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The former lead investigator with the Vancouver police forensic unit testified robbery didn’t appear to be the motive for a man on trial for killing a couple inside their home.
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. Kam has pleaded not guilty.
On Friday, Const. Cathy Hill told the court there were no apparent signs of forced entry at the front or rear of the victims’ home.
WATCH (Sept. 26): More shocking testimony at double murder trial
Prosecutor Daniel Mulligan asked Hill if any items were any signs of stolen items from the Marpole home.
Hill said no, pointing out several televisions, pieces of jewelry, laptops and other valuables were still inside and untouched.
“Based on the lack of missing property, robbery didn’t appear to be the motive,” Hill told the court.
Hill also testified Mah-Jones was still wearing a ring and watch when her autopsy was conducted.
The court has already heard 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.
Crown’s theory is that Kam had purchased the hatchet ahead of the murders with the intent to kill someone, but did not know the murdered couple.
Mulligan says a hatchet, gardening gloves and baseball hat were purchased at Canadian Tire prior to the killings.
The court has heard the couple’s DNA was found on the baseball hat and hatchet, and that CCTV evidence would show Kam in the store buying the items.
Crown has also said it will prove Kam’s DNA was discovered under Mah-Jones’ fingernails, while her DNA was found on the knife found recovered from the scene and on Kam’s glasses.
WATCH: (Sept. 25) Trial begins in 2017 Marpole double murder
The court heard Friday that Kam’s DNA was also found on a Perrier bottle and Advil pill bottle, but it’s not yet known how the DNA was found or where the bottles were located.
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.
His former roommate testified Thursday they had started living together about three months prior to the murders, adding they never argued or had a falling out.
He further testified Kam worked with him moving furniture and played video games for money as he sought employment in economics, which he had studied in university in Alberta.
Kam was arrested six weeks after the couple’s bodies were found.
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 and Simon Little
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