Toronto 2017 - the Shermans were found dead in their mansion.
The victims were Barry Sherman and his wife Honey Sherman. The Canadian police initially thought that this was a murder/suicide perpetrated by Barry.
Poor police work meant that they lost early opportunities in the investigation by unfairly claiming Barry even being capable of murdering his beloved Honey. Barry Sherman was not even physically capable of the murder.
Barry was a multi-billionaire and head of the pharma company Apotex Inc. He is certainly one of, if not the, richest man ever murdered (not including monarchs) and murdered in his own home no less.
This is a tragic story with no resolution.
So, let’s look into the facts of the case.
December 13th 2017
The bodies of the Shermans were found in their home in suburban Toronto. They were side by side at the edge of an indoor pool, held by leather belts tied around their necks and fastened to a metal railing. By the time police arrived, rigour mortis had set in, they’d been dead for a few hours.
Barry was seventy-five at the time of his death. He had forged a remarkable life as one of Canada’s richest men. He was worth nearly $4 billion at the time of his murder and was instrumental in donating to many causes and charities.
The investigation by Toronto Police into the murders is still ongoing alongside enquiries made by private investigators hired by the Sherman children. There’s a large reward at stake. The mystery is enduring, the motives are unknown and the case remains unsolved.
Once the children inherited the business from Barry Sherman, they took the company in a very different direction from the wishes of their father. They promptly sold Apotex and then turned on each other in the courts over who gets what.
Sherman had inherited a small drug company from an uncle and turned it into a billion-dollar empire called Apotex. Sherman had an eye and ear for business and had ferocious talents when building the pharmaceutical company that he would helm for four decades.
But he was also a very humble person. Barry Sherman lived modestly, without private security, in a humble neighbourhood. He was seen by many as an intense workaholic. He thrived on answering emails, discussing business and never resting. The sale of his company by his children would deeply upset Barry if he were alive to see it.
Barry Sherman had enemies in the industry no doubt. A lawsuit with Astra-Zeneca that Sherman lost and ongoing litigation with Israeli pharma firm Teva over corporate espionage.
There were other drains on Sherman’s resources including buying a house for his daughter’s brother-in-law, funding a comedy film called Sicilian Vampire for struggling comic Frank D’Angelo, and for his son’s boyfriend bankrolled a real estate business and financially always assisting cousins and friends. Sherman was frugal but also charitable. He donated to numerous Jewish causes.
Frank D’Angelo had an interesting relationship with Sherman, having been given patronage by the richer Barry Sherman. Frank D’Angelo had a talk show, a failing film career and was accused by the children of exploiting Barry Sherman for his money.
After the legal ruling against Sherman in the Astra-Zeneca case, he took a hard line with D’Angelo demanding to know where the money was going and cutting off Frank D’Angelo describing the previous grants and investments as ‘endless losses’.
The carnage at 50 Old Colony Road was unusual for many reasons. The burglar alarm was not triggered at the time of the murder (something that the housekeeper Nella said would always sound when she entered, before turning the alarm off).
The bodies were propped up, in a seemingly pose-like position, as if they were sat upright. The reason for the bodies being propped up is very strange and may hint at something ritualistic. The way they were murdered was by strangulation - something that a paid assassin would be unlikely to do. There appeared to be anger at the method of murder. They were both strangled by belts with their hands tied.
Ultimately, it must be hard to get to a billion dollars without making some enemies along the way.
So - what do we think happened?
Well, we know there was a murder, and the thought of a 70-year-old man (who was out of shape and overweight) being able to strangle his wife with his bare hands and then hang himself is ridiculous, and the mere suggestion is bad police work.
There is a r/Toronto Reddit thread discussing the murder with one hundred and sixty-nine comments.
One commenter speculated on the son being involved:
He [the son] seems to be many people's number one suspect.
Donovan, the reporter, he has said explicitly that he has firm suspects in mind. He thinks it was two people, at least one of which was close to the Shermans. But he won't say any more than that. Whoever they are, he's afraid of being sued, I think. And he has hinted that the police think the same as him. But the cops won't say anything more either. And they're still after information from foreign countries.
