Deaths of Canadian billionaire, wife a tantalizing mystery

There were no signs of forced entry on the cold December morning when a Canadian billionaire businessman and his wife were found dead inside their mansion, reportedly hanging from a railing at the edge of their indoor pool.

Since that time, investigators have scoured the 12,000-square-foot home, hauled away the couple's cars and even checked the sewers in one of Toronto's most exclusive neighborhoods for clues. But police haven't made any arrests or announced a search for any suspects nor have they said practically anything publicly about the deaths of drug company founder Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey.

This Jan. 6, 2018 photo shows police crime scene tape marking off the property belonging to Barry and Honey Sherman, who were found strangled inside their home on Dec. 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Rob Gillies)

Sherman was a fiercely competitive businessman, once musing that a rival might want to kill him. The day after the bodies were found, prominent media outlets, including the Toronto Star, quoted unidentified police officials as saying it appeared to be a murder-suicide. But that theory, which was never publicly confirmed by authorities, was dismissed out of hand by people who knew the philanthropic and politically connected couple, saying it would be wildly out of character.

Such a scenario was also ruled out by the couple's four adult children, who hired their own investigator and pathologist to conduct second autopsies on the Shermans, who were killed days before heading south to their winter home in Palm Beach, Florida.

"Nobody will support a theory of either murder-suicide or double suicide," said Brian Greenspan, a lawyer for the family. "To everyone who knew them it's inconceivable."

Toronto police, called "irresponsible" by the family for the early reports of a murder-suicide, have declined to make any more public statements, aside from calling the deaths "suspicious," leaving the media and people who knew the couple to speculate about what has become a tantalizing mystery.

The Star, citing unidentified experts hired by the family, reported Friday that the couple were tied to the rail with men's belts, which resulted in the "ligature compression" that was the cause of death. The paper also said they had marks on their wrists that suggested their hands had been tied together, were wearing winter coats that had been pushed down their shoulders, as if to restrain them, and had no drugs in their system that would have caused their deaths. Greenspan declined to confirm the report.

Citing an unidentified source, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said the family's private investigators believe the Shermans were murdered by multiple killers but provided no evidence to back up the claim. Those investigators have not been to the house.

Sherman, 75, was known for litigiousness and aggressive businesses practices as he developed generic drug manufacturer Apotex Inc., which has a global workforce of about 11,000. He conceded he made enemies in "Prescription Games," a 2001 book about the industry.

"The branded drug companies hate us. They have hired private investigators on us all the time," he said. "The thought once came to my mind, why didn't they just hire someone to knock me off? For a thousand bucks paid to the right person you can probably get someone killed. Perhaps I'm surprised that hasn't happened."

Canadian Sen. Linda Frum, a close friend of the Shermans, said the comment is chilling in retrospect. "That sets off alarm bells for me," she said. "The fact that he identified that as a possible threat to his life has to be taken seriously."

In this Oct. 15, 2017 photo provided by the United Jewish Appeal via Canadian Press, Barry and Honey Sherman pose for a photo in Toronto, Canada. (United Jewish Appeal Federation - Greater Toronto/Canadian Press via AP)

Sherman also faced legal action from cousins who said they had been cut out of the company over the years. A judge dismissed the claim just months before the couple was found dead.

A Toronto-born graduate of MIT and the University of Toronto, Sherman founded the company in 1974. He married Honey in 1971.

Canadian Business magazine recently estimated his worth at 4.77 billion Canadian dollars ($3.65 billion), making him the 15th richest person in the country. As they became wealthy, the couple became known in Canada for philanthropy. They gave tens of millions to the United Jewish Appeal, gave money to a geriatric hospital in Toronto and sent medicine to disaster zones. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the funeral and Sherman is posthumously due to receive one of the country's highest civilian honors this year.

Frank D'Angelo, a close friend of Sherman, said the businessman complained of fatigue but he chalked it up to working long hours and not eating well. "It was never about depression," he said. "I never heard that in almost 20 years."

Honey Sherman, 70, a University of Toronto graduate who met her husband while volunteering at a local hospital, spent her time raising money for charities and was active in Toronto's Jewish community. She had recently been treated for cancer and suffered from a serious form of arthritis but was outgoing and friendly.

Friends and family say the couple was busy making plans for the future. They had recently listed their home in Toronto for 6.9 million Canadian dollars and they were building a new home in the city.

"They loved each other. They loved life," Frum said. "Almost every conversation I ever had with Barry was about how much left he had to do in his life."

She is angry police haven't publicly rejected the theory of murder-suicide and have been quiet since their early leaks.

FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2017 file photo, Jonathon Sherman wipes his tears as he and his sister Lauren walk to the stage during a memorial service in Mississauga, Ontario, for their parents Barry and Honey Sherman, who were found dead inside their mansion.  (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP File)

"Now they are overdoing it in the other direction, having been too loose lipped in the first place about their foolish theories. It's definitely been a case of how not to handle a police investigation," Frum said.

Their bodies were discovered Dec. 15 by a maid and a real estate agent.

Today, the home remains cordoned off behind yellow police tape and under constant watch by officers, and the family's private investigators haven't been allowed inside.

Police are still apparently searching the tree-lined streets of the northern Toronto neighborhood for clues. Greenspan said the family was told twice that police were done with the property, only to have them insist they need more time.

This Jan. 6, 2018 photo shows police prowlers parked outside the home of billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, in Toronto, Canada. (AP Photo/Rob Gillies)

"We're encouraged that they are being thorough," Greenspan said. "We don't believe there has been a conclusion reached. I don't want to get into it further, but there's no question that our pathologist and our officers and the people who are involved in our side of this investigation, we all have a view."

Former Toronto homicide detective Mark Mendelson said the fact that police initially said they weren't looking for any suspects and there were no signs of forced entry supports the idea of a murder-suicide or double suicide but says those preliminary statements may not give the whole picture.

"The other side of the equation is that maybe those two statements came out a little prematurely given that the investigation was really in its infancy," Mendelson said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of New York City nurses returned to the picket lines Tuesday as their strike targeting some of the city’s leading hospital systems entered its second day.

Union officials say roughly 15,000 nurses walked off the job Monday morning at multiple campuses of three hospital systems: NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai.

The affected hospitals have hired droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap. Both nurses and hospital administrators have urged patients not to avoid getting care during the strike.

New York City, like the U.S. as a whole, has had an active flu season. The city logged over 32,000 cases during the week ending Dec. 20 — the highest one-week tally in at least 20 years — though numbers have since declined, the Health Department said last Thursday.

Roy Permaul, an intensive care unit nurse who was among those picketing in front of Mount Sinai's flagship campus in Manhattan, said he and his colleagues are prepared to walk off the job as long as needed to secure a better contract.

But Dania Munoz, a nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai, stressed that the union’s fight wasn’t just about better wages.

“We deserve fair pay, but this is about safety for our patients, for ourselves and for our profession,” the 31-year-old Bronx resident said. “The things that we’re fighting for, we need. We need health care. We need safety. We need more staffing.”

The New York State Nurses Association said Tuesday that none of the hospitals have agreed to additional bargaining sessions with the union since their last meetings on Sunday.

It also complained that Mount Sinai, which operates seven hospitals, unlawfully fired three nurses hours after the strike started and improperly disciplined 14 others who had spoken out about workplace violence or discussed the union and contract negotiations with their colleagues.

Mount Sinai spokespersons said Tuesday the claims were “not accurate” and that they would provide more information later. Mt. Sinai has said approximately 20% of its nurses reported for work on the first day of the strike rather than picketing.

Meanwhile, Montefiore Medical Center said it has “not canceled even one patient’s access to care” during the work stoppage. The city Emergency Management Department said it hasn’t seen major impacts to patient care so far.

The hospital system also criticized unionized nurses for seeking “troubling proposals” such as demanding that nurses not be terminated, even if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job.

The union said Montefiore was “blatantly mischaracterizing” one of its basic workplace proposals, which would have added protections for nurses dealing with substance use disorders and which has already been adopted in other hospitals around the state.

The labor action comes three years after a similar strike forced medical facilities to transfer some patients and divert ambulances.

As with the 2023 labor action, nurses have pointed to staffing issues as a major flashpoint, accusing the big-budget medical centers of refusing to commit to provisions for safe, manageable workloads.

The private, nonprofit hospitals involved in the current negotiations say they’ve made strides in staffing in recent years and have cast the union’s demands as prohibitively expensive.

On Monday, the city's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, stood beside nurses on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian, praising the union’s members for seeking “dignity, respect and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve.”

Nurses strike in front of Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Nurses strike in front of Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Nurses strike outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)