Warning: Some details in this story may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
Quebec’s Chief Coroner, Pascal Descari, has ordered public inquiry In the 2019 murder of a Montreal woman and her two young children.
The coroner’s office said Wednesday that the investigation would also investigate the suicide of the woman’s husband, who is believed to have killed his family before taking his own life.
Coroner Alain Manseau investigated the four deaths and their reports were released on Wednesday. But without giving details, Deskari’s office said that new facts have emerged recently that require further investigation.
Manseau’s report criticizes Quebec’s prosecution service and a Quebec court judge, saying they could have done more to prevent the deaths of Dahiya Khalaf and his sons, Adam, 4, and Aksil, 2.
Mansou concluded that he had been strangled to death and that Nabil Yassad was possibly the killer. The two had separated at the time of the murder and Khalaf was in the process of divorcing her husband.
Yassad died after jumping from a sixth-floor window at a hospital south of Montreal a day before his body was found.
According to Manseau’s report, police went to Yasad’s house after his death to inform his family and formally identify the body, but when they knocked on the door, they did not get a response. The police returned the next day, December 11, 2019, and discovered three bodies.
Five days before the killings, Quebec prosecutors dropped four charges against Yassad – including assault and threatening Khalaf – after he agreed to sign a peace bond. Bond barred Yasad from contacting Khalifa or being within 100 meters of his home.
But Manseau said that without court-ordered treatment for Yasad’s mental health issues or the electronic tracking bracelet, the peace bond was “nothing more than a judicial placebo”.
“The imposition of these conditions would have prevented the death of a mother and her two children, which occurred only a week after the conclusion of the criminal case,” he wrote. A copy of Yasad’s peace bond was found at the crime scene.
Quebec’s Prosecution Service said in a release Wednesday that the use of tracking bracelets for suspects in domestic violence cases was not an option at the time of the murders.
It called Manseau’s report on “factual and legal errors and misunderstandings of our guidelines, practices applicable to domestic violence, the practice of criminal law and the legal framework to which we are subject.”
The coroner’s office said the investigation may have reached a different conclusion than a hundred.
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, there are resources available. In an emergency, please call 911 for immediate assistance.
Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, depression hurts, kids help phone 1-800-668-6868 All offer ways to get help if you, or someone you know, is suffering from mental health issues.,
If you or someone you know is intimidated or is a victim of domestic violence, call 1-800-363-9010 or find out more Here,
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