Residents of a South Vancouver neighbourhood are on edge five days after a police investigation into the murder of an elderly couple failed to produce a suspect or motive
The bodies of 65-year-old Dianna Mah-Jones and her 68-year-old husband, Richard Jones, were found in their home in the city's Marpole neighbourhood Wednesday afternoon. Police were called to the house near 64th Avenue and Hudson Street after a friend of the couple stopped to visit and noticed something was off.
Five days after the investigation began, the Vancouver Police Department had no updates for CTV News. The investigation is ongoing and crews were seen at the house Monday, but a representative of the VPD said there was no further information to share.
"Our investigators are working tirelessly to try and solve this homicide as quickly as possible," police said in a statement.
"We are still in the process of following leads, gathering information and analyzing evidence."
There are no suspects in custody, and police have not yet provided a motive for the deaths of a couple described by friends as kind and outgoing.
Despite a police presence in the area, residents of the neighbourhood are feeling uneasy.
"I always trusted the neighbourhood and now I have this cloud, and it's not a good feeling," one person told CTV News.
Another said they've been checking all their windows and doors are locked.
Many said their homes and vehicles had been broken into this year, a possible motive a criminologist thinks is the most likely in this case.
Rob Gordon, from Simon Fraser University, said the deaths could have been a robbery gone wrong, since the couple seems an otherwise unusual target.
And he added that the fact that forensics teams are still on site several days later seems to point to a gruesome end.
"That's probably why they have a blood spatter person there," he said.
"That's usually indicative of the fact that it was a very violent death."
If it was a botched robbery, friends of the Joneses said the thief needn't have killed the couple.
"Dianna would just say, 'Take it and go. Go, don't do anything,'" Kiren Hundal said.
"Whoever did this didn't even have to try hard because they couldn't fight back. It's just crazy," her wife, Cheryl, said.
The Hundals issued an emotional plea to their killer Sunday, asking whoever is responsible to bring them some closure by turning themselves in.
"Do the right thing. This was not necessary. If they caught you off-guard, it's a mistake. Just turn yourself in," Kiren said.
With reports from CTV Vancouver's Breanna Karstens-Smith
