On the morning of May 9th, 2022, Raymond Hoogland drove out to Arcadian Way in east Abbotsford, British Columbia. It’s a rural road, the kind of road where you can’t see your neighbours, where raspberry fields back up against stands of trees, and the Fraser Valley stretches out flat and quiet in every direction. Raymond’s wife, Heather, had called him in a panic. Her aunt Betty had been trying to reach her parents all morning. No one was answering the phone.

This was unusual. Arnold and Joanne De Jong were creatures of habit. Early risers. Arnold read his paper. Joanne made breakfast. They always picked up the phone.

Raymond found the front door locked and the newspaper still on the step. He knew the garage door wouldn’t be locked, so he entered through there. Inside, all the lights were off.

He went to Joanne’s bedroom first. He pushed the door open and called hello. No response. He could see the shape of a body under the blankets. He started pulling the covers back from where the head would be. He recognized Joanne. She wasn’t moving. He saw blood, a significant amount of it, around her head and neck. And then he saw something else: a piece of duct tape, stuck to blankets that appeared to be pushed down her throat.

He didn’t check on Arnold. He ran out of the house and called 911.

Within the hour, police officers would confirm what Raymond already knew. Arnold De Jong, age 77, and Joanne De Jong, age 76, were dead. Both found in their beds. Both bound with rope. Both murdered in their own home on a quiet rural road, less than 24 hours after celebrating Mother’s Day with their three daughters and their grandchildren.

It would take seven months, thousands of hours of investigation, and a trail of stolen credit cards, forged cheques, and a voicemail from a credit card company to lead police to three young men from Surrey. Three men who had been inside the De Jong home before, cleaning their roof and gutters.

I’m your host Ryan Dell. This is Canadian CrimeCast: Coast to Coast True Crime.

Today’s story takes us to Abbotsford, British Columbia, where three men, motivated by debt, financial pressure and greed, planned and executed the robbery and murder of an elderly couple they had previously worked for. They killed for credit cards, cheques, and a pressure washer. The total value of what they stole was less than $20,000.

This is the story of Arnold and Joanne De Jong, and the three men who murdered them: Abhijeet Singh, Khushveer Toor, and Gurkaran Singh.

CHAPTER 1: ARNIE AND JOANNE

To understand what was lost on the night of May 8th, 2022, you need to know who Arnold and Joanne De Jong were. Because this story isn’t just about what was done to them. It’s about who they were before anyone came through their door.

Arnold De Jong, “Arnie” to everyone who knew him, bought his first truck in 1970. He built a trucking business from the ground up, hauling produce, raspberries, and eggs across British Columbia and Alberta. His family jokingly referred to his truck as his “first-born” and called it Hazel. He eventually owned two trucking companies. Everyone in the industry knew him. His daughter Kim said that everywhere you went with him, he’d know somebody.

Bernd Dessau, a fellow truck enthusiast who had been featured alongside Arnold in a Postmedia story about his collector truck, a Vancouver-built 1965 Hayes Clipper 100, later described him to reporters.

“He is a Christian fellow and wouldn’t harm a fly. And his wife, too. They are both very beautiful people.”

Joanne was the heart of the home. She baked, she sewed, she volunteered, she played the organ at church. When her daughters came home from school, they’d find homemade cookies waiting for them. She’d say she just couldn’t wait for them to get home. Her home was her sanctuary. She had lost her own mother young and helped raise her siblings, becoming like a grandmother to her many nieces and nephews. When her daughters had kids of their own, Joanne installed car seats in the back of her car. They are still there.

Arnold had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about five years before the murders and had undergone multiple treatments. Because of his condition, he and Joanne slept in separate bedrooms on the main floor. His daughter Sandra later struggled to articulate the cruelty of his death.

“I can’t understand who would do this to someone who fought so hard to live. To take his remaining days like this.”

Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun, who had known the De Jongs for over 40 years, issued a statement after their deaths, saying their loss was felt by many in the community. He noted that these events are rare in Abbotsford, which makes it all the more shocking and unsettling.

The De Jongs had three daughters: Sandra Barthel, Heather Hoogland, and Kimberley Coleman. They had grandchildren. They had faith. Arnold would kneel at the edge of his bed every night to pray. They taught their children that life was not about money, that it was about serving others.

