WARNING: This story contains graphic details which may be disturbing to some people. Reader discretion is advised.
Crown prosecutors described a horrific murder scene Wednesday, as the jury trial of a man accused of murdering a couple in Vancouver’s Marpole neighbourhood began.
Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 68-year-old Richard Jones and 64-year-old Dianna Mah-Jones at their home near West 64th Avenue and Hudson Street on Sept. 27, 2017.
On Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Daniel Mulligan laid out disturbing new details in the slaying that have not been previously reported.
The court heard that Kam, who was living less than a kilometre away from the couple, allegedly bought a hatchet, gloves and a baseball cap from Canadian Tire prior to the killings.
Mulligan argued Kam bought the items to murder someone, but that he had no relationship with the victims.
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Mulligan told the jury a hatchet and knife were found near the front walkway of the murdered couple’s home.
The couple’s DNA was found on the baseball hat and hatchet bought at Canadian Tire, said Mulligan, adding that CCTV evidence would show Kam in the store buying the items.
Mulligan said Kam’s DNA was also discovered under Mah-Jones’ fingernails, while her DNA was found on the knife found recovered from the scene and Kam’s glasses.
The couple’s bodies had been dragged from the home’s kitchen to the bathroom, and Mah-Jones was found on top of her husband in the shower stall with the water still running, Mulligan told the jury.
He described 103 “sharp force injuries” to Richard Jones and said Mah-Jones suffered “blood loss from a laceration to the carotid artery.”
Mulligan alleged that after the killing, Kam drove away in the victims’ car, before abandoning it near his own home. He told the court video evidence will place Kam in the neighbourhood at the time of the killing.
Crown witness Regan Tse testified that he was delivering newspapers early on the morning of Sept. 27.
“I saw a knife on the path… on the other side of the bush I noticed a small axe,” he told the court.
Anthony Purcell, an equipment vendor for GF strong testified he went to check on Mah-Jones when she failed to turn up at work.
He described a grisly scene, including bloody footprints inside the home, obvious signs of a struggle and blood spatters on the cupboards.
Kam, who had only been in Vancouver a few months at the time of the killing, has no criminal record. He was born in Hong Kong and moved to Alberta with his family as a teenager.
Mah-Jones was a respected occupational therapist with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), working at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre and Vancouver General Hospital, and had won several awards.
In 2015, she was named the Outstanding Occupational Therapist of the Year by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists BC, and was honoured as 2016’s VCH and Provincial Healthcare Hero.
— With files from Rumina Daya