When Jason Jhutty's family celebrated his 16th birthday, they never imagined it would be his last.
"He was just so positive all the time. He would tell my mom, all of us, 'We have to think positive and positive things will happen,'" his sister Pawan Jhutty told CTV News in an exclusive interview this week.
"We feel the loss every day. Even just a regular day, we can just tell. Our house feels empty."
What happened to him and his friend is a nightmare the families are still living.
On June 4, Jason asked to play basketball with a friend. He left home and never came back.
Jason's body was found on the side of a road in Surrey, next to that of 17-year-old Jesse Bhangal. Two burning vehicles were discovered the same night.
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The boys were not known to police, but investigators believe they were targeted. Those who know Jason say they can't understand why.
"He never did anything in his life to deserve this," his brother Gagan said.
"You can tell if somebody's involved in doing things and you can tell the way they're acting, maybe they're into something. There was nothing like that."
The family says he spent most of his spare time at home, and described him as a kid who loved being with family.
"When I go to work, he always gives me a hug. When I come back, he always hugs me," his mother, Paramjit, told CTV.
"He was my little boy. I miss him so much."
While some speculated that the boys' deaths may be tied to ongoing violence in the Lower Mainland, Jason's family says gangs and drugs were not a part of his lifestyle.
"I strongly believe he was at the wrong place and the wrong time. Our whole family believes that. And the people that know Jason, they know that too," Pawan said.
CTV contacted the Integrated Homicide Investigations Team for an update, but they could only say the file is active and ongoing. No arrests have been made in the case.
"It makes me really angry that there's people out there still on the street and they're doing this kind of stuff and they haven't got caught for it," Gagan said.
Jason's family members say they now live with a constant sense of fear.
"Every time we hear another shooting, we go right back. We put ourselves in their shoes and go, 'Oh great. Now there's another family going through what we just had to go through,'" Pawan said.
Pawan and the rest of the family is appealing to anyone with information, asking them to come forward and help police catch a killer or killers, making their community safer.
"It's not a game. These people, they didn't just kill my brother, they killed our whole family. We die every day that he's not here," she said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Michele Brunoro