PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Once detectives are given an alibi, they try to confirm it. If it doesn’t stand up, that could give detectives a lead — or a suspect. Instead, police asked if the Shermans had health issues that would lead to a double suicide or murder-suicide. How did the couple get along? What business pressures was Barry facing? One explanation is that police didn’t bother asking for alibis because they were convinced it was a murder-suicide."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The Star returns to court in the coming months to argue for more police files to be unsealed."
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Alexandra Krawczyk, one of the three Sherman daughters, sent the Star this statement. “The heartache that I continue to feel following the loss of my parents is unbearable. The brutal murders have left a tremendous void of love, leadership, inspiration and dedicated service in our world that cannot be filled. I am hopeful that the Toronto police investigations into the homicides continue to be active, and I encourage anyone with information to please connect with the Toronto Police Service.”
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STORY: "Toronto police skipped ‘Homicide 101’ and never sought alibis from family and friends of murdered billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman, by Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, published by The Toronto Star, on December 13, 2024. (Kevin Donovan is the Toronto Star’s Chief Investigative Reporter. His focus is on journalism that exposes wrongdoing and effects change. Over more than three decades he has reported on the activities of charities, government, police, business among other institutions. Donovan also reported from the battlefields in the Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan following 9/11. He has won three National Newspaper Awards, two Governor General’s Michener Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation award and three Canadian Association of Journalists Awards. As the Star’s editor of investigations for many years, Donovan led many award-winning projects for the paper. He is the author of several books, including “Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation” and the “Dead Times” (a fiction novel).
SUB-HEADING: "Investigative sources tell the Star the lack of alibis is likely why homicide detectives have been unable to clear any of the many “persons of interest” suspected of having a hand in the Shermans’ murders."
GIST: "Toronto police homicide detectives failed to ask most of the people connected to Barry and Honey Sherman where they were at the time of the billionaire couple’s high-profile murders, documents unsealed by a court reveal. Seeking alibis is a crucial part of a murder investigation — it’s not fiction that it’s one of the first questions a detective on television or in a murder mystery asks of anyone close to the victim: Where were you when they were killed?
But in the days following the discovery of the Sherman bodies, police didn’t ask that question of family members, nor most business associates and others connected to the couple. Investigative sources say the lack of alibis is likely why Toronto homicide detectives have been unable to clear any of the many “persons of interest” suspected of having a hand in the killings.
In a brief statement, Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said she also could not provide a progress report on the seven-year-old probe.
“While we do not have any new information to share regarding this ongoing homicide investigation, TPS remains committed to resolving this case,” Sayer said in a statement. Regarding the Star’s question about police failing to seek alibi information from people close to the Shermans, she said: “I cannot confirm or comment on the information.”
The billionaire murders
Barry Sherman was a prominent philanthropist and the founder of generic drug titan Apotex, with personal holdings close to $10 billion when he died seven years ago, according to Sherman insiders. Barry and his wife Honey were found dead beside the swimming pool in the basement of their 12,000-square-foot home just before noon on Friday, Dec. 15, 2017. The homicide detective put in charge of the case didn’t go to the crime scene for four days; her junior officer on the case was there on day one, and told the media that police were not looking for suspects, which gave reporters the first inkling that police considered it a murder-suicide in which Barry killed Honey and took his own life. That theory changed six weeks later, following a Toronto Star story that revealed forensic details that caused Toronto police to hold a press conference announcing the case was now classified as a double homicide.
That delay caused numerous problems in the investigation. For starters, during that time period, detectives were most often asking people why Barry would have killed Honey, instead of, who would have reason to kill them both.
The root of this delay, a Star investigation has revealed, occurred when Toronto homicide detectives and the junior pathologist failed to properly identify markings on the Shermans’ bodies that showed it was a double murder. Both Shermans had been tied at the wrists and strangled with thin straps — most likely long plastic cable ties. The belts (Barry’s belt and one other belt with a snakeskin pattern) were wrapped around their necks to stage their bodies, holding them in a seated position under a low railing. No bindings, cords or straps were found at the crime scene; it was a more experienced pathologist hired by the Sherman family who deduced it was a double murder.
