B.C. court to rule in Abbotsford home invasion double murder trial

Arnold and Joanne De Jong are shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Helen Leusink (Mandatory Credit)

ABBOTSFORD — A B.C. Supreme Court judge is expected to deliver her verdict today in the first-degree murder trial of three young men accused of killing an Abbotsford, B.C., couple during a home invasion in 2022.

The court earlier heard that 77-year-old Arnold De Jong died by asphyxiation, with his entire head and face wrapped in duct tape, while 76-year-old Joanne De Jong was bludgeoned and had her throat slashed.

Abhijeet Singh, Gurkaran Singh and Khushveer Toor pleaded not guilty earlier this year.

The three men, all in their 20s, were arrested in December 2022, after the De Jongs’ bodies were found in their Abbotsford home that May.

Prosecutors say the suspects had done cleaning work there before the home invasion, and that the men killed the couple before stealing cheques, credit cards and a power washer.

The court heard during the judge-alone trial that one of the accused accessed news articles about the killings, and conducted “exceptionally damning” Google searches about the punishment for murder in Canada.

Defence lawyers argued that the evidence doesn’t prove the killings were planned, telling the judge it was a “botched robbery,” and the highest available verdict in the case would be manslaughter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2026.