Which all, to me, sounds like the suspect the son. And maybe his husband, as the second person. They were in Japan, there's your foreign country. He has a weird and seemingly forced alibi with the crypto numbers photo. He owed money, he didn't like what his father was doing with the company, etc.
Always seems hard to imagine killing your parents. Who knows, maybe he did.
But the placement and posing still seem SO weird. Maybe it meant something to the son and parents, maybe the sisters. Or it just an intentional red herring, which has worked very well.
The problem is, at this point, we'll never know.
And another commenter (u/reasonable_relief_58) laid out their suspicions as follows:
I find it suspicious:
1.That the bodies were found in the pool area - an area without working cameras. These cameras were still mounted so why would criminals still do the crime in full view of them unless they knew they weren’t working.
2. How did the criminals know the victims schedule? Apparently it changed the day of the murder as the meeting in Mississauga concerning their new house was a last minute change.
3. Honey apparently was accosted in an upstairs washroom and had facial injuries - then dragged downstairs into some utility room opposite the poolroom where she was detained or killed there. (Not sure of the latter). She had a habit of parking her car in the driveway. Her phone was found upstairs in that washroom by a maid (or was it the plant waterer?) the next morning. Barry came home and parked in their underground garage as was his usual practice. How did the criminals know he would enter through that door that was near the pool and utility room? It’s obvious the criminal(s) were laying in wait in this utility room waiting for Barry. How could they predict which entrance Barry would use? Did they coerce or beat this information out of Honey or did they already know the answer?
4. A back door was apparently found unlocked. Why would only this door be unlocked? The front door was unlocked by a real estate agent - so we know it was locked.
5. The path taken in and out of the house by the criminal(s) seems as if it were planned and executed with great skill to avoid observation. Obviously the crime had to happen at night. How could the criminals predict the Sherman’s wouldn’t have guests visiting or any staff in the house?
This crime took planning and required intel to pull off. The Sherman’s were under observation for awhile OR the criminal(s) had inside information.
As a professional hit it was bizarre. The lights were turned off in the poolroom after they left with just the lights on in the water. Why do that? You’ve staged a scene but then turn off the lights? Barry wasn’t visibly injured so he cooperated and Honey did not? The whole scene was staged in a non professional way. What message were they trying to send to the family or police?
The second coroner found that both victims had their wrists bound yet when the bodies were found there was no evidence of the bindings at the scene. So they removed them and took them? Why worry about that unless you had a plan to make the scene look like a murder suicide. But why not pull up the jackets after? The police were quite stupid to believe someone could pull their own jacket down all the while hanging yourself. The physical gymnastics involved from an elderly man to successfully do this is beyond belief.
My belief is that this was an emotional murder. Hate is an emotion. To strangle people you have to get up close and personal. This was personal.
The Walking Man
The best evidence that we have is the CCTV footage of a man walking in frame across the Sherman Residency.
The so-called “walking man” was found on surveillance video in the Sherman’s neighbourhood and was evidenced to be close to the Sherman estate for a suspicious amount of time on the night of the murders. Police have stated they believe the “walking man” is the killer or one of the killers. The suspect remains unknown, and police released the images four years after the murders in a December 2021 press conference.
Police have said that they believe that they have an idea what happened, but they do not intend to release any details and prejudice their investigation.
The walking man is without a doubt the key to unlocking this brutal case.
WHY?
Why was this mild-mannered, seemingly kind and loving man killed?
Greed can be a powerful motivator in murder. The Shermans were going through a tough time financially. Barry had many people reliant on him, and due to the lost litigation, he had to tighten his belt. The family was feuding and there were Dallas levels of rivalry. They were what appeared to be a Canadian version of the Ewings. While there is nothing conclusive to suggest it was anyone within the Sherman family, we can suspect that it was someone who knew Barry and Honey, someone with a grudge, a cold man willing to murder an elderly couple in their own house - brutal.
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