Photo of deceased man was one of a cache of alleged victim images kept by Bruce McArthur, source says

CBC Toronto has learned from a police sourcethat the photoof a man believed to have beenkilled by Bruce McArthur was just one in a cache of images of his alleged victimsthat the suspected serial killer kept on his computer.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity,also says that some 40 tips have come in to police since the photo was released, though none of the people who have come forward have saiddefinitively that the man pictured was a relative.

The revelation comes just one day after investigators took what they called the rare step of releasing the photo in the hopes that a member of the public could identify the middle-aged bearded man.

At a news conference Monday, Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga said identifying the mancould take weeks.

"Short of a direct family member calling and saying, 'That's so-and-so,' we have to sort through the tips and use the process ofelimination," he told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. "Eventuallywe would pursue 'possibles' and hope that DNA or dental recordswould match up with found remains."

Police have said the man was dead when the picture was taken, but won't say when or how they obtained the image.

Latest remains not identified

Ahead of Monday's news conference, CBC News reported exclusively that investigators had discovered a seventh set of remains in gardening planters seized from a midtown Toronto home where 66-year-old McArthur had worked as a landscaper.

Those remains have yet to be identified. It is unknown if they arelinked to any of the missing men from earlier police investigations, or if they belong to the man in the photo released Monday.

The Mallory Crescent property has been ground zero for investigators, with at least six other sets of remains found in planters there. So far, three havebeen identified as belonging to Soroush Mahmudi, 50, Andrew Kinsman, 49 and Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40.

Idsingapreviously told CBC News that "upwards of 20 planters" have been seized from properties across the city as part of the investigation.

Evidence pointing to causes of some deaths

On Feb. 23, McArthur was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Navaratnam. That charge followed five others in connection with the disappearances ofKinsman andMahmudi, as well asSelimEsen, 44,MajeedKayhan,58, and DeanLisowick, 47.

Idsingahas said there is evidence pointing to a cause of death in at least some of the cases, but wouldn't elaborate.

Many of the men went missing from or near Toronto's gay village.

Navaratnam's disappearance was one of three cases included in a Toronto police task force dubbed Project Houston.In Januarypolice said another Project Prism, set upto investigate the disappearances ofEsenand Kinsman had begun sharinginformation with Project Houston.

At the time, police said they hadno evidence of foul play in the Project Houston investigation, which also looked into the disappearances of Kayhan and Abdulbasir Faizi, 44, whose case remains unsolved.

Segments of theLGBTcommunity have questioned why police didn't domore to probe the cases of missing men of colour before the high-profile disappearance of Kinsman, well-known in thecommunity for his decades of volunteer work with the Toronto HIV/AIDS Network.

Hundreds of cases

As CBC News reported in January, McArthurwas charged with two counts of assault in 2003 after attacking a man with a metal pipe, requiring him to stay away from a section of the downtown gay village and to not be in the presence of male prostitutes. He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample.

Police have said the investigation into McArthur could last years, and that they are tracing the former landscaper'swhereabouts as far back as they can go.

Dozens of officers have now been assigned to the investigation, which Idsinga has said hasexpanded to include "hundreds of outstanding missing person cases," old murders and some "sudden deaths."

Investigators have so far refused to discuss how McArthur's alleged victims died, but Idsinga has said police have no evidence that anyone else was involved.

McArthur iscurrently being held at the Toronto South Detention Centre in suburban Etobicoke. Hisnext court hearing is set for March 14.