The day before they were murdered, it was Mother’s Day. The whole family had gathered at the house on Arcadian Way. Joanne played hide-and-seek with her grandchildren. Arnold visited with his daughters and their husbands. It was a sunny afternoon filled with laughter and love.

Sandra Barthel would later say that day was a time of love. And the saddest thing for all of them was that they didn’t realize it would be goodbye.

CHAPTER 2: THE CLEANERS

The connection between the De Jongs and their killers began innocuously. Abhijeet Singh, a young man from Surrey, owned and operated a small cleaning company called AS Cleaners. He and his associate Khushveer Toor cleaned the exterior of the De Jong home, the roof and gutters, in July 2021 and again on April 7th, 2022. Joanne had been pleased with their work and even recommended them to others.

“She actually said, ‘Oh, if you need work done at your house, I have their business card somewhere, and I can give it to you.’” Sandra Barthel recalled.

But even during that first visit in July 2021, there was a hint of unease. Arnold had specifically required Abhijeet Singh to attend to the job personally. And while the cleaners were at the house, Joanne sent Arnold a text message: “Get Home. Cleaning guy here.” It’s a small detail, buried in the court evidence, but it speaks to something. Joanne was aware. She didn’t want to be alone with strangers in her home. She wanted Arnold there.

On the April 2022 visit, Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Toor were both at the De Jong residence. They shot six videos of themselves on the roof and around the property. Crown prosecutor William Dorsey would later tell the court that these videos captured the entire scope of the property, including the large backyard surrounded by trees with no nearby neighbours, providing what Dorsey called useful information for the planning of a home invasion, including the ideal point of entry. Abhijeet Singh invoiced Arnold $551 for the work and was paid by e-transfer the next day.

The third man, Gurkaran Singh, arrived in Canada on an international student visa on April 16th, 2022, just nine days after that cleaning job, and less than a month before the murders. He was supposed to attend Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek. He never made it there.

All three men lived together in a basement suite at 6432 131st Street in Surrey. They shared expenses. They shared a vehicle. And they shared mounting debts. Court evidence would later show that Abhijeet owed $2000 to ICBC and Toor owed $617 on his cellphone bill.

But Crown prosecutor William Dorsey would tell the court that the motive was not simply to pay off debts. It was greed.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE: The reconnaissance aspect of this case is critical. When Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Toor cleaned the De Jong home in April 2022, they weren’t just doing a job, they were gathering intelligence. Six videos capturing the full layout of a rural property with no neighbours? That’s not documentation for a cleaning invoice. That’s operational planning. In my experience, when someone who has legitimate access to a home later commits a crime there, the initial visit almost always served a dual purpose. They assessed security, entry points, and the vulnerability of the occupants. The De Jongs were elderly, isolated, and trusting. They were ideal targets for men with no conscience.

CHAPTER 3: THE LAST NIGHT

Sunday, May 8th, 2022. Mother’s Day.

The De Jong family spent the day together at the house on Arcadian Way. It was a warm, happy gathering. The grandchildren played. The daughters chatted with their parents. Arnold visited with his sons-in-law. It was the kind of day the De Jongs lived for.

That evening, Joanne’s sister, Betty Glazema, visited the couple. She arrived around 7:40 and left at approximately 10:00. Everything was normal. Arnold and Joanne were fine. Betty said goodnight and drove home.

Meanwhile, in Surrey, events were already in motion.

At 4:35 that afternoon, while the De Jongs were still celebrating Mother’s Day, Abhijeet Singh walked into a Home Depot. He purchased a Stanley hammer, a large Husky screwdriver, and a hundred-foot length rope. Security footage captured him leaving the store carrying these items.

Eighteen minutes later, at 4:43, Abhijeet Singh’s debit card was used at a Canadian Tire to purchase a Worth Wicked slow-pitch softball bat and a three-pack of disposable gloves.

A hammer. A screwdriver. A hundred feet of rope. A softball bat. Disposable gloves. These were not items for a cleaning job.

At 10:30 that night, Khushveer Toor sent Abhijeet Singh a WhatsApp message: “Buddy that is closed bro.” Abhijeet responded ten seconds later: “Then come.” Brief phone calls followed at 10:30 and 10:35. A video recovered from Toor’s phone at 10:34 showed the perspective of a driver operating a vehicle at night, the camera capturing urban streets through the windshield.

They were on the move.

