Sherman Murders: A Tale of Two Cities
Police missteps plagued the early part of the double murder probe. A grisly 2015 triple homicide outside Calgary shares similarities with the Sherman case, but not when it comes to the police.
Canada is no stranger to bizarre and horrifying true crime dramas. The Sherman case exercises autonomy in being one of the more perplexing of those Canadian dramas. Much of the confusion and slow nature of the probe, as we have seen, rested with a careless and overburdened police service.
To be fair, TPS was on its knees at the time of the Sherman murders. Hot on the trail of a Toronto area serial killer, resources were strapped. But some of the missteps do not come with any real saving grace.
The case shares similarities with others in Canada. None of these springs to mind quicker than the case of Douglas Garland.
In 2015, Garland committed a disturbing series of homicides outside Calgary. Aggrieved by a decade old and largely intangible patent dispute, Garland meticulously plotted revenge against his former business partner, the business partner’s wife, and their five-year-old grandson who just happened to be sleeping over that night.
The parallels between the Calgary and Toronto cases? The murders were sprung on the victims in the midst of estate sales or estate changes and a move. They were also meticulously planned and fully intentional. The motive in the Calgary case was most personal. Many suspect the same in the case of Barry and Honey Sherman, and, of course, they are likely to be right based on the facts of the story as a whole.
The events and specifics of the Garland murders are morbid and the parts left up to the imagination ensure that this will always be the way the case is thought about. The horror of your own imagination, if you will, once you’re gifted enough of the info.
Another weird element of this saga is found in the possibility that the walking man learned from what happened in Calgary, if indeed he was home grown. Garland was sloppy, but whoever killed the Shermans took more care. This despite Garland’s all but probable use of a Tyvek suit during the commission of his horrific crimes.
The parallels between these cases end where the police investigations begin.
In the opening days of the murders outside Calgary, police stumbled upon video evidence of a green pick-up truck in the area of the home at suspicious times. Blasted across newspapers and television stations, it took little time for those close to Garland to out him, and his truck, and the undeniable link he had to the the victims.
We have our own green pickup truck in the Sherman case - the walking man.
TPS had this tape relatively early on. The documents we have date their knowledge of his existence to early 2018, but it is all but likely they had this tape closer to the opening shots of the probe. And if they didn’t, why not? TPS comments on the resources dedicated to that serial killer investigation stand out here.
Four years later, a very tired-seeming but focused cop, Det. Sergeant Brandon Price walked to the podium at TPS headquarters to release the grainy video to the public.
Most astonishing, and often overlooked, was the fact that Price actually admitted the video as being the best they had in his response to the question: why not release all the video you have?
The real question, of course, was why it took four years for the video to surface in the first place.
Price’s response? Well it came down to the integrity of the investigation. He argued they would be better positioned (from the standpoint of the investigation) by finding out who the mysterious walking man was on their own, as opposed to relying on the public. It must be noted that they were quite capable in keeping knowledge of the video secret, but this is hardly praiseworthy work if the explanation was a ruse or distraction.
Little has developed since that December 2021 disclosure. In Donovan’s new podcast, an acquaintance of the deceased said it best when postulating that perhaps someone would actually have been able to provide important information, had the video been released immediately.
Donovan himself adjudicates a rational timeline of one week later for the video’s release. He goes on to refer to TPS as the Keystone cops, and on that front he appears to have a point.
The incompetence here, taken together, is astounding. The obtuse nature of the police explanation on the question gives little hope that there was a good reason beyond shielding embarrassment. Without an actual explanation, many are left to draw their own conclusions. And the backdrop TPS has set up with regard to the investigation as a whole has not fostered trust and is thus not friendly to positive conclusions being drawn.
If there is any saving grace in this case, it must be the microscope being placed on TPS, their practices, and their lack of oversight and quality control.
Needs and wants, the late Sherman would often comment on.
The on-the-record explanation TPS provides for the delayed release of this once-important video is small comfort to the many who need answers.
A lot more to come.
Sherman’s interest in human nature is substantiated by those close to him. We see this above all else in his close friendship with Frank D’Angelo. A classic bit of history that frames their lively business endeavors together was a 2006 pitch to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins.