A 66 year old landscaper, Bruce McArthur, has been titled an alleged serial killer by the Toronto Police Department. Not only did he kill five people, but he hid the remains in potted plants on the property where he stores his landscaping equipment. All victims are believed to have had a personal relationship with McArthur and were all males in their late forties and early fifties. Although intially there had been 6 sets of human remains found, only one has been truly identified. The four other sets have enough evidence to guess who they were, but the last set is still a mystery.
Police are expanding their investigation from just McArthur's property to all the places he has connections with from his landscaping past. Although, further evacuation of one of his properties has been held up by the frozen ground. Investigators have been heating the ground for over a week and should be able to start digging soon. They've also taken 15 planters from places that could hold more remains, but I'm sure the hope is that nothing more turns up of unlucky victims.
One of the potted plants where the Toronto police found remains in a garden
Questions
1. Do you think McArthur killed any more people and hid the remains at the places he's worked? If so, about how many?
2. What do you think was going through the landscaper's mind when he decided to hide his victim's remains in potted plants?
My Answers-
I don't think there's going to be any more remants of bodies found because the victims were all people he knew so he wasn't going on a killing spree of random people, just people he wanted to kill and I doubt there's fifteen more people he had on his list. I think the potted plants seemed like a good idea to him at the time because who would think to look in there and it has ties to his job.
Replies
Great job Casey!
There probably won’t be anymore remains found because if the victims where all people he knew police would have picked up of this sooner. He was probably thinking that the body parts would decompose if he hid them in the potted plants, and that it was less likely the parts would be found.
Yeah the police could've asked everyone for who he's known to interact with or had connections with, since he seemed to kill people he knew, and tracked down those people to see if they were missing or had any leads already. I didn't think about the remains decomposing in the plants but that helps to make more sense and seems likely.
1. That's a hard question. I would like to think that those people were it but probablyy the police will some more
2. If we would now what's in a murderer's mind than we could stop him. Unluckily we don't, so I can just guess that he thought potted plants might be the perfect hiding place.
I'm also hoping that it stays only those five victims because I don't want any more tradgedy to happen to other families but the police are still investigating the case. I wonder if we could see what was going through a murderer's mind if it would possible convince them not to do anything or if it would still turn out the same?
I think its a possiblity if he has other people he hasn't gotten along with.
That he was out to do a job and get it done.
I think that could be another possibility, especially if he was bad tempered and held lots of grudges. The potted plants may have been his choice because they were closest to him and convienent and would've made it easier to get his job done like you said.
I do think that it's possible that he may have killed more people and their bodies haven't yet been found. I don't have any idea what the landscaper could have been thinking because I don't understand how he could have killed the people in the first place.
I wouldn't be surprised if he did kill more people although I do wonder if he did if the remains will be found in the 15 potted plants the police have taken for investigation or in the ground. I know what you mean about not being able to understand what he could have been thinking because what could have driven him to hate them so much to kill them?