Cellphone evidence showed that the last call to activate a cell tower occurred at 10:35 in Surrey. Another cell tower was not activated again until 4:17 the next morning. In the gap between those two pings, three men drove approximately 50 kms east through the night to Arcadian Way.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE - The shopping trip on the afternoon of May 8th is devastating evidence. These purchases, made just hours before the home invasion, show clear preparation. A hammer, a screwdriver, rope, a softball bat, and disposable gloves. These aren’t ambiguous items. The rope was used to bind both victims. The screwdriver was consistent with the stab wound to Joanne’s neck. The bat was later found with Joanne’s DNA on it. And the gloves explain why so few fingerprints were recovered. When you see this level of preparation, combined with the reconnaissance videos from a month earlier, you’re not looking at an impulsive crime. You’re looking at a plan.

CHAPTER 4: WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE

Based on the evidence presented at trial, the Crown reconstructed what happened inside the De Jong home in the early morning hours of May 9th, 2022.

The three men entered through a rear basement sliding glass door. Fingerprints found on that door, three prints matching Gurkaran Singh’s left hand, showed that his fingers had wrapped around the edge of the sliding door as he pulled it open.

The De Jongs were asleep in their separate bedrooms on the main floor. The intruders brought with them the rope, the bat, the screwdriver, the hammer, duct tape, and the disposable gloves. They came prepared to deliver violence.

Joanne was found in her bed with her hands and feet bound tightly with rope, wrapped several times around her wrists and knotted, stretched taut to her ankles, wrapped several times more, and knotted again. She had been struck on the forehead, a six-centimetre laceration that crushed through all layers of skin and exposed the skull bone. She had been stabbed in the neck, a five-centimetre wound that perforated the area around the right internal jugular vein. The pathologist, Dr. Elizabeth McKinnon, found hesitation wounds around the stab site, abrasions caused by the slippage of a sharp instrument that does not completely penetrate. The wound to her neck was consistent with having been caused by an implement like the Husky screwdriver purchased by Abhijeet Singh.

Joanne bled to death. The pathologist found hypovolemia, almost no blood left in her organs. With an injury to the jugular vein, death would have come within minutes.

Arnold was found in his separate bedroom, face down on his bed, naked, with his hands and feet also bound with rope. His entire head and face were tightly wrapped in duct tape, from the level of his eyebrows to the top of his chin, covering both ears and overlapping at the back. After the tape was removed, investigators found patterned grooves from the fabric layer of the tape pressed into his skin. He had died of asphyxiation due to smothering. His business card was found stuck to his right hip. Receipts were scattered around him on the bed, beneath his knee and under his stomach, consistent with his wallet being opened over him while the intruders searched for credit cards and identification.

Neither Arnold nor Joanne had defensive injuries. The pathologist found none on either body. They had been subdued before they could fight back.

A bloody footprint was found on the bed sheet near Joanne’s head. It matched a pair of black Adidas sneakers that Khushveer Toor was photographed wearing repeatedly between December 2021 and December 2022. Neither of the other accused was ever seen wearing those shoes.

Blood spatter analysis by Staff Sergeant Tom Watts of the RCMP revealed impact patterns, cast-off patterns, and spatter stains on the walls of Joanne’s bedroom. The patterns indicated that she had been struck at least twice while lying on the bed, the first blow causing the initial injury and blood to come to the surface, the second blow striking through that blood and creating the cast-off. Altered bloodstains were found in the bathroom adjacent to Joanne’s room, blood diluted with water, consistent with someone washing blood off their hands.

There was also blood found on a pillow in Arnold’s bedroom, diluted transfer stains, meaning someone contaminated with Joanne’s blood had entered Arnold’s room.

The covers on Joanne’s bed were neat, with no signs of struggling and the rope untangled. This told investigators that the blankets had been placed on top of Joanne after she was already dead. Someone had taken the time to cover her body.

The newspaper was delivered sometime between 3:30 and 4:30 that morning. The delivery person noticed, unusually, that a light was on in the residence. By the time Raymond Hoogland arrived at 10:15, the lights were off. This meant the attackers were still inside the home when the paper arrived, and they turned off the lights before leaving.

