text: Less than a week before the billionaire businessman Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey, were found dead in their Toronto mansion, Ms. Sherman was cheerfully making plans for the couple's annual trip south. 
   
   "Looking forward to getting together in Florida. I am coming south Monday, December 18 [to]Friday, January 12," she wrote in an e-mail to friends last Monday. 
   
   What happened to Barry and Honey Sherman? What we know so far about the Apotex founder's death 
   
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   "Barry is coming south for Monday December 25 & going home with me Jan. 12. Please let me know your dates south asap so i can place in my calendar … Looking forward to hearing back asap. Xoxo Honey." 
   
   Instead of looking forward to socializing with Ms. Sherman on what was to be the first day of her vacation, friends of the couple are reeling – stunned that the pair were found hanging from a railing partly surrounding their basement lap pool on Friday. 
   
   Late Sunday, Toronto police said the couple both died from "ligature neck compression." 
   
   The homicide squad is now in charge of the investigation, although police were still classifying the deaths as "suspicious," not a homicide, in their Sunday night statement. 
   
   Over the weekend, multiple media reports and a Toronto police source said the early theory of investigators was that Mr. Sherman may have killed his wife and then took his own life. 
   
   However, the couple's grown children dismissed outright the suggestion that a murder-suicide was behind the deaths. 
   
   "Our parents shared an enthusiasm for life and commitment to their family and community totally inconsistent with the rumours regrettably circulated in the media as to the circumstances surrounding their deaths," the family said in a statement released Saturday evening. 
   
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   "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." 
   
   The couple had four children and had recently welcomed a new grandchild. 
   
   Toronto police did not officially confirm until late Sunday that the bodies discovered at 50 Old Colony Rd. in the city's north end on Friday were those of Mr. Sherman, 75, the founder of generic pharmaceuticals giant Apotex Inc., and his 70-year-old wife, Honey, a gregarious philanthropist whose causes ranged from higher education to health care to the Jewish community. 
   
   A Toronto police source told The Globe and Mail that a real estate agent who had been helping to sell the Shermans' North York home – it was recently listed for $6.9-million – discovered the bodies on Friday morning. 
   
   There was no sign of forced entry to the home and no note left behind to explain what had happened, the police source said. 
   
   As tributes and condolences poured in over the weekend – including from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Toronto Mayor John Tory – friends of the Shermans in Toronto's tight-knit Jewish community struggled to find an explanation for their deaths. 
   
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   "It was like being hit with a bolt of lightning on Friday," said Paul Godfrey, the chief executive officer of Postmedia Network Inc., who has known the Shermans socially for more than 25 years. "Everybody is asking, 'How could this happen?'" 
   
   Honey and Barry Sherman were proof that opposites attract, according to people who knew the couple. 
   
   Ms. Sherman was warm, genuine and loved to socialize. Mr. Sherman was a renowned workaholic, not comfortable with small talk and occasionally let on that he would rather go to the dentist than attend another fundraiser. But he always showed up because it was important to his wife. 
   
   Mr. Sherman talked business with a handful of friends at a reception in Toronto a few weeks ago for federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, a party hosted by Senator Linda Frum. 
   
   At that party, Mr. Sherman made it clear that he still loved what he was doing and had no plans to leave Apotex, according to a Bay Street executive who knew the couple well. 
   
   Mr. Sherman gave no hint there were any financial problems at Apotex, the executive said. 
   
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   The couple were planning a dinner party with a number of Toronto friends at their winter home in Palm Beach later this month; informal invitations went out last week, asking when a number of couples were free. 
   
   Mr. Sherman's net worth was recently estimated to be $4.77-billion by Canadian Business, an online magazine, making him the 15th-richest person in Canada. 
   
   The Shermans have handed out millions of dollars to hospitals, universities and the United Jewish Appeal. Ms. Sherman was on the board of governors at York University, the Baycrest Foundation and Mount Sinai Hospital. She was also the past chair of the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto and former chair of the Holocaust Education Centre. 
   
   Rhonda Lenton, the president of York University, last saw the Shermans on Oct. 28 after a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall. 
   
   The couple were in a buoyant mood that night, Dr. Lenton recalled, especially the more outgoing Ms. Sherman. 
   
   "[Ms. Sherman was] warm and effusive and bubbly," she said. "Because she is involved in so many different boards and quite involved in the Jewish community, she's known by everybody. She loves chatting." 
   
   Friends and colleagues have long said that Mr. Sherman was consumed with work and that he devoted almost all of his time and energy to Apotex, frequently sleeping for only a few hours a night. He had almost no outside interests and no taste for luxury, once driving an old car into such disrepair that Ms. Sherman went out and bought him a new Mercedes. 
   
   "Barry liked to do one thing: work. He worked seven days a week and he loved it," said Murray Rubin, 87, a retired pharmaceutical-industry colleague. 
   
   Mr. Rubin described the couple as kind and generous, and says he was shocked by the news of their deaths, and expressed disbelief that it could have been a murder-suicide. 
   
   "That is impossible," he said on Saturday. 
   
   With reports from Tu Thanh Ha, Joe Friesen, Molly Hayes, Tavia Grant, Jeff Gray and Susan Krashinsky Robertson ||||| Homicide detectives have now taken over the investigation into the deaths of two pharmaceutical billionaires that police have deemed "suspicious." 
   
   Apotex founder Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife, Honey Sherman, 70, both died from "ligature neck compression," meaning strangulation, police said in a statement issued Sunday. 
   
   The influential couple were found dead in their North York home on Friday. 
   
   A police source previously told CBC News that someone outside the Sherman family discovered the bodies, but police remain tight-lipped about the investigation. 
   
   As questions mount about the cause of the deaths, some news outlets are quoting police sources, saying the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide. 
   
   In a statement released Saturday, the family said "our parents shared an enthusiasm for life and commitment to their family and community totally inconsistent with the rumours regrettably circulated in the media as to the circumstances surrounding their deaths." 
   
   'We are shocked' 
   
   "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," the statement continued. 
   
   One of two bodies removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" Friday. (Chris Helgren/Reuters) 
   
   Toronto homicide Det. Brandon Price told reporters outside the couple's home on Friday that police "cannot say 100 per cent with certainty" whether or not foul play was involved. 
   
   Price said there were no signs of forced entry into the home, and that police were not searching for any outstanding suspects. 
   
   The couple had listed their home at 50 Old Colony Rd. in Willowdale near Bayview Avenue and Highway 401, shortly before they died, for $7 million. 
   
   Friends, employees react 
   
   Barry and Honey Sherman were found dead at 50 Old Colony Rd. in the Bayview Avenue and Highway 401 area. (Katherine Brulotte/CBC) Over the weekend, a makeshift memorial was set up in front of the home. A steady stream of neighbours, Apotex workers, and well-wishers dropped off flowers in honour of the Shermans. 
   
   
   
   
   
   "I was shocked. I couldn't sleep the last few days because of the memories," he said on his way to visit the memorial. Flowers and police tape could be seen outside the billionaire and noted philanthropist couple's North York mansion on Old Colony road in the Bayview Avenue and Highway 401 area, from which their bodies were removed on stretchers the evening before. (Lorenda Reddekopp/CBC) "Amazing person, just amazing. I've never seen a person like him in my life," said Vinay Chopra, a former Apotex employee. He worked with the company for 23 years and said he is struggling to come to grips with the tragedy."I was shocked. I couldn't sleep the last few days because of the memories," he said on his way to visit the memorial. 
   
   Barry Sherman founded Apotex in 1974 and has amassed a vast fortune since. His net worth was recently estimated by Canadian Business magazine at $4.77 billion, making him the 15th richest person in the country. He counted many people among his friends, including Toronto Mayor John Tory who commented on his contributions to the city on Saturday. 
   
   "Barry Sherman was a reserved man, but a man who, over his business career, created hundreds and hundreds of jobs for people in the city of Toronto," he said. 
   
   
   
   "He loyally invested in the city of Toronto and kept many of the manufacturing and other operations of Apotex here," Tory added. 
   
   'A big loss' 
   
   Vinay Chopra, a former Apotex worker. (CBC) Paul Godfrey, CEO of Postmedia, also considered himself a friend of the couple. He says Barry was dedicated to his work. 
   
   "If you looked up in the dictionary the word 'workaholic', you'd see a picture of Barry Sherman," he told CBC News. "He built a business up from absolutely nothing to serving generic drugs to 115 countries in the world." 
   
   Honey Sherman, on the other hand, was described as a dedicated philanthropist. She was a member of the board of the Baycrest Foundation and the York University Foundation. She also served on the boards of Mount Sinai's Women's Auxiliary, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the International American Joint Distribution Committee. 
   
   Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press) "Honey always got her way. She pushed and pushed, especially in charity causes. Honey didn't need anything from anybody, so what she did; she tried to be the link between the haves and the have nots," said Godfrey. 
   
   Former Ontario premier Bob Rae remembered Barry Sherman fondly, telling CBC that he "didn't hesitate to let you know when he was happy and wasn't happy." 
   
   "It's going to be big loss. The Canadian business community has lost a truly remarkable individual." ||||| TORONTO — Barry Sherman, a Canadian billionaire, generic-drug mogul and philanthropist, once promised that the autobiography he was writing would be a page-turner, packed with stories of intrigue, duplicity and outright corruption by his competition. 
   
   The last chapter was without doubt the most sensational — and he did not get to write it. It occurred last Friday, when his body was rolled out of his Toronto mansion by the police, together with that of his wife, Honey. 
   
   On Sunday night, Toronto police announced that its homicide team was leading the investigation, and that “the cause of death for both deceased was ligature neck compression.” 
   
   The couple’s real estate agent found their bodies hanging by their indoor pool, according to a person close to the family and local news reports. The police said there were no signs of forced entry and no suspects-at-large the public should be concerned about.
target: – The investigation into the mysterious deaths of a billionaire and his wife is now being led by homicide detectives, police say—suggesting the deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman were either murder-suicide or a double murder. Police, who have described the deaths as "suspicious," revealed Sunday that the cause of death for both Shermans was "ligature neck compression," a form of strangulation, the CBC reports. Sources have told the media that the couple were found hanging near an indoor pool in the basement of their Toronto mansion. Police say they haven't found any sign of forced entry, or a note that could explain what happened to 75-year-old pharmaceutical tycoon Barry Sherman and his 70-year-old wife, both renowned philanthropists. The couple's four children have rejected what they say are "rumors" that the deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide, and many of the influential couple's friends agree. "There is absolutely zero debate in my mind, this was a double homicide," says Canadian Sen. Linda Frum, a longtime friend of the couple, per the New York Times. The Globe and Mail reports that just days before the bodies were found, Honey Sherman was enthusiastically making plans for their annual trip to Florida, emailing friends that she would be traveling to the state on Dec. 18 and Barry Sherman would join her a week later. The couple also sent out invitations last week to a dinner party at their winter home in Palm Beach.