TORONTO

A TV show’s investigation into the 2001 slaying of a University of Toronto professor has yielded new clues in the hunt for his killer.

The family of David Buller told the Toronto Sun new evidence has been presented to Toronto Police homicide detectives by a Halifax-based production planning to air a special on Buller’s murder in March.

Buller, 50, was knifed to death in the middle of the day on Jan. 18, 2001, while sitting behind his computer in his second-floor office at the U of T’s Connaught Building on Spadina Cres. His body was found on the floor around 7 a.m. the next day. His chair was tipped over and the computer’s electrical cord, having been ripped from the wall, ended up wrapped around the chair’s legs.

While Buller’s murder remains unsolved, members of his family, and at least one close friend, are now certain of two things: Buller knew his killer and his killer was familiar enough with the U of T’s visual arts building that he could work effortlessly to find his intended target.

The family, while not giving out further details pending the TV show broadcast, hopes this will breathe new life into an investigation that continues to sit among the force’s cold cases.

Buller, who was openly gay and known in Toronto’s gay community, had been teaching at the university for 15 years. He was a painter and visual artist who had become a popular professor among students; his artwork, some of it involving homoerotic themes, had been displayed in various spots around the city.

A list of theories developed as to who committed the crime. Was it a jilted lover? A homophobic maniac? A homeless miscreant who wandered into the building? A disgruntled student? A colleague?

Buller’s niece, Karyn Sandlos, said the family has ruled out the first three theories for various reasons, but wouldn’t comment on the possibility a student or colleague committed the crime, saying it would be covered in the TV special.

“What I can say ... is it seems very likely to me that the person who killed David knew David and knew the building,” said Sandlos, explaining that, at the time of the murder, Buller’s office was located in a complex maze of small offices and art studios.

“It happened in the middle of the day, at the back of the building, in an office that would have been difficult to find,” she noted.

Photographer Paul Casselman, a longtime friend of Buller, believes the murder involved a jealous colleague who saw Buller’s sound work ethic, his obvious talent and his popularity with students as a triple threat to a coveted position within the university’s art department.

Casselman said Buller was first stabbed in the back of the shoulder, then stabbed multiple times in the chest, leading him to believe Buller’s killer had been standing right behind him.

“I believe (Buller) was looking at his computer screen with someone he trusted. Nobody except a trusted friend or a colleague would’ve been able to get that close to him to do this, and certainly not a student,” said Casselman, explaining that Buller, a private man and consummate professional, wouldn’t have allowed just anyone into his cramped office.

After Buller’s body was found, police reportedly discovered a baffling sketch created on Buller’s computer and printed out around the time he was murdered: a homoerotic drawing of a bespectacled bald man looking at another man in bondage. But, it remains a mystery if Buller created the image or if it was someone else.

Toronto Police did not return calls for comment on the case.