OTTAWA - The killing of a former federal court chief justice, his wife and an elderly neighbour in Ottawa on the weekend wasn't a random act, says a former homicide investigator.

Mark Mendelson, who now works as a consultant, says investigators are likely looking at people who knew the victims as they piece together clues in the triple homicide.

"Most people don't get killed by strangers, they really don't,'' Mendelson said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his office at Mendelson Davis Consulting Partners in Toronto.

"Crimes like this almost exclusively are committed by someone who has an intimate knowledge of the family,'' he said.

"This is not a stranger-on-stranger murder.''

Police were unable Tuesday to officially confirm the identity of the victims as autopsies were still being performed on the bodies in Toronto, although a spokeswoman said investigators were still talking with people in the immediate vicinity of the killings and identities could be confirmed by early Wednesday.

"The investigation continues, canvassing (of the neighbourhood) continues,'' said Staff-Sgt. Monique Perras.

However, an internal memo being circulated to employees at the federal tax court identified two of the victims as retired chief justice Alban Garon and his wife, Raymonde.

Reports indicated the third victim was an elderly neighbour of the Garons, Jean Marie Beniskos.

All three had been tied to chairs and severely beaten, an indication to Mendelson that the killer harboured a lot of anger toward his victims.

"This is not a robbery that's gone bad or a carjacking that took a terrible turn,'' said Mendelson.

"When murders take place like this where there's some planning . . . in terms of them being tied up, things of that nature, generally speaking (it) tells you there's a bit more planning involved.''

Ottawa police continued scouring the building where the victims lived Tuesday, a luxury condo complex with manned security at the front gate and other security measures in place inside the compound, including video surveillance cameras.

"That's why I'm saying it's not like a random type of murder,'' said Mendelson.

"Someone has to go to great lengths to circumvent the tight security in that complex and be willing to take the chance to get in there.''

The Mounties were also involved in the investigation, and suggested that they don't think the homicides were related to Garon's work as a judge, said a court official.

"I am told that the RCMP is looking into all possible leads,'' said Charles Nadeau.

"But from what they've told us, there's no indication at this time that this has anything to do with the court or any decisions rendered by former chief justice Garon.''

Looking into Garon's files would be a "huge undertaking,'' said Nadeau.

The tax court deals with roughly 3,000 cases annually and Garon had worked there for years before retiring just over two years ago.

Mendelson also doubted the murders had anything to do with the judge's work before he retired.

"It's possible, but it's really unlikely that somebody who was convicted by him four-plus years ago has harboured this much anger towards this person,'' he said.

"If the true target is the judge, then why the wife and why the neighbour? You could kill him anywhere.''

Assuming Garon, or he and his wife, were the intended victims, then what of the neighbour found with them? It's possible that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mendelson theorized.

"Of course you've got the third person in there,'' he said.

"Now you've got a witness, which may be the reason why she was murdered.''

Some employees at the court -- many who knew the judge personally for many years -- were only finding out about the grisly slayings after returning to work from the long Canada Day weekend and were in shock Tuesday morning.

They would be offered grief counselling by Wednesday, said Nadeau.

"They're probably going to send a communique tomorrow of who to talk to or to contact if somebody needs to have a session with one of the counsellors,'' Nadeau said.

"That's the case with all federal departments in the case of tragic deaths like this.''

Court staff were given a brief description of what officials knew so far about the slayings as they arrived for work. Nadeau said it left a sick feeling among employees, who were scratching their heads over why someone would go to such brutal lengths to kill three elderly people.

Whoever committed the crime was a very angry person, said Mendelson, judging by the apparent severe beatings that were given.

"You can stab somebody in a peak of rage and they die, you can push them in front of cars, but when you go to such physical lengths to instill these injuries, rage is the first thing that sticks out in somebody's mind,'' he said.

"Somebody has gone well out of their way to inflict a lot of damage,'' said Mendelson.

"These people were killed for a reason, there's no question about it.''