Mass murder in black and white

The document above is an inventory of mass murder.

It's the charge sheet or 'information,' the document filed July 23, 2009, in a Kingston, Ontario court by police, setting out the criminal charges against three people from Montreal: Mohammed Shafia, 56, his wife Tooba Mohammed Yahya, 39, and their son, Hamed, 18. Each is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to commit murder, alleging that they consorted together to kill four other members of their family who were found dead in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston. The car was found early on the morning of June 30, 2009.

Kingston Police held a news conference today to outline the charges. They confirmed some facts: that Rona Amir Mohammed was Mohammed Shafia's secret first wife, not his cousin and they confirmed that they are considering the allegation that this is an honour killing. But police left some key questions unanswered:

How did the women die? They won't say.
Were they dead before the car went into the water? They won't say.
When did the car go in the water? They won't be specific.

This is hard to fathom, hard to believe even, until you see it in black and white, the claim that a father and mother, aided by a son, hatched a devious plan to kill their three teenage daughters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, and Mohammed, 50. Read previous posts on the case for the background.

More exclusive details that offer some insight into the allegation that this was an honour killing will be available here Friday, July 24 and at the Kingston Whig-Standard website.

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