Barry Ellsworth
27 January 2018•Update: 27 January 2018
By Barry Ellsworth
TRENTON, Canada
Toronto billionaire couple Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered, Toronto police said Friday at a news conference.
Their bodies were found by a real estate agent in the basement of their mansion Dec. 15. The home was for sale.
Police said the Shermans died from “ligature neck compression”.
Police designated the deaths as “suspicious”, but there was also a theory mentioned that it was a murder suicide.
The Sherman family did not believe the theory and hired experts, including a number of former Toronto homicide officers, to investigate separately from police.
Investigators concluded the Shermans were murdered.
The investigators said they uncovered evidence that Barry, 75, and Honey, 70, had leather belts around their necks that were knotted to a railing along their pool.
As well, their wrists revealed that they had at some point been tied together.
The investigators also concluded the pair were killed two days before the bodies were found.
On Friday, Toronto police confirmed that the Shermans were “targeted”, said Det-Sgt. Susan Gomes.
“We haven’t developed any suspects, outside of understanding that people are outstanding for – or a person is outstanding for – this offense.”
In a statement released shortly before the news conference, the Sherman family said it had anticipated the police investigation would conclude the two were murdered.
Barry, the founder of Canadian pharmaceutical giant Apotex, was worth about $4.8 billion at the time of his death.
