$10-Million Reward Offered for Solving Toronto Billionaires’ Murders

On December 15 of last year, a realtor found one of Canada’s richest couples murdered in their north Toronto mansion.

The lifeless bodies of the founder of one of Canada’s biggest pharmaceutical company, Apotex, and his wife were sitting on the cold concrete staring away from their in-house lap pool, they were clothed, around their neck were belts which attached to the railing that surrounded the pool. Brian Greenspan, a lawyer for the couple, said the bodies had been “staged postmortem in a very deliberate manner.” An autopsy showed that Barry, 75, and Honey, 70, Sherman died of “ligature neck compression.” They were worth an estimated $4.77-billion.

Months removed from the discovery of the bodies and who killed the billionaires and why is still a mystery.

Many theories have been floated—a prevalent one that was quickly put to rest was it was a murder suicide—but it seems no one is any closer to having an answer to this question. But now, if you can figure out (or know) who did it, tip off the family and it leads to an arrest you can be walking away with a cool $10 million in your pocket.

The award was announced last week in a press conference and the point of it is twofold. It’s, of course, an attempt to get tips but, according to Greenspan, it’s also to “light a fire” underneath police. According to the Toronto Sun, just five days removed from the press conference it seems the gambit paid off with several tips coming in—how many of these lead to anything concrete remains to be seen though.

For those of you cracking your knuckles and champing at the bit to get something and want a primer on the murder, Bloomberg did an excellent long form, well-reported cover story this month. For those of you who don’t have the time to read something that long, well, here are the coles notes: There was no obvious break-in to the Sherman’s home. They were killed in what was described by Bloomberg as a “personal, even intimate” manner. The scene was left tidy as can be—this has left some assuming it was a contract hit. In terms of background well there’s lots but, to keep it short, there was a messy family drama going on which involved several lawsuits, he was a ruthless businessman (but a kind-hearted philanthropist), and he tended to get involved financially with people he shouldn’t. With the limited knowledge we have of these killings, the list of suspects is long and the list of motives longer.

When you’re a billionaire you tend to leave behind some serious cash to those who love you and that cash can easily fund a war chest dedicated to finding your killer. That’s what we’re seeing happening in the Sherman case. The family has hired several experts in forensic, policing, and legal matters to look into the killings and attempt to find out who killed the Shermans.

At the press conference last week, a lawyer for the family said police have botched the investigation—saying they missed fingerprints, didn’t complete a thorough exam of the scene, and too readily accepted the murder-suicide explanation. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders held his own press conference defending his investigators on the same day.

If you did want to help solve this murder (or make a bid for the $10 million) you can call the tip line at 1-(833)-668-0001, it’s manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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