Anguished family speaks at sentencing hearing for 3 men who murdered B.C. seniors

From May 8: Three men have been found guilty of first-degree murder in the home-invasion killings of an Abbotsford couple.

ABBOTSFORD — Warning: This story contains disturbing details.

“I am disgusted. Disgusted that none of the three guilty parties had mercy on my parents.”

Those are the words of Kimberley Coleman, one of the daughters of Arnold and Joanne De Jong, two Abbotsford seniors brutally murdered in their own home in May 2022.

“They killed a man with pancreatic cancer, a man who gave their young roof-cleaning business a chance, and a loving woman who would have fed them if needed,” Coleman said in her victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing for Abhijeet Singh, Khushveer Toor and Gurkaran Singh.

The three men were earlier found guilty of first-degree murder.

They sat with their heads down in the prisoners’ box as anguished family members described the impact the deaths of the De Jongs had on them.

“I am filled with grief and anger. Shock, despair and sadness consume me. I am scarred and brokenhearted,” Coleman said.

“The fear, pain and evil that my parents experienced that night at the hands of these three men has been passed on to me,” she said.

Her sister, Sandra Barthel, told the court: “Having to sum up in words how I have been impacted by the murder of my mom and dad feels like an impossible feat. How does one describe hell in words?

“What happened to my parents did not simply take two lives. It fractured our entire family and permanently altered every part of who I am,” she said.

“I am unable to understand how something so immensely evil could happen to such loving people,” Barthel told the court.

She said that for four years, sleep had become a battle as her mind repeatedly returned to thoughts of what her parents’ final moments may have been like.

“Did they call out for help? Did they have a chance? Were they terrified? Did they suffer? In their last moments, did they know how much we loved them?” she asked.

She said that many times in her life, she had seen her father, a man of faith, kneeling beside his bed praying.

“That image is how I remember him. Kneeling. Faithful. Devoted. And now, I cannot unsee my father kneeling beside that same bed, pleading for mercy, bound, tortured and suffering, left to die in the very posture that once represented faith, surrender and devotion in his life. The same posture, the same plea, but under unimaginable cruelty,” she said in court.

Barthel also said: “No one needed to die in that house that night. My parents were helpers. Had a true need been expressed, my parents would have stepped in to help, the same way they stepped in to support many family members and members of our community.”

Crown counsel argued the home-invasion murders were motivated by money and greed.

Another of the De Jongs’ daughters also provided a victim impact statement.

Heather Hoogland said her entire foundation had been shattered by the killings.

She said the murders “took the world we knew, stole our future and rewrote our story without our permission.”

Hoogland said her parents were her rock.

“My mom and dad were my best friends, and I miss them so very much. What I would do for more time, for even one more moment just to hug them again, tell them what I never got to say.”

On the day the De Jongs were found murdered, she called her husband and asked him to go to the house to check on her parents because they could not be reached.

“I never thought he would walk into the horror that was found in their home, and I know he will live with that,” she said.

Her husband, Raymond Hoogland, told the court that when he arrived at his in-laws’ home, he knew something was terribly wrong even before he stepped out of his work van.

“What I saw that morning on May 9 left me broken beyond repair. But the worst was yet to come,” he said.

“I had an overwhelming understanding that what I knew at that moment was going to destroy my wife, Heather. It was going to destroy her sisters and so many other family members,” Raymond Hoogland said.

“Their only remorse is getting caught. They have shown unconditional love for each other and for money. I still don’t understand how any person, especially three people, could think this senseless and horrific act was OK,” he said.

Speaking directly to the killers, his wife said: “I’m not interested in making you feel the same pain that you have put us through, even though you deserve it. I feel your hearts are too cold to feel any pain and, from seeing the evidence shown in court, you’re likely too proud to admit your mistakes. I know there will never be any closure.”

Family members also spoke of the grief of telling their children about their grandparents’ deaths and the burden of living a life filled with fear.

Prosecutor Dorthy Tsui told the court none of the offenders had criminal records, but said the murders were “exceptionally heinous and cruel.”

Before victim impact statements began, the lawyer for Toor said she had filed a constitutional challenge related to the faint-hope clause, which allows for possible early parole eligibility.

A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. Offenders are not eligible to apply for parole for 25 years.