Toronto police repeat appeal for tips in slaying of Barry and Honey Sherman

Toronto police say a private investigation into the slayings two years ago of billionaire couple Barry and Honey Sherman has ended, but their own probe continues — and they want people who sent tips to the private tipline to repeat them now directly to police.

To that end, police have set up a telephone tipline and email address, Insp. Hank Idsinga told a media briefing Monday.

The Sherman family had hired a team of private investigators to conduct an independent probe. It included several former Toronto homicide detectives.

While Idsinga said the private team received 343 tips — information that was shared with police — it has now wrapped its work on the case, he said, citing the Sherman family.

Idsinga asked that anyone who submitted those private tips now resubmit them to Toronto police to avoid any loss of information.

Volume of information 'overwhelming'

Police have spoken to more than 240 witnesses, collected four terabytes of security camera video and submitted 150 items for forensic analysis throughout the course of their investigation, Idsinga, who heads the Toronto police homicide unit, said. The force has also received 205 tips directly from the public related to the killings, he added.

"The sheer volume of information is overwhelming," Idsinga said.

Barry and Honey Sherman were found dead in the basement of their north Toronto home on Dec. 15, 2017. A realtor contracted by the Sherman family made the grisly discovery while touring the property with prospective buyers. They were last seen alive on Dec. 13, 2017.

It was widely reported that Toronto police initially considered their deaths to be a murder-suicide perpetrated by Barry Sherman, a theory roundly rejected by family and friends of the couple.

Investigators later changed course, saying the Shermans were the victims of a targeted double homicide.

Idsinga said the police probe remains "very active."

The Sherman family is offering a $10-million reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the couple's killer or killers. That offer still stands, Idsinga said.

Barry Sherman, 75 at the time of his death, made his fortune over multiple decades in the pharmaceuticals industry as chairman and chief executive officer of generic drug maker Apotex. His wife, Honey, 70, was well known as the face of the family's many philanthropic and charitable initiatives.

A source inside the now-concluded parallel investigation told CBC News last year that it is believed the couple were slain by multiple killers. The husband and wife had been strangled, their necks looped with belts to a poolside railing when they were found, the source said.

Here's a timeline of how the case has unfolded: