Duct tape and blood: Constable describes death scene at B.C. double murder trial

ABBOTSFORD — A murder trial has heard that Arnold and Joanne De Jong hosted a “joyful” family celebration at their Abbotsford, B.C., home, on May 8, 2022, with a family member later telling police they were “alive and well” when she left at 10 p.m.

But Crown prosecutor Dorothy Tsui said that the next day, the De Jongs were found dead in their beds, in separate rooms.

Abbotsford Police Const. Andre Nadeau, one of the first officers called to the home after Joanne De Jong’s body was initially discovered by a son-in-law, testified that the couples’ hands and feet were bound similarly with rope.

A large amount of blood was around Joanne De Jong’s head and neck, with blood spatter on the wall. In the other room, her husband’s head and face, including his nose and mouth, had been wrapped in duct tape that appeared to have been “put on tightly with force,” Nadeau said.

The trial of the three men accused of killing the couple in a violent invasion got underway Monday, with the prosecution alleging the suspects were motivated by “debt, financial pressure and greed.”

Tsui said one of the suspects, Gurkaran Singh, had arrived in Canada on a student visa on April 16, less than a month before the killings.

She said Gurkaran Singh was supposed to go to Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek, B.C., 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.

Tsui told the court in the Crown’s opening statement that evidence will show the three men were connected to the couple through Abhijeet Singh’s cleaning company, which had done work on the couple’s home in July 2021 and April 2022.

She said a pathologist will testify that Joanne De Jong died by sharp and blunt force trauma and Arnold De Jong by asphyxiation.

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

The cheques both said in their memo lines that the payments were for “clean up of house,” Tsui said.

“While processing the scene, a forensic identification officer heard a voice mail being left on the De Jong’s landline phone, indicating that there were suspicious transactions on a credit card,” she said.

“The police quickly followed up on that lead and obtained banking records and phone records in an attempt to identify potential suspects.”

Police later found that the suspicious purchases, which began around 4:30 a.m. on May 9, were associated with Rogers Communications accounts in the names of Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Singh Toor.

The Crown alleged “the three men acted as a team and violently confined the De Jongs in their separate bedrooms and murdered them,” stealing credit cards, cheques and a pressure washer that was later sold.

Tsui told the court that the suspects “hastily fled” British Columbia for Brampton, Ont., two days after the couple was killed before returning to B.C. and renting a Surrey basement suite, where they lived together until their arrest on Dec. 16, 2022.

Tsui said 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 ultimate cost of accomplishing their shared objective of stealing money were the senseless deaths of Arnold and Joanne De Jong,” Tsui said.

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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan, 12, 2026.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press