Justice Brenda Brown, in her ruling, concluded that the murders had ended and the attackers had departed at or shortly after 3:30 in the morning.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE What happened in that house required three people. Justice Brown was clear about this. Binding someone’s hands and feet with rope, wrapped multiple times and knotted, while they’re fighting you requires two people at minimum: one to hold the victim, one to tie the rope. Meanwhile, a third person needed to be in the other bedroom, preventing the other victim from fleeing or calling for help. Wrapping Arnold’s head in duct tape, around and around, tightly enough to leave grooves in his skin, would require one person to hold his head while another wrapped the tape. These were not instant deaths. They were prolonged, intimate, and calculated. Anyone in that house would have known exactly what was happening. The defence’s suggestion that one of the accused might have been downstairs searching for valuables, unaware of the murders occurring upstairs, was rejected by the judge as entirely implausible. And I agree with that assessment completely.

CHAPTER 5: THE VOICEMAIL THAT BROKE THE CASE

While forensic investigators were still processing the scene on May 9th, something remarkable happened. A voicemail came in on the De Jongs’ landline telephone. It was from a credit card company, alerting the De Jongs to suspicious transactions on one of Arnold’s cards.

Police immediately followed up on that lead. And what they found was staggering.

The stolen credit cards had already been used. Starting at 4:30 that morning, barely an hour after the attackers left the house, purchases and attempted purchases began appearing on Arnold’s accounts.

At 4:30 am, a payment of $617 was made from Arnold De Jong’s Visa card to Khushveer Toor’s Rogers cellphone account. Toor had owed exactly that amount on his phone bill.

At 5:16 am, a payment of $704 was made from the same Visa to Abhijeet Singh’s Rogers account.

Between 4:17 and 4:27 am, a fraudulent Remitly account, a money transfer service popular for sending funds internationally to countries including India, was opened in the name of “Arnold Jong.” Arnold De Jong’s driver’s licence was scanned and uploaded to verify the account. The phone number used to set up the account belonged to Abhijeet Singh. His Remitly app was active on his phone at the exact time the licence was uploaded. Within minutes of the account being opened, someone tried to transfer $999 to a contact named Pardeep Singh, the same Pardeep Singh who was already a contact on Abhijeet Singh’s own Remitly account. The transfer was declined by the bank.

Later that day, Abhijeet Singh purchased a new iPhone for $848 using Arnold’s credit card.

At 3:58 in the afternoon, Khushveer Toor walked into a TD Bank branch at Rodeo Square in Surrey and personally deposited a cheque for $5600 drawn on the De Jong account. His passport was verified at the branch. He signed the back of the cheque with a signature that matched his own identification. The cheque was purportedly signed by Joanne, dated May 6th, with the memo line reading “cleanup of house.”

A second cheque, for $5100, was deposited by mobile banking into Gurkaran Singh’s Bank of Nova Scotia account. It was also purportedly signed by Joanne, for “house cleanup.” Gurkaran signed the back of the cheque with a signature matching his immigration documents. There were significant withdrawals from this account on May 16th, $1300, then $3050, then $460, leaving just ninety-seven dollars.

Abhijeet Singh also sent $3000 to his sister to help with her student visa, and $700 to his father.

Throughout the day, further attempts were made to use Arnold’s credit cards. Between 5:00 and 6:30 that evening, several more payments to Rogers accounts were attempted and declined by the bank. Arnold De Jong’s two Visa cards were also added to Abhijeet Singh’s own personal Remitly account, which would have required the 16-digit card number and the three-digit security code for each card.

The spending spree was breathtaking in its speed and brazenness. Crown prosecutor William Dorsey told the court the three men moved at breakneck speed to steal money after killing the couple.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE In most robbery-homicides, you see some delay between the crime and the use of stolen property. The offenders usually wait, at least briefly, to see if police are on their trail. Not these three. They were paying off phone bills within an hour of the murders. They were setting up fraudulent money transfer accounts before dawn. They were personally depositing forged cheques at a bank branch that same afternoon, using their own passports for identification. Either they were supremely confident they wouldn’t be caught, or they were so consumed by greed that caution didn’t enter the equation. Either way, they created a financial trail that led investigators directly to them.

CHAPTER 6: THE FLIGHT

Two days after the murders, on May 11th, all three men’s cellphones activated the same tower in Golden, British Columbia. They were heading east. By May 12th, Gurkaran Singh’s bank card was used at a gas station in Calgary. By May 16th, their phones were pinging towers near Toronto’s Pearson Airport and in Woodbridge, Ontario.

They had fled the province.

