International

A Canadian billionaire and his wife whose bodies turned up in their Toronto mansion, in what police called "suspicious" deaths, died from ligature neck compression, Toronto law enforcement said Sunday, a development suggesting the couple was strangled.

Pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman, 75, founder of Apotex Inc., and his 70-year-old wife, Honey, were found dead in their north Toronto mansion on Friday.

Multiple Canadian media outlets reported that police initially were investigating the deaths as a possible murder-suicide, citing unidentified police sources. The bodies were found hanging from a railing on the edge of a basement swimming pool, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, and CTV News reported, all citing police sources.

Investigators were working on the theory that Sherman killed his wife at some place in the mansion, hanged her body and then hanged himself at the pool’s edge. The Shermans recently put up their house for sale for $6.9 million ($5.4 million in U.S. dollars).

The immediate family in a statement released Saturday by Apotex admonished law enforcement sources for telling members of the media the deaths were from a murder-suicide before autopsy results were released, and slammed reports of a possible murder-suicide as “irresponsible."