Toronto police have seized planters from three more homes across the Greater Toronto Area, including one in Mississauga where it’s believed more human remains will be found. 
 
 The homeowner of a two-storey home on a quiet street in Mississauga, who only identified himself as Bill, told Global News he has known alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur for roughly 15 years. He said he can not remember how he met McArthur. 
 
 Bill said McArthur, who worked as a self-employed landscaper, has been doing gardening for him ever since and knew what police were looking for when they came knocking on his door. He said detectives took away a planter, but did not tell him why and did not say if they found anything. 
 
 “[McArthur] was very pleasant and you could never imagine that this is what he’d do and we’ve known him for 15 years,” said Bill. 
 
 Another homeowner, who lives near Yonge Street and St Clair Avenue West area, said he hired McArthur to maintain his flower pots when he and his wife bought their townhouse six years ago. 
 
 “We’re shocked that the person that we knew as little as we did would be an alleged serial killer of course we’re shocked and we’re saddened,” Vian Ewart told Global News. 
 
 “We understood the police had to visit and they had to bring cadaver dogs. We are clean and we’re extremely happy about that,” Ewart’s wife, Ellie Tesher, added. 
 
 READ MORE: Police found man tied to Bruce McArthur’s bed when he was arrested, sources say 
 
 Police sources told Global News a planter was seized from the property of the townhouse next door to Ewart and Tesher. 
 
 Meanwhile, a planter was also seized from a third home in the Moore Park neighbourhood. 
 
 These seizures come after a number of large planters that were recovered on Mallory Crescent where police said the dismembered remains of three unidentified bodies were found. Sources told Global News three torsos and other body parts were found in those planters. 
 
 Police have spoken to roughly 30 clients of McArthur, who had a landscaping business called “Artistic Design.” Investigators appealed for anyone who may have used McArthur’s services in the past to call them at 416-808-2021. 
 
 McArthur has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Andrew Kinsman, Dean Lisowick and Soroush Mahmudi. 
 
 Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga announced on Monday that police found human remains at a Toronto home linked to the accused. 
 
 READ MORE: Timeline of events in Bruce McArthur suspected serial killings case 
 
 “Right now where we’ve recovered the bodies are from large planters and they’ve been hidden in the bottom of these planters,” Idsinga said. 
 
 “So we’ve seized quite a few planters from around the city and we’ll continue to do that. There are at least two sites that we do want to excavate where people might be buried.” 
 
 But the remains haven’t been identified yet, police said. 
 
 READ MORE: Suspected serial killer Bruce McArthur accused of murdering 5 men, police say 
 
 “They cannot be identified because they are skeletal remains and they have been dismembered, We have to wait for DNA tests and we have to get DNA tests from the people that are outstanding and their family members before we can identify those remains,” Idsinga said. 
 
 The charges against McArthur have not been proven in court. 
 
 — With files from David Shum and Nick Westoll ||||| A restrained man was found inside alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur's apartment at the time of his arrest, CBC Toronto has learned. 
 
 Sources say that Toronto police officers, who were observing McArthur, saw a man enter his home in Thorncliffe Park on the morning of Jan. 18. They say officers believed the man to be in imminent danger. 
 
 When officers forcibly entered the apartment to arrest McArthur, 66, they found the man in restraints. 
 
 It is believed he went to the apartment seeking a sexual encounter. 
 
 3 men tell police about sex with McArthur 
 
 CBC Toronto has also learned that police have conducted three interviews with men who had sex with McArthur. 
 
 All three told police they stopped dating him because they were uncomfortable with some of the sex acts. 
 
 As of Monday, McArthur faces first-degree murder charges in the cases of five men: Andrew Kinsman, 49, Selim Esen, 44, Majeed Kayhan, 58, Soroush Mahmudi, 50, and Dean Lisowick, 47. 
 
 On Monday, investigators announced they seized a dozen planters after searching through 30 properties where McArthur may have worked. 
 
 CBC Toronto learned on Tuesday that in addition to a property on Mallory Crescent in Leaside, police searched two more properties near Yonge Street and Balmoral Avenue in North Rosedale. Police also confirmed their search extends to properties as far as Peel, York and Durham regions. 
 
 After forensic analysis of only two of the planters — both from the Mallory Crescent home — police discovered dismembered skeletal remains belonging to at least three people. 
 
 A police officer carries containers outside a house on Mallory Crescent in Toronto where skeletal remains were found. (Chris Young/Canadian Press) 
 
 Cadaver dogs are also on the hunt for clues, but they are having issues detecting scents due to the cold weather and frozen ground, the police source explained. 
 
 Investigators plan to dig up at least two properties as part of their investigation, including the Mallory Crescent home. 
 
 Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga, the lead investigator on the case, has called the investigation "unprecedented." 
 
 He told CBC Toronto that media attention on McArthur has resulted in a number of tips being submitted to police. ||||| Alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur was under police surveillance when officers were forced to make a quick decision to enter his home and arrest him, believing a life could be in danger, police sources confirm to the Star. On the morning of January 18, police watching McArthur observed a young man entering the Thorncliffe Park building where there the 66-year-old landscaper rented an apartment. When he walked in the 19th floor unit, they knew they had to intervene, according to a police source with knowledge of the events. 
 
 Bruce McArthur, accused of five counts of first-degree murder, is now the subject of what’s poised to become the most ambitious homicide investigation in Toronto’s history. ( THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) 
 
 When officers decided they had to take action, they entered McArthur’s apartment and found a young man tied up but unharmed, according to the source. None of the information about the circumstances of McArthur’s arrest has been officially released by Toronto police. Read more: 
 
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 “This will end up being, including in terms of the potential scenes, the largest (investigation) Toronto has undertaken,” said Mark Mendelson, a former Toronto police homicide detective, in an interview Tuesday. Nearly two weeks after announcing McArthur was charged in the deaths of Selim Esen, 44, and Andrew Kinsman, 49, Toronto police Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga announced Monday that three more first-degree murder charges had been laid against him. 
 
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 Investigators now believe that Majeed Kayhan, 58, Dean Lisowick, 47, and Soroush Mahmudi, 50, were killed by McArthur, who was known in Toronto’s Gay Village. Police have not released any of the causes of death, though Idsinga has previously said they have a pretty good idea of how Kinsman and Esen died. Investigators have also said little about how McArthur came to know each of his alleged victims, though they have confirmed he and Kinsman were in a relationship. Idsinga told reporters Monday that the ongoing probe — which includes 30 properties to which McArthur is linked through his landscaping work — is “unprecedented.” Police located the dismembered remains of three unidentified people inside large planters at a home in Leaside. 
 
 Homicide Detective Sgt. Hank Idsinga updated the media on the case against Bruce McArthur on January 29. Toronto Police have charged McArthur with three additional counts of first-degree murder, bringing the total number of charges to five. Idsinga also said that McArthur is an "alleged serial killer." (Toronto Police Services/YouTube) 
 
 A team of dedicated investigators, forensic specialists and dozens of officers, including some from the K9 unit, have been scouring the properties, with the belief that yet more human remains could be found. “I have seen large scale investigations before with dozens and dozens of officers working on them. We’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Idsinga said. The technicalities and complications in this case are mind-boggling, Mendelson said. Among the most challenging tasks will be the identification of human remains. Mendelson said investigators may rely on dental records to trace remains back to an identity, though Idsinga said what has been found so far are skeletal remains. Police may also try to track DNA through “reverse paternities” with family members, a technique that requires DNA from a mother and a father, Mendelson said. But that tactic relies upon having an idea of who is missing in the first place, something that is far from guaranteed in this case. Lisowick, one of the three men who McArthur was charged with murdering Monday, was in fact never reported missing. Police have not revealed how they were able to obtain sufficient evidence in his death to charge McArthur. Idsinga acknowledged Monday that a complication in the case is that it’s possible that there are more victims who not have been reported missing at all, or may have been reported missing in another place entirely. “If anyone comes into Toronto for an event such as Pride and then get reported missing back in their hometowns, the complainants not being aware that they were in Toronto — that’s obviously something we have to look at. “As we sort out these remains and get them identified, we may find more people who were never reported missing,” Idsinga said. McArthur is due back in court February 14. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca
– Toronto police arrested a suspected serial killer out of fear for a young man's life, sources say. The man—who was seeking a sexual encounter, per the CBC—was found restrained but unharmed in Bruce McArthur's apartment on Jan. 18; police had the 66-year-old landscaper under surveillance and observed the young man entering the 19th-floor unit, police sources tell the Toronto Star. McArthur is now charged with the murders of five men, aged 44 to 58, who disappeared between 2012 and 2017; three people's remains ended up in two concrete planters at a client's home. Police are reportedly probing some 30 properties linked to McArthur's landscaping business as part of what the Star says is "poised to become the most ambitious homicide investigation in Toronto's history." Toronto police Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga says the investigation is "unprecedented" in scale, with the CBC reporting properties visited by McArthur are located across the Greater Toronto Area. "I have seen large-scale investigations before with dozens and dozens of officers working on them. We've never seen anything quite like this," Idsinga tells the Star. The Global News quotes him as saying on Monday that authorities will excavate "at least two sites ... where people might be buried." It's not clear how McArthur knew all of his alleged victims, but investigators say he was in a relationship with one of the men and was known in Toronto's Gay Village. He'll next appear in court Feb. 14. (McArthur also worked as a mall Santa.)