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Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

The source suggested McArthur targeted men who kept a low-profile, sometimes allegedly going after those who did not keep fixed addresses or had not told their families they were gay.

But when he allegedly murdered Andrew Kinsman in 2017, the pattern changed.

“That was his downfall,” the source said.

Kinsman, 49, was well-known in Toronto’s Gay Village. He was an LGBTQ activist who volunteered for People with Aids Toronto and Toronto HIV/AIDS Network. He also worked as a bartender at the Black Eagle. His friends and family organized massive searches, with and without police, when he went missing.

Kinsman’s friends noticed his disappearance and reported it to police within 72 hours. It was the disappearance — and how quickly police began investigating it — that would eventually lead them to find enough evidence linking the two to arrest the alleged serial killer on Jan. 18.

McArthur, who worked as a landscaper, has since been charged with the first-degree murders of Kinsman, Selim Esen, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Majeed Kayhan and Skanda Navaratnam. On March 5, police released a photo of an unidentified man they believe is a seventh victim. The remains of seven men — including Kinsman, Navaratnam and Mahmudi — were found buried in planters stored at the home of one of his clients.

Edward Royle, McArthur’s lawyer, would not comment on the allegations which have not been proven in court.

McArthur, according to the source, appears to have been covering his tracks as early as 2001 when he repeatedly beat a male sex worker over the head with a metal pipe after being invited into the man’s apartment. McArthur immediately went to police, admitted what he had done and expressed remorse. Two years later, McArthur was convicted of assault with a weapon but escaped with only a conditional sentence that included a ban on his visiting the Gay Village.