The Killer Santa: Bruce McArthur | The Christmas Killings hosted by Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

Toronto, Canada. It's considered one of the safest big cities in the world. The church Wells leave a village. It was a
fun-loving jovial place for folks to come in and celebrate. At Christmas, people from all over filled the streets
of Toronto to celebrate. But in 2010, an unknown terror begins to prey on the city's gay
community. A series of disappearances started happening at the center, the gay village. I'm like, what the hell is
going on? There has to be a serial killer. What follows is one of the most shocking investigations in Toronto
history. We had no idea what was going on. He just turned around and grabbed me by the throat. My greatest fear was
being found dead. Someone was saying that they had killed and consumed brownskinned man in Toronto's gay
village. [Music] [Music] Hello, I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us here at the Christmas
Killings. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, especially in Canada's largest city of Toronto.
It's Christmas time in the city. The climate usually delivers on the promise of a blanket of snow for
Christmas. The Sea Tower lights up in red and green. Even Santa himself appears in shopping malls to greet
people from all around the world. [Music] It's a time of love, of generosity, of
giving, and people in Toronto truly come out to help the less fortunate. Karen Frasier is one of them. She's a
philanthropist who embodies the meaning of Christmas by running charities and helping others less fortunate than
herself. For Christmas, we help homeless people and so we often spend Christmas in a
shelter or helping kids in a shelter. We have put 230,000 blankets and sleeping bags
mainly on the Toronto streets. So that made Christmas much much better for us. 2005 Karen Frasier spreads Christmas
cheer when she produces a Christmas podcast that features a department store Santa.
How did you end up being Santa this year? Well, it was through a friend that I used to work with and said, "Uh, what
are you doing uh the month of November, December?" I said, "Well, I'm free." eat
and he said, "Well, how would you like to be Santa?" And I thought, "Well, that sounds interesting." What do they ask
you at this Santa interview? Well, they prepare you for how you would answer questions that might be difficult. Like
kids would ask like they would want their parents back together again for Christmas. Oh, and what does Santa say
on that matter? Uh, well, I'm in the toy business. And Oh, in that toy business.
Move along. Karen Frasier's guest on that podcast is a man named Bruce MacArthur. Bruce was a
man who had made a lot of big life decisions, difficult ones. He moved from the country to the city. He never said
to me that he was gay. It just was. Someone had outed him to his wife and that's what ended his marriage. So
that must have been very uncomfortable. But, you know, the two of them worked it
out in quite a friendly way. No one realizes that being a gay man in Toronto would become so
dangerous, starting in late 2010. The city welcomes people of diverse sexual orientations. Haran Vijunathan is one of
them. I was living in Missaga, which was just outside of Toronto, but I would come down to visit friends and and go
for coffee or dinner or go out in the evenings, just to come down and just to be with people who were like me, who
looked like me in terms of my race, but also people who shared my sexual orientation. And it was just nice to
celebrate and get together. There was a sense of security there because people knew you.
But the feeling of community and acceptance in Toronto's gay village around 2010 started to shift a little
bit. That was when a series of disappearances started happening. All of them happening at the center, the gay
village. 4 days after Christmas, December 29, 2010, Abdul Bazir Fisy doesn't come home
from work, Fis, a 42-year-old Iranian Canadian husband, a beloved father of two children. Abdul Bazir Fisy worked at
a printing factory. He had told his wife that he was going out to meet friends. What his wife doesn't know is her
husband has hookups with men. So after work, he heads to the gay village. As you can imagine, his wife wouldn't
have even known where to start looking for him, but she did file a missing person's report when he didn't come
home. Not long after Fisy went missing, police found his car on January 4th, just a few days after New Year's. Fisy's
car is parked about a 7-minute drive north of Church and Welsley Streets, the heart of the gay village. And it was
locked. There was no sign of anything that had gone arry. For police, Fisy's disappearance
was a complete mystery. They didn't really know where to begin. At first, police also do not
connect Fisy's disappearance to another one in the same area. So, four months before Fisy's
disappearance, another man had gone missing. Scandinavatnam was really well known in
the gay village. He was incredibly outgoing. He was smart and the last place that he was
seen was leaving zippers which is one of the most famous bars in the gay village
was his friends who reported him missing. Navaratnam originally from Sri Lanka. He's working as a teaching
assistant at University Toronto. He has no family in Canada, but he has lots of friends, and they make sure missing
person posters are visible throughout the gay village. I remember walking to the grocery store that existed on Church
Street and then checking out the posters like, "Oh, there's a brown person. What's what's happening there?"
It was more the picture that I really remember and and his ethnicity came out in the picture and then I read his name
and I'm like, "Oh, a Tamil man. That's interesting." And I remember having a brief conversation about the about the
missing person's poster and again I wasn't living in the village at the time. However, I trusted the system when
because it was an official poster, my hope was something was being done about it.
So after Fisy goes missing that makes two people missing in the village Scandinavatam and Abdul Bazier Fisy. And
for police it's challenging because these posters are going up in the village. Two men have gone missing and
they don't have any leads. Toronto police find no evidence of foul play. Months go by, but no meaningful
tips are generated by the posters of the missing men. Two years later, another man goes
missing. Vegeta Cahan lived in the village. He was also well known there. He was from Afghanistan
originally and his son ended up reporting him missing because he stopped getting phone calls from his
dad. And that's when I moved into the village in 2012 and my roommate and I shared a apartment on Matland Street and
we'd be going down walking the dog. You see the posters again, you're like, why?
what the hell is going on? And and that fear started happening in 2012. Is the village safe anymore for
people of color? And I started working at the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention
at the time as the interim executive director. We started getting questions because those three individuals were,
you know, brown men. In particular, the brown men community were quite concerned. And of course, you know, we
tried to inquire. we were following up with the police and we didn't get much information. So, we would just say, you
know what, if you're going out and you're meeting somebody for the first time and it's anonymous, then just make
sure somebody knows. Let your roommate or a friend know that you're going out to meet somebody. People need to know
where you're going. So, at this point, these disappearances are being investigated
separately. They are picking up on the fact that the men had each frequented places in the village, but they're not
necessarily putting together these disappearances. That all changes a few weeks later. So, in November 2012,
Toronto police got a truly remarkable tip coming from the Swiss police. And what they said was that they
had an informant who was spending some time on um some cannibalism fetish sites and had gotten a tip there that
someone was saying that they had killed and consumed a brownskinned man in Toronto's gay village.
Toronto, Canada, 2011. Christmas right around the corner. People who live in Toronto love
the holidays. Karen Frasier doing outreach at a homeless shelter downtown. Her friend Bruce MacArthur starting his
annual gig as Santa starring in a local mall. I have some of the same kids will come
back every weekend to see me. That's fabulous. You're a big hit. Yeah, I never expected to enjoy it as much as I
have. It has been so much fun. Kieran Frasier unaware at that point men are going missing in the gay village.
Meanwhile, Toronto police responding to a shocking tip that's come all the way from Switzerland.
Someone online had admitted to consuming a brownskinned man from Toronto's gay village. The name of the online
community was Zambian Meat and the alias of the person claiming to have killed someone in Toronto was ChefMate 50. And
as unbelievable as that tip might sound, it had come from someone who had a track
record of previously finding someone who was a real cannibal in Slovakia. And so
police pursued it. They end up sending someone to Switzerland to do further investigation.
