The Toronto police were investigating the murder of just Honey Sherman — not Barry and Honey — for almost a full month after the couple’s strangled bodies were found in their home, search warrant documents reveal.

Information contained in these police documents sheds more light on the confusing start to the investigation into the deaths of the Shermans in what was eventually determined in late January to be a “targeted” double homicide. Barry, the founder of generic drug giant Apotex, and his wife, were found dead in the downstairs swimming pool room of their home on Dec. 15, 2017.

An early police theory of the crime, now debunked, was that Barry killed Honey, then killed himself. These search warrant documents show that in the early days of the probe police appear to have believed only Honey was a victim of murder and that theory continued until at least Jan. 10, 2018.

Documents obtained by the Star also reveal that 51 police officers are probing the case, they have received 64 “tips,” and among the documents detectives have seized are the Shermans’ medical records dating to December 2010.

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The Shermans were found dead in their home just before noon on Dec. 15 by their real estate agent. The home was for sale.

That evening, Detective Brandon Price of the Homicide squad told reporters that there were no signs of forced entry and they were not seeking suspects. That led to a great deal of speculation, with police sources telling the media that the working theory was murder suicide — that Barry Sherman had killed his wife and then himself. Publicly, police never made that statement.

Sherman family and friends were outraged at this notion. The philanthropic billionaire could not possibly have killed his wife, they said, both because it would be completely out of character for Barry Sherman and because the nonathletic Sherman could not possibly have done it.

The Shermans were both strangled with leather belts, then positioned, seated, with the other end of each belt looped around a pool railing, holding them upright. As the Star reported in January, their wrists were tied at some point, but the ropes or ties used were not found at the scene.

Despite the visible evidence at the crime scene, documents filed in support of the first search warrants and production orders show that police believed that Honey Sherman alone was the victim of a crime.

Information in this story comes from search warrant and production order documents. These are judicial authorizations issued by a judge or justice of the peace granting police the right to obtain information. Police provide a court with sometimes lengthy written reasons to justify a search, including information from witness interviews or the results of an earlier search.

On Dec. 20, 2017, five days after the bodies were discovered, Toronto police first sought a search warrant and two “production orders,” stating that “Honey Sherman was the victim of a Murder Section 235 (1) of the Criminal Code of Canada.” Barry Sherman’s name is not mentioned. That section of the Criminal Code covers both first-degree (premeditated) and second-degree murder.

Production orders are similar to search warrants, but they require a company or agency to produce information to the police. These are typically used to obtain bank and phone records.

The warrant and two production orders, which were approved by a judge, gave police the right to obtain information from Rogers (likely cellphone records); to retrieve information from a storage locker at the police force’s Forensic Identification Services on Jane St. (the documents do not say what information was in the locker but it is not unusual for police to obtain information, perhaps something handed over to them, and then seek a judicial warrant to seize it formally); and to obtain information from a location unknown to the Star at this time.

Police had attended the first autopsy on the Shermans, which was carried out Dec. 16 by a provincial pathologist. A second autopsy, conducted by a retired senior pathologist hired by the family, was done Dec. 20, the day before the funeral and the same day as the first series of judicial authorizations were granted by a judge. The Star has previously reported that it was the conclusion of the second pathologist, veteran Dr. David Chiasson, that helped police understand that both Shermans had been murdered.

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Sources have told the Star that police did not talk to Chiasson until later in January after the Star reported Chiasson’s conclusion that it was a double murder — not murder-suicide.

The next series of warrants — four in total — were granted by a judge on Jan. 10. A document filed with the warrant, describing the investigation, reveals that police still considered the murder victim to be Honey Sherman, not Barry and Honey Sherman. These four warrants gave police access to information locked up by police in another storage locker, and three other locations not identified in the documents the Star obtained. The Star has learned that in at least one of those instances, police had been initially denied a warrant application by a judge on Dec. 20. Police were told to get more “probable cause” and they reapplied for the warrant successfully on Jan. 10.

On Jan. 15, seven more judicial authorizations were granted, two warrants, seven production orders. In this case, the warrants state that “unknown person (s)” did “commit the offence of murder.” At this point, well into the investigation, the search warrant documents obtained by the Star do not reference either Honey or Barry Sherman.

Those warrants give the police the right to obtain from the Ontario Ministry of Health “billing records and records of visits to hospitals and clinics from Dec. 10, 2010 to Dec. 16, 2017.” The records requested by the police are for both Barry and Honey Sherman. The “Dec. 16” date is puzzling, as the Shermans were last seen alive on Dec. 13, 2017. It is possible the police used a date following the deaths to capture any billing information not immediately recorded.

These warrants also gave police the right to obtain information from another police storage locker, Apotex (the company Sherman founded); the Bank of Montreal; CIBC; and TD Bank and one other location unknown to the Star.

The Star cannot tell from the documents obtained whose accounts are involved in the searches.

Several days after this series of warrants and production orders, the Star published its story saying the case was a double murder, not murder-suicide. The following week, on Jan. 26, the detective in charge of the case held a press conference stating that they had reviewed all the evidence and determined the Shermans were the victims of a targeted double homicide.

The final series of judicial authorizations known to the Star were issued by a judge on Feb. 15, 2018. The four production orders were issued by the police in an investigation, that for the first time in the series of court orders, states that “unknown person (s) between December 13th, 2017 and December 15th, 2017” did “murder Bernard Sherman and Honey Sherman.”

Among the information the police sought were “medical records” obtained by a provincial pathologist (likely during one or both of the autopsies); more records from BMO; and records from two companies in the retailer loyalty business, Aimia Inc. and LoyaltyOne Co. The documents do not explain whose information police were seeking from those companies, which are involved in customer analytics and some specific loyalty programs such as Airmiles, in the case of LoyaltyOne Co.

Police documents obtained by the Star say “thousands” of hours of investigation has gone into the case, and states that “approximately 51 officers are actively involved in this investigation.”

To date, according to the police documents, police have received “64 tips” from the public, but the documents do not go into any detail. The documents also state that “a total of 240 witnesses” have been identified and almost all have provided statements. “Investigators continue to locate and contact the remaining witnesses in order to speak with them,” an officer involved in the case states in a police affidavit.

Kevin Donovan can be reached at 416-312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.ca

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