A Crown prosecutor says a large body of circumstantial evidence has established the case of first-degree murder against three young men on trial for the violent slaying of an Abbotsford, B.C., couple at their home in the city in 2022.
Arnold and Joanne De Jong were found dead that May and Gurkaran Singh, Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Toor were arrested in December 2022, with all three pleading not guilty in the case.
The courthouse gallery was packed with friends and family of the De Jongs as prosecutor William Dorsey began the Crown’s closing submissions, laying out the case against the three men.
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Dorsey says the trio was motivated by debt, financial pressure and greed to invade the De Jong’s home and violently rob the couple, detailing how bank and cellphone records, fingerprints, DNA and other evidence implicate the men in the murders.
Dorsey told Justice Brenda Brown that Abhijeet Singh bought items at Home Depot and Canadian Tire before the home invasion, including a softball bat later found by police in the trunk of the vehicle used by the three men with Joanne De Jong’s DNA.
The Crown says the three accused had gone to the couple’s home to do cleaning work before the murders, and they “hastily” left British Columbia shortly afterwards, fleeing to Brampton, Ont.
Dorsey says the three men moved at “breakneck speed” to steal money after killing the couple, including paying off cellphone bills, cashing cheques totalling more than $10,000, and attempting to set up a fraudulent money transfer account in Arnold De Jong’s name.