Police silent about identity of deceased man found with murdered Surrey woman
Days after the bodies of two young adults were found in a Surrey home, one identity still remains unknown to the public
By Palak Klaire, Lina Chung and Mathilda de Villiers
From her family’s village in India to the campus on Langara, Prabhleen Kaur Matharu’s name and the details of her life up to her brutal death is being publicly uncovered.
The man whose body was also found at the scene and who may have been her killer is still being kept secret five days after the two bodies were found in a Surrey home.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says Matharu is the victim of a homicide and the man’s death is not suspicious. Investigators are also not looking for any further suspects.
The homicide of the 21-year-old former Langara international student has devastated the young woman’s village in India, according to family friend Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal.
Dhaliwal, who grew up in the same village as the young woman, said the entire village is “upset with the incident that happened.”
Dhaliwal, the former president of Khalsa Diwan Society, on Ross Street in South Vancouver said he’s particularly upset that nothing is known about the man who may have killed Matharu.
“People should know what happened, and why it happened,” Dhaliwal said. “[It’s] shocking news for everybody.”
Dhaliwal asked Const. Kanwar Singh Bal for information about the 18-year-old man whose identity or relationship to Matharu has not been released to the public and was told that only the family will get access to that information.
Identity unknown leaves holes for public to try and fill
The name of the dead male found with Matharu should be known and released to the public, according to Dani Plumari, a frontline worker at Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter who didn’t personally know the young woman.
“We have to erase this myth that women are attacked by strangers on the street. That’s not the reality,” she said.
Plumari said releasing the man’s name or his relationship to Matharu will help the public understand that men who are close to women are often the ones hurting them.
Plumari goes into detail about the importance of releasing his name:
On Matharu’s Instagram page, her bio read: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
Raminder Dosanjh, the founder of the India Mahila Association which provides assistance to South Asian immigrant women in Vancouver, said most of the violence against women is done by men they know.
“I can easily say that over 95 per cent of the cases that I have read or come across have been males and most of them have been people known to them. Either husbands or fathers or boyfriends.”
The IHIT media officer has not responded to multiple queries from The Voice about why the name of the 18-year-old male or his relationship to the murder victim has not been released.
Raminder Dosanjh explains who the usual offenders are regarding violence against women:
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