The men worked for a cleaning company and had worked at the couple's home several times before their 2022 deaths
Credit: Integrated Homicide Investigation Team
NEED TO KNOW
- Three men were found guilty in the 2022 murders of retired couple Arnold and Joanne De Jong, who were found bound and killed in their home
- The three men, who stole credit cards and checks during the attack, worked for a cleaning company and had done work on the couple’s home several times before the killings
- One of the couple’s three grown daughters described the guilty verdicts as “bittersweet,” saying their family still carries “the life sentence” of losing their parents
Three men have been found guilty in the brutal murders of a retired Canadian couple who were killed in their beds.
Arnold and Joanne De Jong were found dead in their home in Abbotsford, British Columbia, in May 2022, according to the CBC, The Vancouver Sun and Global News.
The three men charged in the killings, Abhijeet Singh, Khushveer Toor and Gurkaran Singh, were found guilty by the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Friday, May 8, per the outlets.
The men, all in their 20s, worked for a cleaning company owned by Abhijeet Singh and had done work on the couple's home several times before the killings, per the CBC and Global News.
Credit: Getty
During the sentencing, Justice Brenda Brown rejected the defense team's claim that the murders had been part of a robbery gone wrong and were not premeditated, according to The Vancouver Sun and Global News.
She added that the killings were “intimate and prolonged” and “speak of calculation and determination.”
Arnold, 77, and Joanne, 76, were found dead in their beds the morning of May 9, 2022.
Arnold was found with tape wrapped around his head, obstructing his nose and mouth. His official cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation, according to the CBC.
Joanne was found beside him with her head bludgeoned and throat slashed. Both of their hands and feet were bound with rope, per the outlet.
During the trial, prosecutors claimed that the suspects stole credit cards, checks and a power washer from the home and “hastily” fled the scene after the murders, per the Times Colonist.
Prosecutors added that the men promptly used the stolen cards to make personal payments and attempted to cash checks made out to themselves.
Abhijeet Singh also conducted "exceptionally damning" internet searches in the days following the murders, including one about how murderers are punished in Canada, per prosecutors, according to the outlet.
The prosecution additionally stated that DNA from all three men was found at the crime scene.
The day before the murders, Arnold and Joanne had spent Mother's Day with their three grown daughters, their husbands and their grandchildren.
While speaking to media after the verdict, Sandra Barthel, one of the couple's daughters, said that day was a “time of love.”
“I think the saddest thing for all of us is that we didn't realize that that would be goodbye,” she added.
Credit: Getty
Barthel additionally said that the week before the most recent court date had felt “excruciating.”
"I think we all tried to distract ourselves somewhat with work and our kids. And I think we went in knowing that no matter what, we're the ones with the life sentence," she said. "I think we had to tell ourselves that a verdict isn't going to make us whole again."
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Kimberley Coleman, another of the De Jongs' daughters, described her late parents as "kind, loving, sweet people."
"They were people that could never be replaced," she said. "They had so many things about them that were so special to us that we miss every day.”
“It's so bittersweet. We have this first-degree conviction for all three suspects on both counts. But yet we still grieve, so it's a mixed bag of feelings," she added.
All three men are scheduled to be sentenced on May 28 in Abbotsford, per the CBC, The Vancouver Sun and Global News.
PEOPLE reached out to legal representatives for all three defendants for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
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