The tip also connects the three missing person cases in the gay village to become a joint investigation. They
launch Project Houston. It's a special task force that is specifically to look at these three disappearances. They can
no longer deny that there are some similarities here and they decide that they have to really drill down and look
at what's going on here. Navaratum, Fizy, and Cayenne all go missing from a threeb block
radius. All three men are physically similar, and they come from similar backgrounds. All three
middle-aged. The name of the project comes from Houston. We have a problem. Project Houston is an intensive
investigation, but Toronto police don't go public with it. They're also not working directly with gay organizations
in the city. Project Houston saw police investigators do a lot of the classic tactics when you're running an
investigation. They did ground searches. They conducted dozens of interviews. They also focused in on that
tip about Chef Mate 50. They poured tons of resources into that tip, examining whether they could find this man who was
claiming to be a cannibal. And it did ultimately lead them to an arrest, but it was nothing like they were
expecting. Chef Mate 50 ends up being a man in his 60s from Peterborough, Ontario, James Bruntton.
They found a man in Chefm Mate 50 who had fantasized a lot about cannibalism, who'd written some
pretty disgusting things on the internet, but ultimately a lot of it had been just fantasy.
He had been a little league coach for a hockey team and they found that he had been placing cameras in the locker rooms
and were able to arrest him on child pornography. He was ultimately convicted, but police were able to
confirm that he had never in fact killed or eaten anybody. Toronto police go public about
Project Houston after the arrest of James Bruntton. They hope to learn more about the missing men. Right now, it's
we're just looking at the three men and it's classified as a missing person investigation. This foul play suspect is
still unclear. Right now, what we need are leads. We need people to call in uh giving us information on their
whereabouts. It's great to know that the Toronto Police Services did have a project to
look for these men, Project Houston. And I'm grateful in that that project actually resulted in a child porn ring
being shut down. However, it really didn't do anything for the three men that went missing.
You know, the chatter in the community was one of fear of their own perceptions of what's
happening like a serial killer. And there were some pretty racist uh things that were being said as well in the
community. Oh, they're all brown people. that are new to the country and they're
probably living a closeted life and they're probably just gone back to their wives or their families outside of
Toronto or back to their home countries and I didn't unfortunately take the time to learn about them and
that's something that I regret. That's one of those regrets is that I didn't do anything at that time.
In the end, Project Houston never solves the missing person cases, but police do
uncover an important clue for future investigations. So, as police are continuing their investigation into
Project Houston, they find a link between Scandinavier Fisy, each of them had written down a username, Silver
Fox. As it turned out, that was a username that was on silverdaddies.com. It's a meeting site
for gay men. So, when police looked further into that Silver Fox username, they found out
that it was a man named Bruce, who was 61 and from Toronto. Police continue to look into that
lead and they ultimately land on Bruce MacArthur. Bruce MacArthur, the shopping mall Santa, agrees to meet with Toronto
police for an interview. MacArthur, also gay, is a member of the Church Street community.
What he told them was that yes he was silver fox and he admitted to knowing Scandinavaratnam and Abdul Bazir
Fisy. He also provided an important new piece of information which was that he knew Majid Cahan the third missing man
from the gay village. He said that he had employed him as a landscaper although he didn't
end up being the hardest worker. In that sense, police had Bruce MacArthur tied to all three of the
missing men who were the subject of Project Houston. But MacArthur came across as
quite helpful. He wanted to assist them, and he seemed like someone who didn't have anything to
hide. They didn't make him a suspect or even a person of interest. After the conviction of James Bruntton
and five months after police speak to Bruce MacArthur, Project Houston is closed. They ultimately ran out of
steam. They didn't have any other evidence and they also didn't have any definitive proof that these three men
were dead. They were missing and they closed the case. When Houston closed in 2014, most of the posters of Scandanda
Abdul Bazir and Majid came down in most institutions. After Project Houston closes, there's no closure in the
village. There's just sort of like a lingering unease about where these men had gone and not having any
answers. And it stayed around for years until other disappearances start being discovered.
[Music] This is the Christmas killings. Thank you for being with us. In 2011, Toronto,
Canada, seems like one of the safest cities in the world. A city that at Christmas time welcomes people from all
around the world, including all cultures, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. But is evil lurking in Toronto's gay
neighborhood? Three men disappear. Karen Frasier continues her Christmas charity
work on Toronto's streets. Unaware of the disappearances. Her Santa Claus friend
Bruce MacArthur also works as a gardener, helping her raise money for her causes.
