The father of a young Indian woman found murdered in a Surrey home last week says he is hoping to come to Canada to get more answers about why his daughter was killed.
Prabhleen Matharu, 21, was found dead along with another body, who police identified as an 18-year-old man from the Lower Mainland. Police have said Matharu was the victim of a homicide, and they are not looking for any other suspects.
Speaking from the family’s home in the Punjab village of Chitti in India, Matharu’s father Gurdial Singh said he and his wife had spoken with her the day before her body was found on Nov. 21.
“She was absolutely normal,” he said. “She was happy and normal. She had no enemies.”
Singh said he was informed by police in Surrey on Nov. 24 that his daughter was dead. Ever since that phone call, he says his family is struggling to make sense of the news.
“There’s nothing left in my life,” he said. “It’s all finished.
“My daughter was born after 14 years of marriage and I took care of her for 20 years — and now within a minute she’s gone.”
Friends have told Global News that Matharu was a former Langara College student and Sephora employee at the time of her death.
Singh said he was told by police that the 18-year-old found with Matharu took his own life. He says he’s also heard from her friends that he was a white man who knew his daughter and had mutual friends with her.
He could not answer whether his daughter was in a relationship with the man, or any circumstances that may have led to her murder.
“We couldn’t even listen anymore. There was a lot of crying in our house.”
Singh said he plans to travel to the Punjab capital of Chandigarh to get a visa in order to travel to B.C. He’ll then coordinate with police to arrange travel dates.
“If they give me a visa I’ll come,” he said, “and if they don’t then I won’t come.”
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) has declined to share further information about the case.
IHIT said Monday that it would not release the names of the dead “as there is no investigative need to do so.”
A candlelight vigil has been scheduled for Matharu on Saturday at Surrey’s Holland Park.
Singh said his daughter’s body will be brought back to the family’s home in Chitti in a week, and her funeral will be held in the village.
Until he can get some closure or more information from police, Singh is left wondering how his daughter could be ripped away from him so soon.
“I can’t think straight,” he said. “My mind, my brain isn’t working. My wife is the same.
“We feel like we’re losing our minds. We don’t know what to do.”
—With files from Simon Little and Srushti Gangdev