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The owners of a home where police located the remains of eight men, allegedly killed by Bruce McArthur, held a renewal ceremony Saturday, to try to return to their previous life on a quiet Leaside street.
Karen Fraser and Ron Smith own 53 Mallory Crescent, but were forced to live elsewhere for months when remains of eight men were found in their backyard, in planters stowed in their garage, and in a nearby ravine between February and July of this year.
Police tore up the sod in the couple’s backyard, using grid pattern searches, cadaver dogs, as well as an inch-by-inch search of the home’s garage.
When I finally got into what was left of my yard there was little bits of yellow all over the place, I thought daffodils,” Fraser said at the ceremony on Saturday, “I have shredded police tape and yellow tops of diesel containers that the forensic people had to use. And I thought daffodils in that poem,” she said, referring to William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
“And I thought (loneliness), it’s one of the reasons those men became victims. They were at the margin of our society and it made them vulnerable,” she continued.
Attendees at the ceremony received daffodils, meant to symbolize steadfastness in the face of the past year’s challenges and the loss of the eight men, the first three of whom were, at least publicly, treated as unexplained missing persons cases for years before more disappearances were reported.
McArthur was the couple’s gardener and landscaper and police allege McArthur used his longstanding business relationship with them to conceal the remains.
The remains of Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kanagaratnam, were found in planters stowed at the property.
The remains an eighth person, Majeed Kayhan, were found in a ravine behind the home. McArthur faces eight counts of first-degree murder and remains in pre-trial custody in Etobicoke.
None of the allegations against McArthur have been proven in court.
The ceremony had live music, samosas and speeches from local politicians and the faith community.
“As a gay man obviously what happened in this place has affected me as it has affected our community deeply and we recognize the time it will take to completely heal,” local MP Robert Oliphant said.
Councillor Jon Burnside said he worked with the couple during the investigation, acting as a liaison at times between them and the police, based on his past career as an officer himself.
He said a great network of people from the neighbourhood and beyond reached out to support Fraser and Smith during the ordeal.
“I spoke to Karen a lot, and what I was really struck by is how grateful she was for all of you,” he said.
The process isn’t over for Fraser and Smith.
“The good is coming, it’s going to take a while, but we’re strong enough to handle it,” Fraser said.
They say they will hold some sort of event this coming January to mark one year since McArthur was arrested by police.
“We hope on the anniversary of the day McArthur was arrested we could have a hot chocolate and cookie event for all of the police. We thought we could haul all of the junk out of our garage the way you saw it on TV and make them feel at home.”