[Music] Bruce MacArthur was a genius at creating container arrangements of foliage or
flowers. Really amazingly talented. He donated porch arrangement for Christmas and we auctioned it off and it it raised
a lot of money. Bruce MacArthur also takes care of Karen Frasier's garden. In return, she allows him to store his
landscaping equipment in her garage. He loved his work and he knew he was really
good at it. He tended people's gardens. He took care of them. He designed them. He planted them. Bruce helped. Anytime
we needed something for a display, for a charity to thank someone who done something really nice for the charity,
Bruce never hesitated. Karen Frasier's charity work regularly brings her to Toronto's gay village, but
unfortunately she is still unaware of disappearances happening right under her nose. Ron and I were oblivious to it. We
had satellite TV and we saw a lot more American news. We didn't see Canadian. Between 2015 and 2016, three more men
disappear. Souch McMoody, a 50-year-old Iranian Canadian, lives in the Toronto suburb of Scarboro with his wife and
stepson. They report him missing August 22, 2015. Two more men are not reported missing.
Krishna Kumar Kanagaratam is a 37year-old man from Sri Lanka. He makes a dangerous journey to Canada as he runs
from persecution in his home country. His refugee claim is denied by Canada early 2016. His family in Sri Lanka
stops hearing from him in January. They assume he's gone into hiding. Three months later, 42-year-old Dean
Lissawick checks into a Toronto homeless shelter for the last time. A familiar and friendly face in the village.
Lissawick often seen panhandling on the corner of Church in Welssley. Locals take notice when they stop seeing him,
but police are never notified. When Salem Assing disappears the following Easter, another poster
goes up. He's from Turkey and moves to Toronto to marry his boyfriend. Their relationship did not last, but they were
still in touch at the time of Sem's disappearance and his ex was actually the one who ended up reporting Sem
missing to police. And again, the community still had that level of fear as as Selen's poster went
up. Two months later, the level of fear in Toronto's gay community skyrockets in
June of 2017, right as Toronto's Pride Festival is going on, the preeminent event in the LGBTQ
community, Andrew Kinsman goes missing. He is a pillar of the gay community in the city. Andrew was someone that I
knew. He worked for the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation. He was heavily involved in community at that time. Um,
so we were at meetings together. He was someone who looked very intimidating. He's this
6'2 broad white guy with his beard and his combat boots on, but a gentle giant is what he was. and and everyone will
describe him as that. Um once he gets to know you, he's the most uh gentlest person uh that you will ever meet.
Andrew Kinsman is not an immigrant. He's well known for his work in the community. And unlike the missing men
before him, the response to his disappearance is quick and loud. He goes missing after Pride and his uh
friends had reported him missing. And then there was a huge campaign by the community, his friends and family coming
together to do searches for him and raise the awareness of this man going missing within our community. I'm very
concerned. It's been a week. It's this is not characteristic of Andrew's behavior at all. Um he's a generous,
kind person and he would not leave all of us hanging like this. He would let us know. And they're also putting
significant pressure on police. And the police are prompted to take this disappearance very seriously and the
disappearance of Salem Essen that had happened just a few months before Andrew Kinsman. And from that pressure came the
formation of a new special project that Toronto Police called Project Prism. One of the things that Toronto police
find in Andrew Kinsman's apartment when they're conducting a search are two shoe
boxes that have been stuffed with cash. About $130,000. And you can imagine that
that's quite a strong sign that he hadn't left by choice. inside Andrew Kinsman's apartment.
Police ultimately home in on a really important detail. They see a calendar on Kinsman's
fridge and they note that on the day that he disappeared, he had an appointment. At around 2:00, he was
supposed to meet a man named Bruce. Investigators check all security cameras in the area of Andrew Kinsman's
apartment on the afternoon of June 26. So, what they saw in that surveillance footage was a man who fit the
description of Andrew Kinsman, tall and wearing clothes that Andrew had been wearing that day,
getting into the van, a red Dodge Caravan. Police couldn't tell exactly what year it had been made, but they
take a still image of the van to a dealership. They learn that it was a Dodge Caravan from
2004. They take that information and they see how many 2004 Dodge Caravans are licensed in the province. And they
learn that there are 6,000, which is a long list. But when one of the detectives on the
case searches the name that had been on Kinsman's calendar, Bruce, they end up finding five owners.
Of those five Bruces, there is only one that has a criminal history, and it's Bruce MacArthur.
Back in 2016, there had been an incident that had been reported to police by a man who said that a man named Bruce had
assaulted him in a red van. He'd gotten away, but he really truly believed he was fighting for his
life. Bruce had that same night walked into a police station saying that he wanted to explain his side of the story.
He was arrested for assault. So sir, if you would like to uh provide us with your account of what occurred earlier
this evening. Well, and that we talked about going for dinner. He said he needed to take a shower. So I said that
meet him at the Tim Hortons at Finch Doctors. He had explained, yes, we were hooking up. Yes, this happened. But I
thought that he wanted it rough. And I thought, okay, he likes it rough. So I put my hand to his throat
and just for a few seconds because he be before that he he's very strong he just
completely turned around and grabbed me by the throat. We have had sex you know numerous times after I had a problem.
Sure. Yeah. Okay. And as a result of that information, Bruce MacArthur was let go
again. Time that I have is uh 10:28. Complete the interview here. August 2017, police begin tracking Bruce
MacArthur. He's their prime suspect, but they do not release his name to the public. They see him coming and going in
his red van, going to landscaping gigs, meeting with friends. What used to happen on some days, if I wasn't busy, I
would go out and help unload the van or load it up depending on what stage they were at. I met quite a few of the men
who either worked with Bruce or were his guests. I wasn't clear on who was an employee and who was a guest visiting
who just wanted to see what Bruce did for a living. You know, he traveled a lot in the Middle East and may maybe
being a landscaper is sort of an unusual job in their country, so they were just
coming along to watch. I thought and then all of a sudden police notice that he's got a new
van and the red van that was such an important piece of evidence for them was missing. Frankly, they don't really have
any other leads. So they end up having this meeting where one of the lead investigators says, "We
need to go out and find that van, right now." Toronto, Canada, 2017. Police launched a desperate search for the van
in which they believe Bruce MacArthur murdered Andrew Kinsman. For weeks, they visit dealerships, body shops, and
wrecking yards across the greater Toronto area. And finally, around Canadian Thanksgiving, police get a
break. They get lucky. They talk to the owner of an auto wrecking company who says,
"Yeah, we have this [Music] van. They are very fortunate that it hasn't been crushed, that it hasn't been stripped of
any of its parts. They have finally on their hands uh an incredible piece of evidence,
which is the red Dodge Caravan that had been driven by Bruce MacArthur. So, police had lost this van once. They
did not want to lose it again. And so, they towed it from the wrecking yard and they followed behind all the way down
the highway, taking it to the Center for Forensic Sciences. When the forensic evidence
comes back, it's incredibly important. They are able to determine that there are bits of Andrew Kinsman's blood
inside the [Music] van. But it's not so simple because the amount of blood was not significant. And
police knew that in the hands of the right criminal defense lawyer, they would be able to explain away why Andrew
Kinsman's blood was in the van. [Music] They need more physical evidence to prove that he had in fact murdered him.
