Nine people have been killed at three separate locations in Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan, and the Canadian police are investigating the gruesome murder that are all linked, according to the local media.
A woman in her 30s was found dead in her south Edmonton home on Monday evening (Canadian time), before the police discovered the dead bodies of seven people -- two of which are children -- from a home in north Edmonton, according to Edmonton Journal,
It is alleged that a suicidal man killed the eight victims and escaped before returning to the crime scene. The police officers who responded to the north Edmonton home emergency call around 8.30 pm on Monday (7.00 am on Tuesday in IST) were unable to find the murderer, but when they returned around midnight they found the seven victims; three adult women, two adult males and a boy and girl.
A man, who fits the description of the suicidal man was found dead inside a Fort Saskatchewan restaurant on Tuesday morning by homicide detectives.
A witness from outside the north Edmonton home Thanh Nguyen said that Phu Lam, the co-owner of the house at 180th Avenue and 83rd Street, has an ex-wife who owns a Fort Saskatchewan restaurant. The 60-year-old retiree, who shares the ownership of the house with a 35-year-old woman, had also filed for bankruptcy in October.
Police chief Rod Knecht has called it the worst mass murder in Edmonton since 1956, when six people were killed. "It is a tragic day for Edmonton and our thoughts go out to the community, as well come to terms with the senseless mass murder of eight people," Knetch said in a press conference.
Edmonton is a city of nearly one million people in Canada's western province of Alberta. Describing it as a "tragic incidence of domestic violence", Knecht guaranteed that there is no danger to the wider public.
The police aren't releasing any names of the dead and will be withholding all details until the next news conference on Tuesday evening. The conference can be live-streamed below.
