Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, a 37-year-old man from Sri Lanka, sought refuge and a new beginning in Canada, only to have his life cut short in early 2016. He was a victim of the notorious Toronto serial killer, Bruce McArthur, who was convicted of murdering eight men between 2010 and 2017. Kirushna's story is one of a hopeful journey that ended in a tragedy that went undiscovered for years.
In 2010, Kirushna arrived on the coast of British Columbia aboard the MV Sun Sea, a cargo ship
carrying 492 Tamil asylum seekers fleeing the aftermath of a violent civil war in Sri Lanka. Friends who made the harrowing six-week voyage with him remembered Kirushna as an innocent, trusting, and helpful presence on the boat, often singing songs and playing cards with fellow passengers. After being released from detention, he made his way to Toronto, settling in the Scarborough area where he had some distant relatives. He found odd jobs, including at restaurants and a moving company, and sent money back to his family. His life in Canada was precarious; by 2015, his refugee claim had been rejected, he was without a work permit, and he faced a deportation order.
The last time Kirushna’s family in Sri Lanka heard from him was in August 2015. He had been calling them daily, but the calls suddenly stopped. When they tried to reach him, his phone was no longer working. Worried, his family began searching for him through social media, but they never filed a missing person's report with Canadian authorities. They believed he had gone into hiding to avoid being arrested and deported back to Sri Lanka, a fear that tragically kept his disappearance from official notice.
Kirushna was murdered by Bruce McArthur, a self-employed landscaper, sometime between September and December 2015. McArthur, known as the "Landscaper Killer," targeted men, many of whom had ties to Toronto's Gay Village. Kirushna, however, did not appear to fit this pattern, and investigators found no clear ties between him and the LGBTQ community. His death remained a secret until after McArthur's arrest in January 2018. The investigation into McArthur led police to a property on Mallory Crescent where he stored his landscaping equipment. There, they made a gruesome discovery: the dismembered remains of seven of his victims hidden in large garden planters.
Among the remains, police found those of an unidentified man. For months, they struggled to put a name to the victim. In a final, desperate effort, investigators took the highly unusual step of releasing a heavily edited photograph of the deceased man's face to the public, hoping someone would recognize him. The gamble paid off, and with help from an international agency, the man was finally identified as Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam. On April 16, 2018, McArthur was charged with his eighth count of first-degree murder.
In January 2019, Bruce McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder, including the killing of Kirushna. The plea avoided a lengthy trial and spared the victims' families further trauma. Evidence revealed McArthur had a practice of keeping items belonging to his victims and taking post-mortem photographs, which were found on his computer. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. For Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, who fled a war-torn country seeking safety, the end came at the hands of one of Canada’s most prolific serial killers, his lonely death a devastating conclusion to a life lived in the margins.