To this day, investigative sources close to the case are puzzled that Toronto homicide detectives thought it was a murder-suicide.
“How does Barry tie up Honey and himself, strangle his wife and himself, and then make all the ties or bindings disappear?” said an investigative source connected to the Sherman family who was not authorized to speak to the Star. “Besides, wouldn’t a pharmaceutical guy with access to all the drugs you can imagine have simply used drugs?”
Toronto police have refused to answer the Star’s questions about their investigation, saying to do so would harm their investigation.
In an effort to understand what questions police asked in the Sherman investigation, the Star has reviewed the almost 4,000 pages of police documents police have filed in court to obtain search warrants and production orders. Portions of these pages have been unsealed as part of the Star’s ongoing scrutiny of the police investigation. One batch of unsealed documents shows that police were hampered in the probe because Ontario government lawyers struck a deal with the Sherman company’s lawyers that allowed the latter to screen what of Barry’s paper and electronic files police could see.
In the Star’s latest review of the documents, we paid close attention to the questions asked — and not asked — by a large group of homicide detectives initially assigned to the case.
Key photos reveal forensic timeline of billionaire couple Barry and Honey Sherman’s murders
The questions police didn’t ask
Homicide investigations are specialized probes: Someone is dead. Police are sent to determine who is the killer. Veteran detectives have told the Star it’s “Homicide 101” to probe those closest to the victim first; criminal lawyer Brian Greenspan, who for a time represented the Sherman children — he hired a private detective team and the veteran pathologist — told the Star in an interview a year into the case that it is natural to “start at the centre and move outward, eliminating suspects as you proceed.”
But while police interviewed those closest to the Shermans in the first six weeks, the police documents show they never asked them to provide an alibi. Typically, police seek an alibi then investigate to see if it “stands up,” says a source close to the investigation.
Once detectives are given an alibi, they try to confirm it. If it doesn’t stand up, that could give detectives a lead — or a suspect.
Instead, police asked if the Shermans had health issues that would lead to a double suicide or murder-suicide. How did the couple get along? What business pressures was Barry facing?
One explanation is that police didn’t bother asking for alibis because they were convinced it was a murder-suicide. Police documents reveal that by the time — six weeks in — they classified it a double homicide, all Sherman family members, close friends and most close business associates had been interviewed. That includes interviews with the four Sherman children (Lauren, Jonathon, Alexandra and Kaelen); Sherman business leaders Jack Kay, Jeremy Desai, Alex Glasenberg; and dozens of other people the Shermans knew well. In the unsealed police documents, there are 53 interview statements and 46 of them were done before the deaths were classified as a double homicide.
The only time someone’s whereabouts appear to have been raised is when an interviewee mentions it without prodding. This happens twice in the 53 statements. For example, Jack Kay, Barry’s second in command at Apotex and one of his closest friends, was away in New York with his wife attending a concert on the Wednesday when the Shermans were murdered (it was Honey’s idea that Jack and his wife attend and the money Kay paid went to charity). Another example is when Fred Mercure — the husband of the Shermans’ son Jonathon — tells police that he and Jonathon had been away in Japan in the days leading up to the murders, but he couldn’t recall when they returned. At one point he tells detectives they returned on the Thursday and in another portion of the interview he said they came home on the Tuesday. (In the interviews of Jonathon and his three sisters, police do not seek their whereabouts at the time of the murder.)
Once it was designated a full-blown homicide investigation, police did not re-interview individuals they had already questioned — with one exception. Investigative sources say the lone re-interview appears to be with Barry and Honey’s daughter Alexandra.
Through sources, the Star has learned that this happened more than a year after the murders, when Alexandra contacted investigators to say that her brother Jonathon had some role in the killings.
In an interview with the Star, Jonathon said he is aware that his sister had implicated him but he said the notion that he would kill his father was ridiculous. Jonathon disclosed to the Star that his father had financial pressures in the months before he was murdered, and that Barry had asked Jonathon and his business partner in Green Storage (a self-storage company) to repay $50-$60 million.
“I’m not going to kill my dad because he needs $50 million to get through a crisis,” Jonathon said during a five-hour interview in a freezing garage in December 2021. Jonathon said he understands that people may think he was involved, but he was not. “I’m the only person who knows for sure that I didn’t do it obviously.”
‘Isn’t the assumption that whoever did this hired people?’
While Alexandra’s first interview is largely unsealed in the documents, her second interview remains completely sealed.
Roughly half of the 4,000 pages are still sealed. Much of what remains sealed deals with police theories of the case, and the unsuccessful tracking of the now infamous walking man who was caught on video near the Sherman homes the night of the murders.
The Star’s investigation has determined that there are two interview statements that are completely sealed and that in those statements, the individuals were asked to provide an alibi. Those are the interviews of Sherman cousin Kerry Winter and Barry’s friend and business associate Frank D’Angelo. These took place after police classified the case as a double homicide. Both have told the Star they have provided alibis for their whereabouts on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. Winter and D’Angelo provided those alibis to the Star, which has interviewed people who vouch for their whereabouts that crucial evening.
The police documents reveal that rather than asking most people where they were during interviews, they relied on cellular phone records to verify alibis for some individuals.
“The tracking and transmission data for the phone numbers of these individuals have all assisted in providing likely alibis for the persons of interest,” police wrote in one of the court documents that details their investigation. “The tracking and transmission data have assisted in dispelling investigative theories involving the following people,” the documents reads, leading into a paragraph that’s still under seal because police say to reveal it would hurt their investigation.
The police documents do not deal with the possibility that a person might not be in possession of their phone at the time the tracking data provided the alibi.
In a case with so many twists and turns, there’s another. The time of death. The bodies were discovered on a Friday, and for months police thought they were killed on the Thursday. About a year into the investigation, the Star learned that police had discovered the murders were actually on the Wednesday evening — 36 hours before they were discovered. The time of death is believed to be between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. but police have never explained how they know this.
In the Star’s December 2020 interview with Jonathon Sherman, he said he was puzzled that a reporter was so fixated on alibis.
“I was a little confused about why you’re so focused on the timelines, not that like it matters, but like isn’t the assumption that whoever did this hired people?”
In the Star’s interview, Jonathon said he was at home on his 100-acre property that evening, and provided the Star with a photo of his hand holding “a seed code” for his cryptocurrency account that he snapped at 7:17 p.m. on the Wednesday.
“My assumption was always that whoever made the decision to do this was probably not present,” Jonathon told the Star. Police records show Jonathon was interviewed twice, once on Dec. 23, 2017, and once on Dec. 24 — weeks before his parents’ deaths were classified as a double homicide. The interviews by police, which were either video or audio recorded, vary greatly in length. Some people were interviewed for 15 minutes. Others for two hours.
Toronto police Det. Const. Dennis Yim — the lone detective working full-time on the case — has recently said that the police investigation is open and ongoing. He is continuing to review financial information related to Barry’s holdings — a task he estimates will take another year.
As to who police think did the murders, police documents indicate that from interviews “several people (have been) implicated,” but “none elevated” to the status of prime suspect.
The Sherman family has said it is offering a $10 million reward for information that leads to an arrest. Son Jonathon added $25 million to that, bringing the total reward to $35 million.
The Star has reached out to members of the Sherman family. Jonathon, through lawyer Jonathan Keslassy, sent this statement to the Star. “Jonathon wishes to convey that he appreciates the inquiry along with your efforts into finding those responsible for the murder of his parents. He has no further comments at this time.”
Alexandra Krawczyk, one of the three Sherman daughters, sent the Star this statement.
“The heartache that I continue to feel following the loss of my parents is unbearable. The brutal murders have left a tremendous void of love, leadership, inspiration and dedicated service in our world that cannot be filled. I am hopeful that the Toronto police investigations into the homicides continue to be active, and I encourage anyone with information to please connect with the Toronto Police Service.”
The Star returns to court in the coming months to argue for more police files to be unsealed."
The entire story can be read at:
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