But even on the road, there were telling details. On May 10th, Abhijeet Singh sent a link to a news article about the De Jong murders to a contact named Harpreet Singh. The next day, Harpreet sent Abhijeet a message: “Come Brampton.” That evening, Abhijeet sent Harpreet a link to another news article about the deaths. In the days that followed, Abhijeet’s phone received messages about rental units in Brampton.

Meanwhile, Abhijeet Singh’s phone showed something else. Between May 9th and May 12th, he had been conducting Google searches. The search terms were chilling.

“Victims meaning.” “If you killed someone self defense.” “Punishment of murderers.” “Punishment of murderers in Canada.” “Third degree murders punishment.” “Third degree murders sentence Canada.” And perhaps the most revealing: “Third degree murders sentence for international students.”

He had also accessed Wikipedia’s page on culpable homicide in Canadian law and visited legal education websites explaining the differences between first, second, and third-degree murder.

Crown prosecutor William Dorsey called these searches exceptionally damning.

The news articles about the murders did not name the victims or provide the address. But Abhijeet Singh had also searched the De Jongs’ address on Google before the home invasion. He already knew exactly who the victims were.

On May 19th, Abhijeet sent another message to Harpreet: “Harpreet brother my job will happen by staying in BC.” He had decided to return. By late May, he was back in the Lower Mainland. Abhijeet Singh and his girlfriend, Ashudeep Kaur, became tenants at a new basement apartment at 17928 71A Avenue in Surrey on May 17th. Khushveer Toor and Gurkaran Singh joined them there on June 1st. Ashudeep left after a few months, but the three men stayed. They resumed living together, working together, and sharing a vehicle, a brown Toyota Camry.

Life went on as if nothing had happened.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE The flight to Ontario is significant, but the return is almost more telling. They didn’t flee permanently. They didn’t scatter. They came back to the same city, moved in together again, and carried on with their lives. Crown prosecutors argued this contributed to the impression that everything had gone according to plan. I agree. When co-offenders stay together voluntarily after a double murder, sharing an apartment and a vehicle, it tells you something about their shared understanding of what happened. They weren’t afraid of each other. They weren’t angry at each other. They were comfortable.

CHAPTER 7: FOLLOWING THE TRAIL

For seven months, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and the Abbotsford Police Department built their case. And the trail these three men left behind was extraordinary in its carelessness.

It started with the voicemail. The credit card company’s call about suspicious transactions led investigators to banking and phone records. The payments to Rogers Communications accounts gave them names: Khushveer Toor and Abhijeet Singh. From there, investigators pulled cellphone records, financial records, and surveillance footage.

The fingerprints on the rear sliding glass door at the De Jong home were run through databases and matched to Gurkaran Singh, identified through his immigration file. Three prints from his left hand, positioned in a way that showed his fingers had wrapped around the edge of the door to pull it open.

And then there was the pressure washer. Arnold De Jong had purchased a Simoniz pressure washer using his Visa card on March 8th, 2022. His daughter Kimberley had used it when she stayed with her parents in late April. After the murders, the pressure washer was gone. The empty box was still in the De Jongs’ garage.

On June 20th, 2022, a man using the name “Sandhu” listed a Simoniz pressure washer for sale on Facebook Marketplace. A buyer named Cole Smith responded. “Sandhu” provided a phone number, 778-710-1052, which was Abhijeet Singh’s phone number, and an address: 17928 71A Avenue, the new basement suite where all three accused were living. Smith bought the pressure washer for $150. Abhijeet Singh’s bank records confirmed he received the e-transfer from Cole Smith on June 22nd.

When police tracked down Cole Smith and examined the pressure washer, the serial number was identical to the one on the empty box in the De Jongs’ garage.

Think about that for a moment. Abhijeet Singh sold a stolen pressure washer on Facebook Marketplace, using his own phone number, his own address, and his own bank account. Weeks after committing a double murder. For $150.

Police surveilled the three men at their new residence throughout the second half of 2022. They watched them live together, work together, and drive together in the Toyota Camry. They exchanged funds, Khushveer Toor transferred money for rent while still in Ontario, Gurkaran Singh sent money to Abhijeet Singh who used it to make Western Union transfers to his sister. They shared everything. Including, as investigators would soon discover, the evidence.