And so police, they apply to a judge to do something quite invasive. Police get permission through a warrant
to be able to go into Bruce MacArthur's apartment secretly, covertly, and search
and see if they can find any physical proof. It's December and Bruce is still working, but there's a blanket of snow
on the ground and his schedule is suddenly unpredictable. They're following him and they believe
that he will be out for some time and so the decision is made to go into the apartment. He was taking a client out
for her birthday. He picked up a lot of his wealthy clients, the quite elderly women, a lot of them. As he said, I'm
I'm their beast of burden. They just keep handing presents to me. He drove them around town. He gave them wonderful
Christmas [Music] presents. They're searching his bedroom and they are focusing in on his
computer and they start doing something called cloning, which is essentially making a copy of his hard drive and
taking its contents to be able to search through them later. And so they're about 45% of the way
through getting the contents of his computer when they find out that he's actually on his way
back. Having him discover that they were actually in there might be fatal to their investigation. So they have to
cover their tracks and they have to immediately get out of the apartment. Police only have about half the
computer's contents, but that's enough to get [Music] started. Soon enough, they find pictures
of Andrew Kinsman and of Scandinavaratnam, but they're pictures from much happier times from when they
were alive. and it's not necessarily a smoking gun. So, they continue scouring through the contents of this computer
for weeks. They're working through Christmas. So, they start taking a different approach and are looking for
images through a different kind of software that allows them to find deleted images. And that breaks the
investigation wide open. [Music] What they end up finding is devastating. They find a photo of Salem
Essen. He is in Bruce MacArthur's apartment on his bed. He is deceased. This is the first time that
Toronto police have direct evidence that Salem Essen is dead. and that Bruce MacArthur is
involved. As they continue their investigation, they find more photos. The next one they find is of Andrew
Kinsman. The dead victims are dressed in a fur coat and they're posed in humiliating positions.
The photos have never been publicly released for fear of retraumatizing the victim's families.
They are a chilling discovery for police who recognize them as a serial killer's
trophies. They know that they have to arrest him as soon as possible. So, they have a frantic
meeting where they talk about the logistics of how they're going to arrest him and ensure that they secure all of
the evidence possible. They decide they'll need a couple of days And in the meantime, what is absolutely
critical is that they do not allow Bruce MacArthur to be alone with anybody. They
have to have him under constant surveillance. On the morning of January 18, just one day before police plan to
arrest Bruce MacArthur, a complication. Their surveillance team picks up on Bruce MacArthur getting in his van with
another [Music] man. Police learned their prime suspect in a series of murders targeting gay men
is on the move. His name, Bruce MacArthur. Police have MacArthur under surveillance, but now they fear he's
driving another potential victim to his apartment. They realize they need to immediately arrest
him. There is potentially a life that's on the line. And so all of a sudden, they are rushing. They are speeding over
to his apartment and they are fighting against time to get there before he can do anything rash. By the time police
reach the building, Bruce MacArthur and his companion have already gone upstairs. Police head up to his
apartment and they're ready to just push in that door. But first, they knock and
MacArthur ends up answering the door. and investigators tell him that he is under arrest for the murder of Andrew
Kinsman and Sem Essen. He doesn't seem surprised. And then when detectives go into his
bedroom, they make quite a discovery. They find a man who was handcuffed. He was
naked. and he also had a black hood that had been placed on his head, but he was
alive. The man on the bed very well could have been victim number [Music] nine. Right after MacArthur is arrested,
police fan out to all the properties that are connected to him through his landscaping and very soon they focus in
on 53 Mallerie Crescent where he had kept his landscaping equipment. Was a very cold day. It was a
cold winter actually. I was getting up when there was a pounding on the door and I'm
surprised they didn't break the glass on such a cold day. So, I pulled the door open and there were two
guys in navy blue. I thought maybe they were police, but it didn't really look like a uniform. Man kept saying, "Are
are you Karen Fraser?" "Yes." "Well, you have to leave your house now." A terrible crime has been committed and
Bruce MacArthur's being arrested. It's like my brain split in two. It seemed almost impossible. I guess part of my
brain had decided that I must I didn't hear that right. So, he repeated it. So, I said, "Okay." And then we
left and we didn't know that we wouldn't be back for 23 days. Of course, we defended Bruce
MacArthur for several days because he'd only been arrested and he'd been a friend for 15 years. You don't kick a
friend under the bus. When police search Karen Fraser's property, they bring in cadaavver dogs.
