The son of a billionaire couple murdered five years ago has tripled a cash reward for information about the unsolved crime amid frustration over a lack of progress in the investigation and deep rifts within the family.
Barry Sherman, the founder of drug giant Apotex, and his wife, Honey, are believed to have been killed in their Toronto home on 13 December 2017. A realtor found the couple in the basement pool area of their home two days later, with belts looped around their necks and attached to a pool railing.
Police initially believed the deaths to be a murder-suicide. Investigators later determined the couple were victims of a “targeted” double homicide, but five years on, the crime remains unsolved.
Last year, investigators asked the public to help identify the “walking person”, a figure on a sidewalk whose actions were “highly suspicious”, said police in an apparent breakthrough. Police believe the man is linked to the murders, but have still failed to identify him.
“Closure will not be possible until those responsible for this evil act are brought to justice,” Jonathon Sherman, the couple’s son, said in a statement shared with CBC Toronto. “I have been overwhelmed with pain, loss, and sorrow and these feelings only continuously compound.”
Last week, Jonathon’s sister Alexandra Krawczyk confirmed that the family’s C$10m reward had so far gone unclaimed.
Now, Jonathon has added C$25m of his own money to increase the reward to C$35m.
“This immeasurable pain is felt every day when I realize that my own two children will never have the privilege of meeting my parents who made their lives possible for me and my husband,” he said. “I continue to miss my parents more than I can describe, and I am forever haunted by what happened to them.”
In recent years, Jonathan has said that Alexandra has suggested he could have played a role in their parents’ deaths, fracturing a relationship between the two siblings.
Barry had reportedly asked Jonathon to repay him $C50m amid a cash shortage at Barry’s company, Apotex, in the weeks leading up to the killings.
“I can tell you I was not involved,” Jonathon, who is understood no longer to be on speaking terms with Alexandra, told the Toronto Star in January last year.
The Toronto police have said the investigation remains open and they remain “committed to resolving this case and bringing closure to the family and friends” of the Shermans.
