WARNING: Graphic details. Reader discretion is advised.
New — and gruesome — details have emerged in the case of a Vancouver couple who were murdered in their home in the Marpole neighbourhood last week, in an attack that one expert believes was targeted.
Dianna Mah-Jones, 65, and Richard Jones, 68, were killed in an attack that happened at the home close to West 64th Avenue and Hudson Street.
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No motive has yet been established for the killing.
But sources told Global News that a hatchet was found at the scene of the crime, and that the victims’ bodies were “hacked up.”
The sources said first responders had never witnessed such a scene before, and that they’ll now need help to cope with what they saw.
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For one expert, the discovery of the hatchet suggested that the killing was “premeditated” and “impulsive,” and that the killer was “probably not in a right mind” when they left the scene.
He thinks the killer targeted this couple.
“Someone who was known to them, someone who was familiar with the residents, and someone who procured that weapon at the scene” is how Michael Arntfield, a criminologist at Western University, described the killer.
“They were really just unable to restrain themselves,” he added.
“And then not acting rationally as a result, including leaving a weapon there, and know that walking out in plain view of other homes, where there were occupants who could identify them.”
For their part, the Vancouver police say they don’t know whether the killings were random or targeted.
There have been no arrests in connection with this case.
- With files from Simon Little and Jordan Armstrong