The dogs show immediate interest in Karen's flower pots. When I went in to be questioned with the police at 51
Division, we sat there for hours. when the police fanned out photographs on the table in front of me and said, "Do you
know any of these men?" And I said, "The man on the left, that's Scanda." I met Scanda once for 10
minutes, like eight years before, and I remembered his name and I remembered everything about him. That's the kind of
guy he was. He was delightful, smart, charming. I did remember Hamid as well. Well, I call him Hamid because I
feel like I know these men now. He he was an employee and Hamid had the most fabulous smile. You know, the
crinkly eyed smile, very attractive man, looked very pleasant. And I said to the officer, "Uh, may I
ask what the crime is?" No one had said. They said, "Yes, he's been arrested for the murder of two
men." The contents of the flower pots are frozen solid, but x-rays are taken and analyzed.
About 3 days later, one of the detectives who were we were getting to know quite well at that point just said,
"Stop wasting your sympathy on that guy." I don't think we've ever had more evidence on a killer than we've got on
that guy. Oh, okay. We stopped defending him. Eventually, the frozen skeletal remains
of seven innocent men will be discovered in those flower pots. The eighth victim's remains are found elsewhere
there on Kieran Frasier's property. It is the worst serial murder case in Toronto history.
When I found out what was in the planters, the uh evidence of his terrible crimes in my backyard, it
certainly confirmed he's a monster. [Music] When the news broke around how these
individuals were found and where they were found um cut up and planted in pots, people were just disgusted. People
were angry. People were just sad. You know, that someone could be so cruel and inhumane. In speaking with the families,
they were angry at MacArthur. They just didn't understand why he did what he did. But they were more angry at the
system for letting this happen to their families. Like, how did the system let this happen to my
child or my brother? And then when you hear family members say things like, "I wonder if he felt
anything." What do you say to that? And so it was those kinds of questions and and fear um that
really uh rested within community and within definitely the families which was the tragic
part. Bruce MacArthur waves his right to a preliminary hearing on January 18, 2019.
He pleads guilty to eight counts first-degree murder. MacArthur gets an automatic life
sentence with no chance of parole. This is Canada's longest sentence. Bruce MacArthur shows no remorse in court and
he has never said another word publicly. As for Karen Frasier, despite the evil MacArthur showed the world, she remains
positive. She and her husband continue their Christmas volunteer work. Oddly, it hasn't changed us at
all. It just confirmed most people are wonderful. We had people from across the country who sent us cards. Some of them
shared scary times that they had been through that they felt that they could really empathize with us. It just
confirmed that you have to keep [Music] going. It's a shocking end to Toronto's biggest serial murder investigation. A
group of men who are among the city's most vulnerable meet tragic fates at the hand
of a monster. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us here on The Christmas
Killings. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat.

Toronto police are on the hunt for a serial killer who likes to dress up as Santa. The murderer preys on vulnerable men, and apparently won’t stop until he’s caught. The pressure is on to arrest him before he kills again. Will police get their man?

Brief Summary

The episode covers the chilling disappearances of men in Toronto's gay village and the investigation leading to Bruce MacArthur's arrest for multiple murders.

Key points

The Disappearances Begin. In 2010, a series of disappearances in Toronto's gay village raises alarms.
Christmas Charity Work. Karen Frasier spreads Christmas cheer while unaware of the growing danger.
Project Houston Launched. Toronto police launch Project Houston to investigate the missing men.
Bruce MacArthur Interviewed. Bruce MacArthur, a key figure, is interviewed by police regarding the missing men.
Lingering Unease. After Project Houston closes, the community remains unsettled about the missing men.
Chilling Discovery. Police find photos of victims in MacArthur's apartment, confirming their worst fears.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There has to be a serial killer.

The realization of a potential threat to the community.

0:35WatchApr 8, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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