On December 16th, 2022, more than seven months after the murders, all three men were arrested together at the basement suite in Surrey. Sergeant Timothy Pierotti of IHIT told reporters that the three men knew each other, the killings were not random, and one of the suspects was known to the De Jong family. None of the men had criminal records.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE  This investigation is a textbook example of following financial evidence. The three accused essentially left a receipt for every step of their crime. They used the victim’s credit cards on their own cellphone accounts. They deposited stolen cheques into their own bank accounts using their own identification. They sold stolen property on Facebook Marketplace using their own phone number and address. In my experience, offenders who act this brazenly either believe they’re smarter than the investigators, or they’re so desperate and impulsive that they don’t think about consequences at all. Given that Abhijeet Singh was Googling murder sentences within 24 hours, I think the answer is the latter. They acted first and panicked second.

CHAPTER 8: THE BAT IN THE TRUNK

When police executed the search warrant at 71A Avenue on December 16th, 2022, they found the evidence the accused had kept for seven months.

Inside the residence: a Husky screwdriver in a storage area under the staircase. A Stanley hammer in a kitchen drawer. A pair of black Adidas sneakers under the coffee table in the living area, the same style and trim that Khushveer Toor was seen wearing in photographs spanning from December 2021 to December 2022. Neither of the other accused was ever seen wearing those shoes.

Three vehicles were searched on site: a brown Toyota Camry, a red Hyundai, and a blue Mustang. Khushveer Toor’s wallet, BC ID card, and driver’s licence were found in the Camry’s glove box.

And in the trunk of the Camry, police found a green Worth Wicked baseball bat.

DNA testing revealed that the handle of the bat carried a mixed DNA profile from at least four individuals. Among them, there was very strong support that Joanne De Jong’s DNA was present on the handle. Defence and Crown experts agreed on this point.

Further DNA analysis of the rope used to bind Arnold De Jong’s feet found very strong support that both Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Toor were contributors to the DNA on the rope.

Y-STR analysis, a specialized form of DNA testing that focuses on the male chromosome, was conducted on pieces of duct tape recovered from blankets in Joanne’s mouth. The major contributor matched Khushveer Toor. The defence challenged this evidence with their own expert, but Justice Brown ultimately accepted the Crown’s analysis, noting that the RCMP’s Edmonton laboratory is the only lab in Canada that processes Y-STR DNA, is accredited to international standards, and is audited externally every two years.

The bat had been in their possession for seven months. In the trunk of the car they drove every day. Crown prosecutor William Dorsey showed the court a video clip taken by one of the accused three months after the killings, in which two of the men could be seen driving around with the bat visible in the car. The prosecution suggested they had kept it as a treasured murder weapon.

POLICE PERSPECTIVE Seven months. They kept the bat in the trunk for seven months. In my career, I’ve seen offenders dispose of evidence within hours, sometimes within minutes. These men drove around with a softball bat that had a murder victim’s DNA on it, kept it in the trunk alongside their wallets and identification. They kept the screwdriver in a storage closet. The hammer in a kitchen drawer. The shoes under the coffee table. They made no effort to dispose of any of it. You can interpret this as arrogance, stupidity, or indifference. But whatever it was, it provided investigators with a powerful body of physical evidence that connected the dots between the purchases on May 8th and the murders on May 9th.

CHAPTER 9: THE TRIAL

Getting to trial was a long and frustrating road for the De Jong family.

All three men were initially charged on December 16th, 2022, with two counts each of first-degree murder. They elected to be tried by judge and jury, then switched to judge alone. An adjournment was granted in 2023. All three were scheduled for trial in May 2024, but the two Singhs applied for a delay because their lawyers were involved in another matter. Toor’s trial was severed from the others. He then applied for a return to judge and jury, denied. He fired his lawyer, causing another delay. In October 2025, the two Singhs applied for yet another adjournment, also denied.

The De Jong family attended every hearing. They issued a statement expressing their frustration.

“Every time another delay occurs, our lives are again placed on hold as we wait for justice and closure. We come here to the courthouse for every hearing because Arnie and Joanne were, and still are, so loved.”

The case came close to reaching the time limit established by the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan ruling to ensure timely access to trial. An investigation by the Canadian Press found that 26 criminal cases in British Columbia had been thrown out since 2023 because they exceeded those time limits.

Sandra Barthel spoke outside the courthouse about the delays.

“We are so appreciative of Crown counsel, but we are so frustrated with delay after delay. We don’t understand how a system like that in such a civilized country can even exist.”

