For the first time, upon the fourth anniversary of their deaths, Toronto police have released surveillance footage of a suspect in the murders of billionaire couple Barry and Honey Sherman.
The couple were found in the basement of their North York home, tied to a railing by their necks. Ligature neck compression was eventually declared the cause of death.
The grainy 22-second surveillance clip, which was screened at a news conference at Toronto Police Headquarters on Dec. 14, shows an individual walking along the sidewalk of a street:
The suspect’s face and clothing are unidentifiable in the video, although police were able to determine the subject is between five-foot-six inches and five-foot-nine-and-a-half inches tall. Specific attention was drawn to the gait of the suspect, who appeared to kick their right foot up while walking. Police hope a member of the public will recognize the unusual walk.
Detective Sergeant Brandon Price stated that the footage is being released because police have “exhausted” other avenues of identification.
“We’ve conducted numerous canvasses of the neighbourhood to identify individuals on the videos,” said Price. “We have been able to eliminate the vast majority of people captured on the video. We are left with one individual whom we have been unable to identify.”
“To be clear, this release is in no way an indication of a conclusion to this investigation. From the beginning, this has been a multifaceted investigation, and we will continue to work on various other avenues of investigation that we have undertaken and keep an open mind to new ones.”
The Shermans did not have a security camera, but police say the individual was captured by multiple cameras in the vicinity of their Old Colony Road home in North York. Price would not disclose where the released footage was filmed, but stated that the figure spent a “very suspicious” amount of time that was “tight” to the couple’s property.
Criticism of case
Toronto Star investigative reporter Kevin Donovan determined this footage was shot 1.3 kilometres away from the Sherman home after contacting neighbours.
Donovan has reported extensively on the case and has been openly critical of how police handled the murders, which included mistakenly identifying the crime as a murder-suicide for weeks and delays in evidence collection.
The reporter has applied for numerous files to be unsealed and released to the public—and, in 2019, published a book: The Billionaire Murders: The Mysterious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman.
The couple were known for their philanthropy, and donated tens of millions of dollars to a number of charities and Jewish groups. Barry was the CEO and founder of pharmaceutical company Apotex.
Watch a May 2021 interview with Kevin Donovan for The CJN Daily, in which he discussed the progress of his investigative reporting with podcast host Ellin Bessner: