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WARMINGTON: Did cops mislead, bungle or capitulate in Sherman 'murder' probe?

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They were executed!

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That was the lede of the column written Dec. 15, 2017, on the strange deaths of Honey and Barry Sherman.

I was about to push the send button when Toronto Police sources said it was wrong.

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“It was not a double murder,” said one cop. “It’s a murder-suicide, with him killing her, dragging her body to the pool, hanging it and then hanging himself.”

It was in stark contrast to what the Toronto Sun was told by a witness of the death scene inside the couple’s Old Colony Rd. mansion.

“They both had (belts) wrapped around their necks,” said the source. “It was an execution.”

But Police were adamant it was not. Outside the house police told neighbours and the public there was “no sign of forced entry” and not to worry too much up in York Mills because “we are not looking for an suspects.”

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It was all code for a murder-suicide.

And they quietly confirmed this same narrative for 42 days — cloaking it in being investigated as “suspicious deaths” that the Coroner confirmed were the result of ligature neck compression.

All the media were told the same thing: Murder-suicide, end of story.

Until Homicide Det.-Sgt. Susan Gomes came to the podium at Police Headquarters on Friday and announced it was a “double homicide.”

Homicide Detective Sergeant Susan Gomes makes the announcement that Barry and Honey Sherman was a double homicide on Friday January 26, 2018.
Homicide Detective Sergeant Susan Gomes makes the announcement that Barry and Honey Sherman was a double homicide on Friday January 26, 2018. Photo by Dave Abel/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

Turns out what they were saying originally was not true.

“I believe they (Shermans) were targeted,” said Gomes, who added it was never her view that it was a murder-suicide.

Yet police let that false information go while this poor family buried the billionaire, philanthropic couple worth $4.77-billion.

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They let more than 6,000 people inside a massive funeral — including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Mayor John Tory — believe the Apotex founder, 75, was a killer who slayed his beautiful wife of four decades Honey, 70.

I feel sick at heart about that. This false report cast a pall over an already shaken and depressed hall. It got even darker with Jonathon Sherman’s heartbreaking comment “for those of you, especially in blue, who are experiencing similar feelings of loss and emptiness and loneliness, remember this. Our parents never left anyone behind. They were taken from us.”

The son, standing with his sisters with his sisters Lauren, Alexandra and Kaelen, was so angry with what police had told us.

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He wasn’t alone. Senator Linda Frum insisted this scenario was not remotely possible and my own boss Paul Godfrey said he didn’t think his good friend Dr. Barry Sherman was strong enough to do any of the things needed to be done to pull off a violent murder and stage a hanging scene that would include himself.

“They had everything to live for,” Godfrey told me. “They were building a new house and going to Florida the next week. They loved their kids and each other.”

Everybody was pointing to two murders.

“Jewish people don’t kill themselves very often but no Jewish person would kill themselves during Hanukkah,” said Sherman’s friend Dr. Charles McVety, of Canada Christian College. “I know Barry. No way did this happen like that. It’s not possible.”

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“Just the physical strength it takes to do something like that makes me suspicious,” added former Toronto Police officer and crime specialist Ross McLean, who from day one felt it was a double slaying.

Neighbour Eddie Gilbert said “this was murder.”

Sherman business partner and friend Frank D’Angelo always said it was a contract hit.

Despite the fact that police talked us out of going with the story we had correct on that first night, we decided to approach it with an open mind.

This is why I kept pushing on this case and, despite what police were saying, kept bringing out every clue we found — most pointing to a double homicide.

The information about how they had their hands tied behind their backs with coats over their arms, how the camera in the pool had been unplugged, the lock box theory, the roof searches, the storm sewer searches canvassing of the neighbourhood, the business and personal litigations and Barry Sherman’s potential enemies.

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We’re still pushing. Who did this? Was it from his business world? Was it a contract hit?

Gomes answered many of those questions with a simple: “It’s possible.”

One question on everybody’s mind is had a family with deep pockets not hired famed lawyer Brian Greenspan, Dr. David Chiasson and former homicide Det. Thomas Klatt, would this have remained a murder-suicide?

A private investigator security takes over the scene at the home of Barry and Honey Sherman on Friday January 26, 2018.
A private investigator security takes over the scene at the home of Barry and Honey Sherman on Friday January 26, 2018. Photo by Dave Abel/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

The good news is everybody is on the same page now.

We were asking police last night if anybody looked to see if there was a blank cheque in Barry Sherman’s wallet — since he is said to have always carried one.

Police are said to be looking at the possibility of more than one person entering the house and the possibility items were removed from the home that could point to the targeting of the Shermans? Could it have been a robbery or home invasion as well?

Stay tuned because this is no longer a domestic case or murder-suicide.

The Shermans were executed — as I should have written six weeks ago.

At least that’s what police are telling us now.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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