Finally, on January 12th, 2026, the trial began in B.C. Supreme Court in Abbotsford before Justice Brenda Brown. The courtroom was packed. More than 50 family members and friends of the De Jongs attended every day, often requiring sheriffs to open overflow rooms.

It was the first time the De Jong daughters saw the men accused of murdering their parents. Sandra Barthel spoke to reporters during a break.

“To see them in front of you, and to think of these two senior citizens, who are innocent and in the sanctuary of their home … and hearing some of the details this morning was just really, really hard, to know your parents … to think of what those moments must have been like.”

The Crown’s case, presented by prosecutors Dorothy Tsui and William Dorsey, was built on circumstantial evidence: cellphone records, financial records, DNA, fingerprints, shoe prints, internet search histories, surveillance footage, and the timeline of purchases and transactions. At least 24 witnesses were called.

Each of the three defence lawyers argued the same core position: their client might have participated in a home invasion, but there was no direct evidence placing them in the bedrooms where the De Jongs were killed. Each argued that this was a robbery gone wrong, not premeditated murder. Abhijeet Singh’s lawyer conceded his client had advanced knowledge of the planned home invasion and may have been a party to the break-in. But he argued the Crown couldn’t prove Singh was physically inside the house. Khushveer Toor’s lawyer challenged the DNA evidence. Gurkaran Singh’s lawyer argued his client could have been elsewhere in the home while the killings occurred.

The trial lasted eight weeks. Defence closing submissions were heard on March 9th and 10th. And then the court waited for Justice Brown’s decision.

CHAPTER 10: THE VERDICT

On May 8th, 2026, the day before the four-year anniversary of the De Jongs’ deaths, Justice Brenda Brown delivered her verdict.

Guilty. All three men. On all counts. First-degree murder times two, for each accused.

Justice Brown’s reasoning was methodical and devastating. She rejected the robbery-gone-wrong defence entirely.

She found that the home invasion and murders necessarily required three assailants. Binding each victim’s hands and feet required two people, one to hold the victim, one to secure the rope. Meanwhile, a third had to keep watch over the other victim. Wrapping Arnold’s head in duct tape required two people, one to hold his head, one to wrap. She rejected the defence submission that this was like calf roping at the Calgary Stampede, calling it a form of fevered imagining.

She found that the murders were planned and deliberate. Abhijeet Singh and Khushveer Toor had cleaned the De Jong home a month before. They knew the couple would recognize them. If the De Jongs were left alive, even masked intruders would quickly be identified by police asking about recent workers at the house. The only way the plan could succeed was if the De Jongs were killed.

Justice Brown said the invaders could not risk not knowing what he was to do. They could not risk surprising one of their fellow invaders when he learned the De Jongs were to be killed. Each accused had to know in advance that the De Jongs were being killed.

She found that these were not unexpected deaths committed impulsively. The nature of the attacks was inconsistent with unintended consequences. The deaths were intimate and prolonged. Joanne was struck on the head and stabbed repeatedly in the neck. Arnold’s head was wrapped in duct tape, requiring two people and some time to achieve. These murders, the justice concluded, spoke of calculation and determination.

Justice Brown’s findings also addressed motive. The accused had confined the De Jongs before killing them, which the judge said was deliberate, they needed information from them first, perhaps PIN numbers or the location of valuables. There would have been easier ways to simply dispatch the victims, but instead they were restrained, interrogated, and then murdered. The plan required all of it.

A conviction for first-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison, with no eligibility for parole for twenty-five years.

The courtroom was filled to capacity for the ruling. Three overflow courtrooms were opened for family and friends. After the verdict was read, family members embraced. The family gathered outside, pausing to stand in front of three large pictures of Arnold and Joanne that had been placed outside the courthouse.

Sandra Barthel told reporters she had had trouble sleeping all week.

“I felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest.”

Heather Hoogland said it had been a long road to get there. She told reporters she talks to her sons about their grandparents every day. On grandparents’ day at school, one of her sons made a special button to remember Arnold and Joanne.

“They’re no longer on Earth, but they are still in his heart, and they’re in heaven.”

Kimberley Coleman said that regardless of the outcome, their hearts remained in a million pieces. Nothing could bring their parents back.

Sandra Barthel, who had spoken about her Christian faith throughout the trial, found words that captured the impossible tension of the moment.

“I’m incredibly grateful that they’ve been convicted, but as a Christian, I have sadness that this is the way that they chose for their life to unfold. But I’m thankful that there is punishment and there is payment for what happened because nobody should have to endure what happened to our mom and dad.”

