One day after Det. David Dickinson found Bruce McArthur’s name on an Excel spreadsheet, a Project Prism investigator was at a towering brutalist apartment complex overlooking the Don Valley. A property manager at 95 Thorncliffe Park Dr. soon confirmed McArthur was still leasing a 19th-floor unit, with a roommate. It was the first day of September 2017, now more than two months since Andrew Kinsman, a well-liked fixture in Toronto’s Gay Village, was last seen. A Toronto police task force probing his disappearance and that of Selim Esen, another Village regular who vanished in April, had a promising lead: using surveillance video and vehicle registration records, they believed they had identified McArthur as the man who picked Kinsman up at the exact time he disappeared.At 95 Thorncliffe — police had gotten McArthur’s address from the registration records — investigators learned access to the building and its parking garage was controlled by electronic key fobs. That meant they could determine when McArthur came and went, based on records for his unique fob. There were also surveillance cameras in the underground parking area, although the footage from June, which might have given a clue to Kinsman’s whereabouts, had already been erased. But the recent video still proved useful: at times that corresponded with McArthur’s fob, it showed a red 2004 Dodge Caravan exactly like the one seen outside Kinsman’s home. It featured the same roof racks, chrome accents on the doors and black rain deflectors. Then, in mid-August, the footage showed McArthur driving an upgraded van; vehicle registration records confirmed he’d just bought a 2017 Dodge Caravan from a dealership in Windsor. An officer called the dealership and took a statement. McArthur had bought the van over the phone. He wanted the cheapest model, didn’t care what colour and said it was for his father-in-law. When he came to pick it up, he spent just 10 ...
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