Three Indo-Canadians convicted in brutal double murder of elderly couple in Abbotsford

ABBOTSFORD, BC: The British Columbia Supreme Court has found three Indo-Canadian men guilty in the brutal 2022 murders of an elderly couple. Gurkaran Singh, Abhijeet Singh, and Khushveer Toor were convicted for the targeted killings of Arnold De Jong, 77, and his wife Joanne De Jong, 76. The court characterised the homicides as a cold-blooded, pre-planned home invasion orchestrated for financial gain.

The victims were discovered in their Abbotsford residence in May 2022. The scene described by investigators was harrowing; both victims were found with their limbs bound. Forensic evidence revealed that Arnold De Jong had been strangled, while Joanne De Jong died from a fatal throat wound.

The link between the victims and the killers centred on a cleaning business owned by Abhijeet Singh. The two other defendants were employees of the firm, and the trio had previously performed maintenance work at the De Jong home, providing them with prior knowledge of the property and its layout.

The prosecution’s case was bolstered by a combination of forensic and digital evidence. Investigators traced stolen credit cards and checks from the residence back to the defendants, while DNA samples recovered from the crime scene directly implicated the three men. Furthermore, a revealing lapse in the suspects’ digital history showed they had used the internet to research murder sentences and legal penalties shortly after the killings took place, proving a consciousness of guilt.

The British Columbia Supreme Court is expected to hand down formal sentences for the three convicts on May 28. Under Canadian law, a first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.