Mother's Day murders: International students convicted of 'horrific' first-degree murder of Arnold & Joanne De Jong during 2022 home invasion
Abhijeet Singh, Gurkaran Singh, and Kushveer Singh Toor convicted in BC Supreme Court in Abbotsford Friday
May 8, 2026
Justice Brenda Brown concluded that the vicious and violent murder of Arnold and Joanne De Jong by three Indian international students in the couple's Abbotsford home in 2022 was first-degree murder, and the defence argument that it was a home invasion gone wrong was “implausible.”
“The only reasonable inference for the home invasion to succeed, [is that] the plan required the murder of the De Jongs,” Justice Brown said in BC Supreme Court in Abbotsford on Friday (May 8, 2026).
“They could not leave the De Jongs alive.”
Abhijeet Singh, Gurkaran Singh, and Kushveer Singh Toor, had worked pressure-washing at the De Jong residence on a quiet rural road in Abbotsford.
They later planned and participated in a home invasion and robbery in which the couple were violently attacked, tortured, and intentionally killed to eliminate them as witnesses to the robbery.
“Their deaths were intimate and prolonged. Intimate in that the perpetrators were in close contact with the De Jongs. Neither of the deaths were quick.”
While the defence all took the position that this was a home invasion and robbery gone wrong, Justice Brown concluded that considering all the mostly circumstantial evidence in totality, the only inference to be drawn is that all three men where there, all three men conspired to kill the De Jongs.
Singh, Singh, and Toor purchased rope, a hammer, screwdriver, and baseball bat in advance of the home invasion. They bound both Joanne's and Arnold's feet and hands with rope, used duct tape on their heads. Joanne was beaten and slashed in the neck, Arnold's entire head was wrapped in duct-tape and left to die.
“Joanne was hit in the head and stabbed in the neck,” Justice Brown said.
“Arnold’s head was wrapped in duct tape. He died by suffocation. Her by insanguination.”
The three young international students had worked on the De Jong's house pressure washing. When a plan was hatched for a home invasion and robbery is unclear, as is when the three men decided to kill the De Jongs. A crucial issue to decide by Justice Brenda Brown was whether or not only the reasonable inference to be drawn from the circumstantial evidence in the case was that the three men conspired to rob and kill the couple and all took part. This is what the Crown argued, while defence counsel for all three men claimed this was a planned home invasion and robbery gone wrong. They argued the killing amounted to manslaughter.
The only question left after the lengthy trial was whether Justice Brown would find the three guilty of first-degree or second-degree murder or even manslaughter. The former comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. The latter comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for between 10 and 25 years. The range of sentence for manslaugther is vast at the low end a near accident up to a near murder.
See this site later for more details on the case.
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Paul J. Henderson
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