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Case file s492 · 2015 to 2026 · 2017
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2017
Died
about 13 December 2017 (found 15 December 2017)
Place
Toronto, Canada
Field
pharmaceuticals (Apotex) · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
Canadian common law (Ontario) · Common law
Historical event
the murders of Canada's generic-drug billionaire and his wife
2015 to 2026Murder and sudden deathNowNorth AmericaCanada
AI illustration: A house on Old Colony Road, Toronto, in winter, 2017
Illustration made with AI for celebrity.estate.

Billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife were found strangled at their pool; police first called it murder-suicide, and the case is unsolved

Barry Sherman founded Apotex, the generic-drug company, and Forbes put his fortune at US$3.2 billion. On 15 December 2017, real estate agents found him and his wife, Honey, dead in the basement by their lap pool. Police sources told the Toronto Star the working theory was murder-suicide. The family hired lawyer Brian Greenspan, private investigators and a former chief forensic pathologist for a second autopsy. On 26 January 2018, police said the couple were victims of a targeted double homicide. The family offered a $10 million reward in October 2018. Police named a "person of interest" in November 2020 and released video of a suspect walking near the house in December 2021. In December 2022 the reward was raised to $35 million. The estate trustees obtained court orders sealing the probate files. The Toronto Star challenged them, and on 11 June 2021 the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously lifted the orders, ruling that privacy did not outweigh open courts. In 2023 son Jonathon Sherman pledged $52 million for a Vaughan arena in his parents' names. As of 2026, no one has been charged.

What the law took from it

Sealing a probate file is hard to do in a common-law court, even when the deaths are an open murder case.

Sources
  1. thestar.comPress
  2. cbc.caPress
  3. cp24.comPress
  4. BBCPress
  5. cbc.caPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife were found strangled at their pool; police first called it murder-suicide, and the case is unsolved,” story s492, https://www.celebrity.estate/billionaire-barry-sherman-2017, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

2015 to 2026Murder and sudden deathNowNorth AmericaCommon lawCanada