Honey Sherman, a 70-year-old woman, was killed alongside her husband, pharmaceutical billionaire Bernard “Barry” Sherman, inside the couple's North York mansion in Toronto in December 2017. Although their bodies were discovered on December 15, investigators later said they believed the murders occurred on December 13, after the Shermans had returned home that evening. The couple had made no subsequent contact with family or friends.
The Shermans' residence at 50 Old Colony Road was listed for sale at the time. On December 15, a real estate agent entered the house while showing the property and discovered Honey and Barry in the lower-level indoor swimming-pool area. Police were called shortly before noon. The couple were fully clothed and had been positioned beside the pool in a semi-seated posture, with belts around their necks attached to a low poolside railing. Barry was 75. Post-mortem examinations determined that both victims died from ligature neck compression. Investigators found no signs of forced entry into the residence.
The circumstances immediately created uncertainty about what had happened. Police initially investigated several possibilities, including a double homicide, a homicide-suicide and a double suicide. Reports that investigators were considering the possibility Barry had killed Honey before taking his own life were strongly rejected by the Sherman family, which maintained from the beginning that both had been murdered. The family retained its own former homicide investigators, forensic specialists and an independent pathologist to examine the deaths.
After approximately six weeks of investigating the house and the evidence, Toronto police publicly changed the direction of the case. On January 26, 2018, homicide Det. Sgt. Susan Gomes announced that investigators had accumulated sufficient evidence to classify the deaths as a double homicide and said both Honey and Barry had been specifically targeted. By that point, police had seized roughly 150 items for forensic examination, obtained or pursued about 20 judicial search authorizations, collected more than 100 witness statements and gathered thousands of hours of surveillance footage.
The Sherman family's private investigation continued alongside the police investigation. The family's lawyer, Brian Greenspan, later criticized aspects of the original police response, alleging that investigators had failed to adequately search some potential access points and had not gathered enough fingerprint and DNA evidence early in the case. The private investigative team said it recovered additional fingerprint and palm-print evidence and passed information to Toronto police. Police defended their investigation and continued working the case. When the private investigation formally ended in 2019, Toronto police said they had received more than 340 tips originating from that effort and asked people who had supplied information privately to submit it directly to homicide investigators.
Over the following years investigators examined numerous people. In 2020, Toronto police clarified reports concerning a possible person of interest, saying numerous persons of interest had been investigated and continued to be investigated as detectives attempted either to connect individuals to the killings or exclude them. Another police statement acknowledged that a person of interest had been identified but had not been arrested, although authorities disclosed no name or evidence linking that individual to the murders.
A major public development came in December 2021 when Toronto police released surveillance imagery of an unidentified person seen walking through the neighborhood around the time investigators believe Honey and Barry were murdered. Police said virtually everyone else appearing on relevant surveillance footage had been identified or excluded, but they could not determine why this person was in the immediate area. The individual approached a defined area surrounding the Sherman residence, disappeared from available camera coverage for what investigators considered a suspicious period of time, and was later recorded leaving the area. Because the timing corresponded with the suspected time of the murders and police could find no explanation for the person's presence, investigators formally classified the individual as a suspect.
Police could not determine from the footage whether the suspect was male or female. Photogrammetric analysis placed the person's estimated height between approximately five feet six and three-quarter inches and five feet nine and one-half inches. Investigators particularly emphasized the person's distinctive manner of walking, hoping someone familiar with the individual would recognize the gait. Police also cautioned that there could be an innocent explanation for the person's presence and urged the unidentified individual to come forward so investigators could determine whether that person could be eliminated as a suspect. The person's identity has never been publicly established.
No publicly disclosed evidence has established a motive for the murders, and police have not publicly identified the person or people who ordered or carried out the killings. The immense financial and business interests surrounding Barry Sherman, the couple's family relationships and numerous other possibilities have generated years of speculation, but investigators have not publicly accused any named individual of murdering Honey or Barry. The official case therefore remains centered on evidence rather than the many theories that have circulated since 2017.
The Sherman family initially offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of those responsible. In December 2022, the couple's son Jonathon Sherman added another $25 million, bringing the publicly announced reward to $35 million for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Despite the extraordinary reward and years of investigation, it did not produce a publicly announced arrest.
As of 2026, no one has been arrested, charged, tried or convicted for the murders of Honey and Barry Sherman. Toronto Police Service continues to list Honey Sherman's death among its current homicide investigations rather than as a solved case. The unidentified surveillance suspect remains the only person police have publicly classified as a suspect in connection with the killings, and investigators have never publicly disclosed the suspect's identity. Nearly nine years after Honey and Barry were found beside their swimming pool, their targeted double homicide remains unsolved.
