KINGSTON, Ont. - An Ontario court has heard that when three people accused of killing four family members first went to a police station, they reported just two people missing.
Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, her husband, Mohammad Shafia, 58, and their son, Hamed Mohammad Shafia, 20, have each pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.
They're charged in the deaths of Shafia daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, Shafia's first wife who lived with the family in a polygamous relationship.
Their bodies were found June 30, 2009 in a car submerged at the bottom of a set of locks in a canal in Kingston, Ont., where the Montreal family had stopped on their way back from a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont.
Barbara Webb, who works at the front desk at the police station in Kingston, told court today that the three accused came to the station that day and Hamed told her his two sisters were missing and they were in a Nissan.
Webb says she knew a car had been found in the canal, so she conferred with police then asked the family for more information, at which time Hamed said it was actually three sisters and his dad's cousin who were missing.
She says the family said they were staying at a motel and when they woke up that morning the four people and the car were gone.
