romero of killing his lover Janko Naglic, and no other person has ever been charged, Toronto police consider Naglic’s murder to be “case closed.” Naglic, 58, was murdered on October 27, 2004 and found in his home on Balliol Street. Naglic was renowned … Read more
When he did not show up for work, police were called to the home of prominent psychiatrist and former medical director of the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, Dr. Henry Durost, on January 6, 2004. Inside the apartment at 7 Jackes Avenue they found Durost, 78, dead. Durost died of strangulation, and suffered broken ribs, … Read more
On August 25, 2003, Cassandra Do, 32, was found in her bathtub sexually assaulted and murdered in her 60 Glouster Street apartment by police who were responding to a call. An autopsy showed she was manually strangled. She had been scheduled to meet a client that day. Do, a preoperative transsexual who had once worked … Read more
David Buller was murdered at his desk at the University of Toronto’s Visual Studies department at 1 Spadina Crescent. On January 18, 2001, he was stabbed repeatedly and died in his office, to be found by a caretaker the next day. Det. Sgt. Ken Taylor said that despite Buller, 50, having been stabbed repeatedly in … Read more
In 1989, Anthony Patrick Bennett pleaded guilty to one charge of gross indecency related to sex abuse of a minor male. The judge found Bennett, then an ordained priest with the Archdiocese of St. John’s Newfoundland, did not require custody, and Bennett was given two years probation. The Church identified Bennett as a homosexual, not … Read more
Richard Kall, 45, was chief operating officer of the March of Dimes charity who was murdered by a man he went home with. He was found dead inside his 5 Concorde Place condominium days after his May 21, 2000 murder. Kall’s death left “a great hole in the heart” of his colleagues, “We are all … Read more