The lead homicide detective investigating alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur says it wouldn’t surprise him if the accused was linked to Toronto cold cases, including a series of murders in the Gay Village in the 1970s.

“I’ve got no evidence to say he’s linked to any of the cases, but bearing in mind the number of people we’re alleging he’s killed, we’re going to take a close look at some outstanding cold cases from the Gay Village in Toronto,” said Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga.

McArthur, 66, is facing six charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Andrew Kinsman, 49; Selim Esen, 44; Dean Lisowick, 47; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Majeed Kayhan, 59; and Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40.

Investigators are “retracing McArthur’s life as far back as we can go,” Idsinga said, and maintains that police continue to look at outstanding missing persons cases and unsolved murders.

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Between 1975 and 1978, police were confronted with 14 murders of gay men that followed a similar pattern of “overkill” in which the victims were in some cases tied up, beaten, and stabbed excessively.

Half of those cases have gone cold. McArthur would have been between about 23 and 26 years old at the time of those deaths.

Numbered among these brutal slayings is the high-profile murder of club owner Alexander “Sandy” Romeo LeBlanc, who in 1978 was found stabbed more than 100 times from head to foot. News reports indicate the carpet in LeBlanc’s apartment had absorbed so much blood that the footsteps of police walking around his body made squishing noises.

Extracting DNA evidence from possible blood samples and other items that could have been collected from these grisly crime scenes four decades ago may be challenging.

Mike Illes, a lecture professor at Trent University and retired regional forensics program manager at the Ontario Provincial Police, said humidity and temperature are the two main factors that can compromise biological evidence in storage.

“If there’s an exhibit there, you don’t really know the probative value of it no matter how long it’s been there until you test it to see, so that’s what (police) are likely doing, looking for some of the cold case evidence that’s been stored,” he said.

In the 1970s, police relied on serology — the study of blood serum and bodily fluids — to test antibodies produced in reaction to certain antigens or other alien substances like bacteria. DNA evidence didn’t come onto the forensics landscape in Ontario until the early 1990s, Illes said.

When revisiting this evidence in cold cases, the hope for investigators is that samples are swabbed, dried, stored, or frozen properly in order to maintain their integrity.

For the family of 1977 murder victim Brian Dana Latocki, the idea that McArthur could be behind his death seems unlikely.

“Forty years have gone by. It appears that they’re trying to create a link to Bruce McArthur. To me, (it’s) very far-fetched,” said Nancy Latocki, a cousin of the victim.

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Brian Dana Latocki was found tied to a bed in his Erksine Ave. apartment, strangled, and stabbed to death on Jan. 25, 1977. The 25-year-old, a financial bank analyst, was described in some media reports at the time as being “shy and new to the gay scene.” He was last seen leaving the St. Charles Tavern, a now-closed bar famous for its landmark clock tower and popular in the early days of Toronto’s Gay Village.

Nancy Latocki said her family, who live in Winnipeg, received some newspaper clippings from a relative in Toronto at the time of her cousin’s death, but had not heard from police. She has not reached out to Toronto police in light of the McArthur investigation because she does not feel a charge on her cousin’s murder will help the family.

“Too much time has elapsed. It’s not going to do anything. It’s not going to bring closure. It’s not going to finalize anything,” she said.

But for a former student to murdered teacher Arthur Harold Walkley, a charge in his cold case “would close a chapter.”

“I’ll never forget Mr. Walkley,” said Lou Hagerman, a retired Toronto Police officer and alumni at Vincent Massey Collegiate Institute.

Walkley, 52, was found stabbed in his Borden St. apartment in Feb. 1975. The high school teacher and part-time University of Toronto lecturer was found naked and stabbed several times in the back and chest, though police did not recover a weapon.

Decades later, Hagerman still thinks back to the man he calls the “best teacher” he ever had.

“He was sort of a mentor for me. I’m dyslexic, and I struggled through school,” said the former Vincent Massey student. “I was going to drop-out but he talked me out of it. The rest is history.”

In March, police took the rare step of releasing a photo of a dead man believed to be another victim of the alleged serial killer. In the disturbing image, which was digitally altered by investigators prior to its release, the bearded man appears to be laying down with with his lips and eyes partly open.

At a news conference in the first week of March, Idsinga said he had no other choice but to release the photo after exhausting all other avenues of identifying the man. Dozens of tips came in, but it’s unclear if any have helped investigators positively identify the man almost four weeks later.

“At the end of the day, it would be possible for them to lay a charge with respect to a person unknown,” said Toronto criminal defence lawyer John Struthers, adding it’s a “highly unusual” scenario.

Idsigna said he will likely be providing an update on the photo next week.

McArthur is due back in court on April 11.