Children of Dead Billionaire Decry Murder-Suicide Reports

Pharmaceutical billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife were found hanged in their home Friday
By Josh Rosenblatt,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2017 10:03 AM CST
Sherman Family Doubts Murder-Suicide 'Rumors'
Police tape surrounds the home of billionaire Barry Sherman in Toronto.   (AP Photo/Robert Gillies)

After the bodies of Canadian pharmaceutical billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey, were found hanging in their Toronto mansion Friday afternoon, a source for the Toronto police department told the press the police were investigating the possibility that their deaths were a murder-suicide. But now the couples' children are saying those "rumors regrettably circulated" are untrue. The Shermans were found around noon next to a basement pool by a real estate agent who was showing their home. But while police said the circumstances of their deaths was "suspicious," they also said they found no signs of forced entry and were not "currently seeking a suspect." According to one police source, investigators were considering the possibility that Sherman, one of the richest men in Canada, "killed his wife, hung her body and then hanged himself at the pool's edge," Fox News reports.

But the Sherman's children take issue with that theory and with the police sources and members of the media reporting what they call "rumors" about their parents' deaths. In a statement released Saturday by Barry Sherman's company, Apotex, Inc., the couple's children asked the media to refrain from reporting on the case until the police complete their investigation, ABC News reports. "Our parents shared an enthusiasm for life and commitment to their family and community totally inconsistent with the rumors regrettably circulated in the media as to the circumstances surrounding their deaths," the statement reads. "We are shocked and think it's irresponsible that police sources have reportedly advised the media of a theory which neither their family, their friends nor their colleagues believe to be true." (More Barry Sherman stories.)

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