Family of Andrew Kinsman, who disappeared near Toronto's Gay Village, 'want the details' of how he died

Andrew Kinsman's family is still searching for answersa day after a Toronto man was charged withfirst-degree murder in his disappearance and that of another man near the city's Gay Village last spring.

"I want the details. I want to know what happened to him," said Kinsman's sister, Karen Coles, who has spent the last seven months scouringfor clues.

"I hope he didn't suffer," she told CBCToronto.

Bruce McArthur, 66, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the presumed deaths ofKinsman and Selim Esenon Thursday morning.

Kinsman, 49, went missing from the city's Cabbagetownneighbourhood on June 26 a day after the annual Pride parade while Esen, 44, was last seen on April 16 nearYongeand Bloorstreets, according to police. Both areas border on the city's predominantly gayChurch and Wellesley neighbourhood.

The disappearances sentwaves of concern throughToronto's LGBT community and led to speculation the incidents may be connected to other unsolved missing-persons cases in the area.

While police have notconfirmed a connection, they previously established two task forces to investigate.

Project Prism was established in August to investigate the Kinsman and Esencases, and shared information with Project Houston, launched in 2012 to probe the cases of three other men who vanished in the Church and Wellesley area that year.

The bodies of Kinsman and Esen have yet to be found, but police have a "pretty good idea" of the cause of death, Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsingasaid Thursday.

Idsingaadded that investigators believeMcArthurmay be responsible for other deaths.

McArthurappeared in a downtown courtroom on Friday morning.

Hours later, Kinsman's siblings gathered at the 519, a community centre in the heart of Church and Wellesley, to thank friends and others in the LGBT community who searched for their brother.

"Not knowingwhether Andrew was alive or dead has been a very difficult thing to live with, so there is some relief in the knowledge we have now," Colessaid in a news conference, describing the experience as a roller coaster.

Kinsman was a Cabbagetown resident and had deep roots in Toronto's LGBT community. He spent decades volunteering with the Toronto HIV/AIDS Network and was the superintendent of his Winchester Street building where he lived with his beloved cat.

As the months since he was last seen went by,Colessays she always held out hope that her younger brother couldstill be alive.

"You fear that they're dead, but you hope that he's had a medical emergency, he's just decided on a whim to take off with someone and you know spend a week away or two weeks away," she said.

"I know it doesn't sound logical but until you know for certain, you always have hope that he would come back."

But Kinsman's other sister, Patricia Kinsman, says she knew he wasn't coming back because of how he disappeared.

"He would never leave his 17-year-old cat,"she said.

While the thought that Kinsmancould have been murdered didn't immediately enter Patricia's mind, she explains as time went on it was somethingshe feared.

"It was the fact that when we couldn't find him after the amount of time we searched and we could not find one trace of him," she said. "Why would he turn his phone off? Why would he walk out of his apartmentwithout a fully charged phone? That's when I got a little suspicious."

Both Colesand her sister saythe were in "shock" when they learned police believe their brother had been murdered.

Now they want to find hisbody.

"We want to bring his body back home wherever he is and put him to rest," Patricia toldCBCToronto.

While police have not found the bodies of the two men or released the causeof death, Patricia says she wants to know what happened, despite the nature of the details.

"Not knowing is way worse because you spend all your time wondering and you can never stop thinking about it," she said.

McArthur is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 14.