BURST
Three men allegedly bound an Abbotsford couple before murdering them and stealing credit cards, cheques and a pressure washer, according to Crown counsel’s opening statement on the first day of a trial for a trio accused of killing Arnold and Joanne De Jong in May 2022.
Abhijeet Singh, one of the three men accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the case, allegedly owned a cleaning company that had cleaned the roofs and gutters of the couple’s Abbotsford home about a month before they were killed, according to Crown’s statement.
The two other accused, Gurkaran Singh and Khushveer Toor, allegedly performed work for the cleaning company.
Prosecutors expect to present evidence that shows Joanne, 76, died of sharp and blunt force trauma, while Arnold, 77, who was found bound with duct tape around his head and face, died of asphyxiation due to smothering. They were found dead in their beds.
The couple were found on the morning of May 9, 2022 in their home in the 33600 block of Arcadian Way, a rural road in east Abbotsford.
Khushveer Toor, Gurkaran Singh and Abhijeet Singh of Surrey were each charged in December 2022 with two counts of first-degree murder.
The couple, along with their children and grandchildren, celebrated Mother’s Day together the day before the couple’s bodies were found in their home in the 33600-block Arcadian Way, a semi-rural part of Abbotsford dotted small acreages and woods. Joanne played hide-and-seek with her three grandkids, while Arnie visited with his daughters and their husbands.
The couple’s bodies were found the next morning in their house by a family member, who called police.
Homicide investigators arrested Toor, 22, Gurkaran Singh, 20 and Abhijeet Singh, 22, on Dec. 16, 2022. They said at the time that one of the men was known to the family. All three men lived in the same home in Surrey at the time of the murders.
The men, who remain in custody, first chose to be tried by judge and jury, before switching to judge alone, according to the Abbotsford News. An adjournment was granted in 2023. All three were then scheduled to go to trial in May 2024, but the two Singhs applied for a delay. Toor’s trial was severed from the other two, and he later applied for a return to judge and jury. The request was denied. He also fired his lawyer, resulting in another delay.
In October, Gurkaran Singh and Abhijeet Singh applied to have their trials delayed again, but their request was denied.
More to come…