Joanne’s sister, Helen Leusink, spoke about her memories of the De Jongs. She said her sister was a loyal and loving sister who stood by her through every joy and trial. She said Arnold was a unique man, but very loving and kind and willing to give to those in need. She said they were wonderful people, honourable people, and delightful to be with.

And then she said the words that sit at the heart of this entire story.

“You can’t imagine that for a bit of monetary gain they could commit such a heinous crime.”

A FINAL THOUGHT

Before I close this episode, I want to say something that I’ve been thinking about since I started researching this case.

We let people into our homes all the time. Contractors, cleaners, repair workers, delivery drivers. We trust them because we have to. Because that’s how a civilized society works. Joanne De Jong did everything right. She hired a legitimate business. She was pleased with the work. She recommended them to others. She did what any of us would do.

And these three men used that trust as a weapon. They used their access to her home to study the layout, assess the vulnerability of an elderly couple, and plan a home invasion that ended in two murders. For credit cards. For forged cheques. For a pressure washer they sold on Facebook for $150.

Arnold De Jong taught his daughters that life was not about money. That it was about serving others. His daughter Heather said he would have found these men work if they had simply asked. That’s the kind of man he was. And Joanne, the woman who baked cookies for her daughters after school, who played hide-and-seek with her grandchildren on Mother’s Day, who still had car seats in the back of her car, she trusted the wrong people. Not because she was careless. Because she was kind.

Arnold and Joanne De Jong deserved better than this. Their family deserved better than this. And we owe it to them to remember who they were, not just what was done to them.

EPILOGUE

Abhijeet Singh, Khushveer Toor, and Gurkaran Singh were each found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder on May 8th, 2026. They will serve life sentences with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. 

The three men killed Arnold and Joanne De Jong for credit cards, forged cheques, and a pressure washer. The pressure washer was listed on Facebook Marketplace by Abhijeet Singh using his own phone number and his own address. Cole Smith bought it for $150. When police traced the serial number, it matched the empty box still sitting in the De Jongs’ garage. 

The total value of what they stole was less than $20,000. For that, two people lost their lives. Three families were destroyed. And three overflow courtrooms were needed to hold everyone who loved Arnold and Joanne De Jong.

Sandra Barthel’s husband Brian, speaking outside the courthouse, said the family was relying on their Christian faith.

“We know where they are, and we have comfort in that. We hold onto that comfort, but we also want justice to be done in the right way. And we hold onto that too.”

Heather Hoogland told reporters that her father was the kind of person who would have helped these men if they had simply asked.

“He would find jobs for people. He had numerous contacts in the industry. If these guys were looking for work, my dad would have found them work.”

Sandra Barthel remembered how her mother had been happy with the cleaning job and had recommended the men to others.

There’s a moment from the trial that stays with me. The morning the bodies were discovered was May 9th. The family had celebrated Mother’s Day together the day before. Joanne had played hide-and-seek with her grandchildren. Arnold had sat with his daughters. Heather had dialled her mother’s phone number several times that week out of habit.

Sandra Barthel said it best.

“I think the saddest thing for all of us is that we didn’t realize that that would be goodbye.”

This episode was written, researched and produced by me, Ryan Dell. If this is your first time listening, and you like what you heard, please take a moment to give me a 5-star review. It helps the podcast grow and helps other people find these amazing stories.

I love hearing from you. If you have a story I should cover, please send me an email. My email is: canadiancrimecast@gmail.com

I’m Ryan Dell, and this is Canadian CrimeCast: Coast to Coast True Crime.

SOURCES:

R. v. Singh, Singh and Toor, 2026 BCSC 869 (CanLII) — Oral Reasons for Judgment, Justice B. Brown, May 8, 2026

The Abbotsford News — articles by Vikki Hopes (May 28, 2025; January 12, 2026; March 6, 2026; March 11, 2026; May 8, 2026)

CBC News — articles by Kier Junos and Darryl Greer/Canadian Press (May 11, 2022; December 16, 2022; January 12, 2026; March 6, 2026; March 9, 2026)

The Vancouver Sun — articles by Cheryl Chan and Glenda Luymes (May 11, 2022; May 12, 2022; December 17, 2022; October 1, 2025; January 12, 2026; January 13, 2026; March 6, 2026; March 9, 2026; May 8, 2026)