Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
When a triple-murder nearly wipes out an entire family, police struggle to establish a motive. At the home, investigators discover a gruesome scene and identify an unexpected murder weapon — a crossbow.
lawndale RD pictures middle scarborough neighborhood with beautiful manicured lawns a tne news media never covers it because nothing really ever happens here and then all of a sudden this happens…
august b255 2016 , the information was rather brief but it was involving stabbing that had occured
the house had a stand- alone garage and the driveway from the driveway from the street led directly into the garage area .
as officer walking through down the driveway he saw a lilfelss body.
when the first responders first arrived at the scene there was a bleeding young man in the driveway there attempts made to revive his individual however they were unsuccessful
and there was a man standing very close by covered in blood and the police officer asked him if he needed help and the man replied no it’s not my blood and it was this chilling echange and then he responded there are two more in the garage.
the investigator recollection of the actaul agarage was that it was not kept well .he sensed that it was used more for storage than for a motor vehicle there was like piles of wood piles of fooring
it was at this time investigator entered the garage he noticed the lifeless bodiesof two individuals. but as you got closer he noticed that there was the body of a women on the bottom of the stack i and on top there was male it was just almost like the stacks of wood that were piled in there his individua l stacked thhese two people one on top of the other .
the people whp resode in the neighborhood to be patient well some was not concerned for they’re safety.but there’s a kidsscool up here in a kids school down here it’s disturbing.
just to have it right next door is it’s pretty scary .
now its not just guns but it’s crossbos that neighborshave do defen themselves off with
the most statlning discovery was the number of victims police had and that a crossboe was used they discovered a crossbow weapon in the garage in the garage
the main reason why people wold use a crossbow is becaude they’re easily accessible you can enter any type of sports store and purchases one
they’re also very effective and lethal and thet’re wery quite it’s essentialy you load and fire and point it in the dirction that yo want the bolt and arrow to go .
the offenderthat’ responsible for theses homicides could have essentially bee responsible for more folks that police not located yet.
the story took another stunning turn there is a link according to police to a suspecious package found on queens key downtow.
what police discover when they enter that downtown condominium
a crossbow atack in toronto’s scarborough neighborhood had turned into a triple murder investigation knows theres a connection to a suspicious package found downtown .
the actually suspicious pachage was apparently found by toronto’s polcie andbeing investigated as 218 queens a police got a the call to come about and half after that initial call in scarborough .
their worry was is there more than one crime scene
they locked down andbasically evacuatede at this point i’d received some information regarding an apartmen an announcement was made over radio.police also went door to door to aid people to getting out of their apartments. invstigation tedermined that the occupant of that condo was
kristen baxter detective were unable to get a contact or get a hold of her as a sresult they went to check on her well-being in the apartment.
and when there were able to get in the apartment there wasn’t anyone there but theres was a number of machines.
set up that caused the officers coverned and when they saw them they tought they might me bombs the first device was a laptop computer it was propped up aganst the wall with dumbells
there was an oscilliant fan with a spoon tape to line up with the enter button so every time that oscillating fan would turn the wooden spoon would hit the enter button and it would play the next video clip
the second had his cell phone ,believed was an ihpone propped up and iphone propped up and in the ipad and in the ipad cell phone there was a pre -typed message and again mch like the first alibi device
he had two oscilllating fans they were connected to timers and stylus pens attached to the isolating fans lining up with the send or enter button on the corresponding device
both of the devices were essentially created by the offender to create essentially a digital footprint and provide an albi and if he was ever questioned by the police he would be able to say that he he ws infat at home using his cell phone using his ipad and watchint youtube on his computer.
it turns out the accused killer and the dead knew each other and they are all members of the same family police discovered that kristen baxter resident at that condominium with her fiance brett ryan and they also discovered that dwelling that initially attended was that of brett ryan’s mother susan
at this point police identified the three victims in the homicide the women that they saw earlier that we described earlier was susan ryan.
her eldest son chris ryan both these two were located in the garage and their youngest son or susan’s youngest son was AJ . they learned that there was a death of brett’s father about a year before in 2015 where he died of som medical condition.
however there waws still one other family member that they had not located or identified and that was leleand ryan.
leland ryan was in his late 30s at the time he was a second year photography student at the time he was a second year photography student at reyrson university he was living at home with his mother along with his youngest brother AJ who eas in his late 2os when they spoke to lelean ryan .
