Almost four years to the day after an Abbotsford couple was found murdered in their beds, a judge has found three men guilty of first-degree murder. Abhijeet Singh, Khushveer Toor, and Gurkaran Singh were convicted in the deaths of Arnold De Jong, 77, and his wife Joanne, 76, who were killed in their home on May 9, 2022.
The judge described the murders as "intimate and prolonged" and rejected defense arguments that the killings were part of a botched robbery. "The murders speak of calculation and determination," she told the court Friday afternoon.
Arnold De Jong was found dead in his bed with duct tape wrapped around his nose and mouth, dying of asphyxiation due to smothering. Joanne De Jong was found in her bed surrounded by blood, having died of sharp and blunt force trauma.
During an eight-week trial, the court heard that a day before the killing, Abhijeet Singh — owner of a Surrey company that had previously cleaned the couple's roof — purchased rope, a screwdriver, and a softball bat from a hardware store. That night, the three men left their shared rental unit, presumably bringing these items, "prepared to deliver violence," according to prosecutors.
Police later found the bat in the trunk of a car associated with the three men, and a swab revealed Joanne's DNA on it. Prosecutors argued the men were motivated by "debt, financial pressure, and greed" and knew the elderly couple lived alone and owned a trucking business.
Evidence presented included a shoe print on a bloody bedsheet in Joanne's room matching a shoe worn by Khushveer Toor, fingerprints on a glass patio door linked to Gurkaran Singh's left hand, and Google searches by Abhijeet Singh about punishment for murderers in Canada and jail sentences for international students after news of the killings appeared in a local newspaper.
Defense lawyers argued the deaths were a robbery gone wrong, with no strong evidence placing their clients in the De Jongs' home. However, after the murders, the men attempted to pay off debts and send money using the couple's stolen Visa cards and cheques.
Prosecutor William Dorsey stated in closing arguments that the accused acted together as parties to both murders, regardless of who inflicted the fatal injuries. He showed a video taken by one of the men three months after the killings, featuring two of them driving with the bat in their car. Dorsey described the Crown's theory that the men bound Joanne in her bed, beat her with the bat, and slashed her throat with a screwdriver, then killed Arnold by wrapping his face in duct tape.
The couple's three daughters, their husbands, siblings, spouses, and adult children attended every day of the trial, often requiring an overflow room at the Abbotsford courthouse.
