One of three accused of double murder in B.C. arrived on student visa to study in Dawson Creek, says prosecution

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — One of the three men accused of killing a couple in a violent invasion of their Abbotsford home was supposed to attend college in Dawson Creek, according to the prosecution.

Crown prosecutor Dorothy Tsui says one of the suspects, Gurkaran Singh, had arrived in Canada on a student visa less than a month before the killings of Arnold and Joanne De Jong, who were found dead in their home on May 9th, 2022.

Tsui says Gurkaran was supposed to go to Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek but he never made it there.

He and co-accused Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Singh Toor have each pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of the De Jongs, who were allegedly robbed of credit cards, cheques and a pressure washer.

Tsui says evidence will show the three men were connected to the couple through Abhijeet’s cleaning company, which had done work on the couple’s home in July 2021 and April 2022. She says they were motivated by “debt, financial pressure and greed.”

She says the De Jongs were found dead in separate bedrooms of the home, bound with rope, and a pathologist will testify Joanne De Jong died by sharp and blunt force trauma and Arnold De Jong by asphyxiation. 

Tsui says Gurkaran and Khushveer both deposited cheques for more than $5,000 into their bank accounts purportedly signed by Joanne De Jong shortly after the murders. 

She told the court the suspects “hastily fled” British Columbia for Brampton, Ontario, after the couple was killed before returning to B.C. and renting a Surrey basement suite, where they lived together until their arrest on December 16th, 2022. 

Tsui says there will be a “substantial body of circumstantial evidence” linking the men to the murders, including fingerprints, DNA on a weapon used in the murder found in the trunk of a car they used, as well as cellphone records, financial records and evidence from electronic devices. 

The trial at the B.C. Supreme Court in Abbotsford is scheduled for 40 days and Tsui said the Crown expects to call at least 24 witnesses, the first of which was Abbotsford Police Constable Andre Nadeau, one of the first officers called to the De Jong home.