he described that during the 25th of august 2016 he said that he was in his bedroom and initially had seen his brother brett come into the house .
he never rally thougt much about it he had not seen his mother at that time but he never really thought much about his brother being there it would not be unsual for brett to attend the home to either clean out the garage or do a couple other handy details around the home .
a short time later he sees chris he asked chris what he was doing there and chris informed him he was there to pick up brett seemed normal there was nothing out of the ordinary at that point in the day now.
his brother chris lives at a different address right so he wasn’t part of the plan originally vjris wasn’t supposed to be there he went back to his room when he heard a very blood crdling sound coming from outside of his dwelling.
leland’s upstairs as he usually is he was on his computer in the second stroy of the home when he hears a piercing scream and he rushes down the stirs and he discovers his brother laying near the garage.AJ’s laying bleeding profusely with brett standing over him and he rushes to him and he says
“we’ve got to call 911”
and bretts racting rather strangley leland had asked him
“hey what are you doing here”
and initially leland believed that AJ had hurt himself somehow,he can tell that he’s got severe injuries and he’s bleeding and that he needs medical assistance the only thought in his mind was
“I’ve got to try to save my brother”
and brett is discouraging him from calling 911.leland tried to call 911 but brett knocked the cell phone out of his hands then he administered a chokehold on leland and they got into a vicious battle andhe thought that brett was gonna choke him out and ultimately kill him.
leland fights for his life and struggles to understand why his brother want to hurt hi s own family. Leland ryan has just discovered his younger brother AJ bleeding to death in the family ‘s home driveway now his brother brett has leland in a chokehold.
brett was choking leland and leland was able to grab an object and hit brett with it and was able to escape and makes his way running across from his adress and and runs across the street to a friend of the fiend of the families and someone and someone he knows and when he arrives he’s observed to be bleeding himself and he literally vomits and then and actually collapes in the foyer of the neighbor’s home
the police arrive and the police find brett ryan at the front steps of the residence he’s covered in blood and after the police cautioned brett he says to them
“ i should have driven him” reffering to AJ ” to the hopstial “
according to the police brett then stated he being leland is okeay ” we just fought” and then theguys referring to susan tyan and christopher ryan in the garage are dead crossbow to the head.
” it’s me i’m admitting to everything “
the cause of death of the women found in the stand- alone garage was ligature strangulation the cause of death of death of the man found in the stand-alone garage was crossbow bolt stab wound to the neck.the cause of death of the man located on the driveway was a single arrow’s head stab wound tothe neck .
the causes of death for the three deceased persons were as follows susan ryan as strangulation using yellow rope euring the confrontation with his mother brett stabbed his mother through the face with a crossbow bolt.
for christopher ryan he was murdered using the crossbow using the crossbow the crossbow entry point was from the back of his head and exited through the fron of his head
chris was in the garage with brett and while chris was either tending to his mother’s injuries or examining the injuries that his mother had brett shot chris in the back of the head with the crossbow h e then took chris’s body and he then put itagain either on top or beside mom’s body andcovered both with a tarp.
and AJ according to the agreed statement of fact was murdered using a stabbing to the neck area. he confronts AJ around the side of the house and proceeds to stab AJ numerous times with acrossbow bolt theblood gurgling sounds that AJ was making caught the attention of leland ryan who hadcome down to make some coffee
debris is still scattered across the driveway a day after three people were murdered here left to die in the garage and outside we’re also learining more about one of the victims christopher .
an employee with the ttc for the last 12 years is described as a gentle soul who made friends easily comment’s of condolences posted to social media
the ttc loweing flags to half mast in his memory
neighbor said he often see 66 year old susan ryan working in her garden the garden used to be one of the nicest garden on the street in terms of flowers and the landscapes
out of the the three of the boys the they all were described to be introverts except for brett ryan
brett really stuck out because he was a really outgoing guy
brent would have conferesations like matybe talk about girlfriends he was a student painter,he was outside alllt he time he’d be loading up the trick maybe ladders putting paint in , tools, material .
Brett ryan’s criminal past is revealed along with the events leading up to that fateful day in august and the secret that brettwould kill to protect.
The family next door never would have guessed what their neighbor’s sonbrett was up to …until the SWAT team showed up one day .
the suspect known as the fake beard bandit has been arrested brad ryan appeared in old city hall charged with a robbery and wearing a disguise in each robbery it’s alleged the 27 year old wore fake beard placing a note to a teller stating he had a gun and demanded cash.
mr ryan was known as the bearded bandit he wore beards and wigs and would go into banks and he did eight robberies over a span of eight months he would use a gilligan outfit often would make himself appear to be older and shuffle as if he had some difficulty walking.
this is a thoughtful individual he had his arms in a sling and his robberies he would hand a note to to the teller indicating that he had a gun in the sling and a matter of fact few of them were very close to where he was living
they had been living in the rouge hill area on conference boulevard.from 1998 to 2010 it was only fortuitous that in one of the robberies his license plate the gateaway car that he was using was identified by a witness.
they had him under 24-hours surveillance for two weeks and so he wouldgo to banks and stake it out of the last bank he went to stake it out he had his note on ,he was fully prepared to do the robbery and for some reason at the doorstep going nto the bank he looked
there was some construction in the area and it was quitea lineup in the bank.he was afreaid he probably wouldn¨t get away nobody knows for sure why he abandoned the plan but as he was stepping out of the bank hold up squad officers grabbed him.
he committing the bank robberies to fund a lifestyle that he simply couldn’t afford he ended ended up receiving afive-year sentence he had done some pre -trial custody wot which he was given credit and ended up serving another three years in the penitentiary .
the ordeal of everything happening at the house and everybody knowing tht they live there he just wanted to get away from that stigma and hejsut decided to move out of the neighborhood and kind of start out fresh where nobody knows you .
they moved in spring of 2010 to lawndale road which is in the markham elington kingston road area and our global.
news team did some investigatin and learned that the accused brett ryan was just weeks away from getting married
this wedding website has now been taken down but it showed the couple was set to walk down the aisle next month at a golf course near hamilton the site featured pictures
of the seemingly happy couple smiling together and even offered hotel recommendations for guests
brett ryan met Kristen baster sometime around 2011 he was introduced to her through a blind date through some friends of theirs he was still on parole at the time he met his fiancess
shortly after they started dating brett ryan had admitted toKristen that he’d was on parole and that he admitted that for an eight -months period of time between 2007 and 2008 he had committed bank robberies
the family were all supportive of his relationship with Kristen and they really saw him saw him as being someone who is a good example of someone who had made a mistake and is now recovering and trying to make a better life for himself and the people around
however police know that this all turned out to be nothing but a lie ,Kristen believed that he completed his university program and was contracted for several months to work at this I.T comapny and would work from home she had no reason to disbelieve him althoug she expressed some concern that she had not met any of his friends or his co- workers .
shortly after he got th job he was fired because employer found out he was the bearded bandit in addition tot he lie about the job brett had also told christin that he had graduated from university when in fact he ha dropped out and hadn’t graduated
so the whole time he was pretendingg he was going to school and then pretending that he had a job. sabout one month before the incident occurring brett had met with his mother and disclosed to her that he was not working and that essentially he was not working and that essentially he was basically taking her money .
he confessed to his mother because he required greater financial support – the fiancee believes he’s being paid by the I-T company so she probably going to say
“well brett where’s the money why aren’t you contributing more to support this condo and our lifestyle”
and he realize ” i need a finanical bridge ” so he went to his mother for that financial bridge .
so it was at that point susan tyan had given brett ryan an ultimatum and said that either you disclose all of this to your fiance kristen or she would or she would.
police learned that the murders were as a result of him wanting to silence his family and keep a secret from others.
the fiance receives a realy distrubing email from brett ryan and it said
” I’m sorry I’ve destroyed everything and everyone I’ve been hiding a terrible secret my anti -social personality disorder ,i couldn’t control it – i wish i could make it make sense ,i can tell you more when i see you”
she text brett ryan’s best man his name is Rhett davis ans she says
” hey diddy did you here anything from brett ,i recieved a strange email from him and it’s freaking me out i’m really scared “
so brett ryan was described anti-social personality disorder as not being aware of other people’s emotions that he didn’t have fear or anxiety and he wasn’t and he was not able to recognize the emotinons in himself
when he served his time in prison for the bank robberies he recieved counseling while he was in prison and was available to him when he was on parole but he discontinued it but they didn’t see any professional reports or anything to confirm the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder .
