Coquitlam man charged in 2022 Burnaby double homicide

A four-year investigation into one of Burnaby's most shocking crimes has produced charges. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced this week that a 27-year-old Coquitlam man has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of indignity to human remains.

The case

The bodies of Kiesha Garie, 31, and Umair Kasim, 30, were discovered inside a vehicle on Alpha Avenue next to Alpha Secondary School at about 1:45 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2022. The Coquitlam couple had recently been reported missing, according to police, and IHIT was called in to investigate.

After four years, investigators this week announced charges against Mohammad Arif Ansari, 27, of Coquitlam. Ansari was arrested without incident in Surrey on Friday morning and charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of indignity to human remains, according to IHIT.

Investigators believe the homicides were targeted and that the parties involved were known to one another, the release said.

IHIT's statement

"We recognize the profound impact these homicides have had on the victims' families and our thoughts remain with them as the judicial process moves forward," IHIT Sgt. Freda Fong said in a news release.

What happens next

The case now moves into the courts. Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence on conviction, with parole eligibility set by the court. None of the allegations have been proven, and Ansari is presumed innocent.

A case the region remembers

The discovery of the couple's bodies beside a Burnaby high school on a fall afternoon in 2022 unsettled communities in both cities: a quiet stretch of Alpha Avenue became a crime scene, and the missing-persons case became a homicide file. Friday's charges mark the first public break in the case in four years.

Four years of investigation

Homicide investigations that span years rarely announce themselves along the way. IHIT, the integrated unit that handles homicides across most of the Lower Mainland, worked the Alpha Avenue file from the afternoon the couple was found in October 2022 through this week's charges, releasing little publicly in between. Targeted cases, where investigators believe victims and suspects are known to one another, often involve assembling evidence across multiple jurisdictions and lengthy forensic and witness work before charges are approved by Crown counsel.

The arrest location adds a regional thread: Ansari was taken into custody without incident in Surrey on Friday morning, closing a case that touched Coquitlam, where the couple lived and the accused is from, Burnaby, where the bodies were found, and now the courts.

The victims

Kiesha Garie and Umair Kasim were 31 and 30, a young couple from Coquitlam reported missing shortly before their bodies were discovered. IHIT's public statement this week centred on their families, acknowledging "the profound impact these homicides have had" as the judicial process begins. Public details about the couple's lives remain limited, and the family has not spoken publicly through police at this stage.

About the charges

Second-degree murder is the intentional killing of a person without the planning and deliberation that defines first-degree murder. The additional count of indignity to human remains relates to the treatment of the victims' bodies. As with all criminal charges, the allegations have not been tested in court, and the accused is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

How IHIT works a cold case

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is the largest homicide unit in Canada, pairing RCMP and municipal officers from across the region. In files that run for years, investigators typically re-interview witnesses, re-examine forensic exhibits as technology improves, and work with Crown counsel to meet the charge-approval standard, which in British Columbia requires a substantial likelihood of conviction. IHIT does not comment on evidence before trial, which is why this week's release said little beyond the charges, the arrest, and the belief that the homicides were targeted.

The neighbourhood, four years on

Alpha Avenue, where the couple was found, is a residential street in northeast Burnaby running past Alpha Secondary School, one of the city's oldest high schools. The 2022 discovery, in the middle of a school-day afternoon, drew a large police presence to the area around Alpha Avenue and Venables Street and left nearby residents with questions that have only now been partly answered. With charges laid, the case shifts from investigation to prosecution, a process likely to take many more months before any trial.

Anyone with information related to a homicide investigation can contact IHIT or leave an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers, which police note remains open even after charges are laid.

Reading the file

The charge of indignity to human remains is a separate Criminal Code offence addressing the treatment of a body after death, and its inclusion signals that prosecutors intend to present evidence beyond the killings themselves. Court dates will be set through the BC Provincial Court system, and IHIT has said the investigation, like most major files, remains technically open even with an accused before the courts.

* Cover photo: sillygwailo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0