Same suspect charged in otherwise unconnected Vancouver and Surrey murders, police say

File images from the murder scenes in Surrey, left, and Vancouver are shown. (CTV News)

A pair of seemingly unrelated murders in Surrey and Vancouver have been linked to the same alleged killer, the Vancouver Police Department and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said in a joint statement Friday.

A 21-year-old suspect, Nahom Gizaw, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in connection to the May 2022 killing of Maanav Kinkar in Surrey and the March 2023 killing of Caleb Morin in Vancouver.

Gizaw remains in custody, police said.

“Our teams worked diligently and in close partnership to solve these crimes and provide closure to the victims’ families and our communities,” said VPD spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin, in the statement.

“While these homicides were not connected, the co-operation between our agencies led to the evidence we needed to make this arrest.”

Kinkar was found deceased in Hazelnut Meadows Park near 140 Street and 68 Avenue in Surrey on May 26, 2022. As the team that investigates homicides in most of the Lower Mainland, IHIT took over the investigation of the 18-year-old’s death.

In an update naming Kinkar as the victim, IHIT described his killing as “targeted,” but not connected to gang activity.

Kinkar was a Burnaby resident and had travelled to Surrey by SkyTrain in the hours before his death, according to police.

• Read more: Victim of Surrey homicide identified; investigators believe incident was targeted

Roughly 10 months later, on March 3, 2023, 22-year-old Caleb Morin was stabbed at a home near Boundary Road and East 45th Avenue in Vancouver, prompting a VPD homicide investigation.

Morin was taken to hospital after the stabbing, but succumbed to his injuries there, police said at the time. They did not elaborate on his connection to the home where the stabbing occurred.

• Read more: 22-year-old man dead after Boundary Road stabbing, Vancouver police say

The victims had no connection to each other, but investigators from VPD and IHIT collaborated, eventually finding evidence that linked a single suspect to both cases.

Gizaw was arrested near East 29th Avenue and Rupert Street in Vancouver on Thursday, police said.

Online court records show the accused is scheduled to appear in Vancouver provincial court on May 13 in connection to Morin’s death and in Surrey provincial court on May 14 in connection to Kinkar’s.

“The charge approval stage is a significant milestone,” said IHIT spokesperson Sgt. Freda Fong, in the release.

“Our success was due to the collaboration between the VPD and IHIT, whose investigators worked tirelessly to maintain the integrity of the joint investigation.”