here’s somebody who has just murdered his mother murdered his brother murdered another brother and tried to kill his last brothet yet ha s the wherewithal to be calm when the police arrive to get on the pohine log into his email account and send his fiancee this message.
did officials miss the wanting signs after brett’s first jail sentence..
did officials miss the wanting signs after brett’s first jail sentence. brett ryan stole 28 ,000 as the bearded bandit bank robber but he’d served his time an was trying to start fresh.
so when he lied to his fiancee about quitting university and losing his job
his mother urged him to come clean giving him ultimatum that umtimately cost her life .
back to the conclusion of the big lie to die
let’s tast with those charges three counts of first degree murder that suggests that police believe this crime was premeditated.
in court he appeared calm but tired dressed in white jumpsuit he nodded in response o his lawyer appearing unperturbed
outside his lawyer G.J patington did not want to comment going to some legths to dodge the media wen you look at the steps that he took.
when you look at the steps athat he took as the beard handit and yoi know procuring high quality certainly better quality than a skin ski mask and then you look a the steps that he took as the crossbow killer and what he did
and what he did in terms of waiting for kristen to go to work in the morning to set up the alibi devices he exited the building in a way that he wans’t going to be captured on camera. he wore two pairs of pants that tells that you know at some point he anticipated
there might be blood and what better way to make good your escape if you just take off the top layer the weapon that was chosen he bought it used off of one of the platforms online probably paid cash for it so again there’s no tracing place the crossbow in the garage again this wasn’t a scenario where he got into a confrontation with mum a crnd happened to grab a kitchen knife that was sitting there he took these steps toplan it out.
as we look at the trajectory of his life when he was granted parole years earlier there were no varning signs when he was granted parole he seemed like a man dedicated to rehabilitating his life there was really no sign that he was capable of vilence he inflicted but at the same time before he was the beareded bandit no one had any idea that he would ever because he was had financial difficulties would resort to becoming a serial bank robber
that was shocking to the people around him to his neighbors to his family all of them.
it’s sort of brings chills down your spine when you think that here’s a person who was trusted by his mother his family but it ultimately turned out to bet he person who murdered his mother destroyed the family.
only imagine how devastated leland is and how tortured he is over what happened
that ultimately informed the guilty plea that brett ryan entered into to his credit from the beginning
he retained mr rosen who is excellent defense counsel one of the best when it comes to murders.
mr rosen said “brett tributed to some mental issues that he has now some people would say well that shows how manipulative he is but he didn’t run away and he stood his ground and he waited for the police”
but how would that plan actually work well he was suppsed to have a bachelor party in mount trombon theday after the days after the murders
was he really going to go to his bachelor party when he had his whole family murdered?
was he really going to marry kristin with the blood of all of his family members on his hands even if he somehow could have escaped this while the so -called crossbow kiler has ben sentenced.
the so -calledcrossbow killer has been sentenced to prison for at least 25 years brett ryan pleaded wuilty to killing his mother and his two brothers and attempting to murder his third brother he has benn sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
from mr rosen’s pespective the objet was to avoid mutliple convictions for first degree murder
so the deal was that they did not seek concurrent parole ineligibility periods because if they’ve done that then hey could have looked at 75 years of parole and eligibility if it was three counts of murder with stacked parole and eligibility periods which was in lat at that time.but the crown and defense made a deal to keep it to one count of first degree and 25 years .
mr rosen said the best solution for the client was to work out an arrangement with the prosecution that would avoid a trial it wouldsave everybody a lot of time money and heartache for everyone concerned it was a very sad case
just as he had done when he pleaded guilty as the bearded bandit swore that he was sorry for what he did and the harm he did he made an he made a apology in court justice john mcmahon said that brett ryan was the author f his own misfortune by creating this web of lies and then he enacted a homicidal olot to try to conceal those lies.
but he also suffered because of those murders and the guilt because he’s destroyed his own family and the judge believed he was truly remorseful for what he did
but he’s also the guy who created this tragedy he couldn’t risk lsing it all he’d rather kill than tell the truth .
but ultimately he did lose it all he lost he’s whoel family he lost his freedom he lost he everything .
but what do we know about the status ofhis case ?
brett ryan currently serving a life sentence so the earliest he could get out is when he’s 60.
he could get parol a few couple years earlier the average for first degree murderer is 33 years that’s how long it takes for them on average to gt parole he’s eligible in 25 years