The Detectives (2018) s03e08 Episode Script

There's not a lot of cases that have left that emotional impact, but this one has.
A uniformed front-line officer attended Manjit and Mukhtiar Panghali's residence on the morning of October 19th.
So, you told dispatch you last saw your wife around 6 o'clock yesterday? Yeah.
When she left for, uh, her prenatal yoga class.
A Surrey schoolteacher Manjit Panghali left her home for a yoga class and disappeared.
There's obviously a reason that she didn't return home.
Is it because she met with some foul play or is it she chose not to come back home? May I ask why you waited an extra day to call us? This isn't the first time she's left.
I wanted to give her a chance to come home.
I need you, please! No matter how violent and reprehensible this was, we couldn't lose focus.
We wanted to make sure we brought whoever the individuals were to justice for this.
I've spent the past 26 years serving the citizens of Delta, and I've never seen anything quite like the Panghali case.
It started with a missing persons call to the RCMP.
Manjit Panghali had been reported missing by her husband, Mukhtiar Panghali.
Mukhtiar and Manjit were a loving couple that lived in a middle-class neighbourhood.
Manjit was an elementary school teacher.
Mukhtiar was a physics teacher at a local high school in Surrey.
They'd been married for several years.
They have a 3-year-old daughter, Maya.
And at the time, Manjit was 4 months pregnant.
Manjit had gone to a yoga class, and no one had seen her after that yoga class that day.
No one had heard from her.
Her phone was off.
So all those things were quite concerning.
And the disappearance of a young pregnant teacher made headline news.
Well, now it's been 6 days since Surrey schoolteacher Manjit Panghali left her home for a yoga class and disappeared.
Police have mounted a major investigation for the woman pregnant with her second child.
The investigators are knocking on doors, talking to friends and family, trying to see, how did Manjit just disappear? Manjit's family and her husband, Mukhtiar, decided that they needed to make a public plea to gather more information in order to locate the whereabouts of Manjit and, hopefully, that she was okay and alive.
You got this.
Go ahead.
So a press conference was arranged by the RCMP.
I was asked to attend to make observations.
Manjit's sister, Jasmine, was kind of the spokesman for the family.
My sister, Manjit is a kind, loving person.
Her students at North Ridge Elementary adore her.
Her 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Maya misses her like crazy.
All we want is for her to come home where she belongs.
(SIDHU): Mukhtiar was a grieving husband, a father, looking for his wife.
Manjit was somebody that Mukhtiar had spent a considerable amount of his life with, had a child with, that was pregnant with another child of his.
Right now I need you, please! If you know anything (SOBBING) give us back Manjit.
Please! (SOBBING) It was an emotional appeal.
But in the press conference, there seemed to be animosity between the two families.
You could feel, you know, that there was tension in the air.
From my experience as a police officer and detective, it just seemed that there was more to what was going on here than the family was telling.
An emotional plea today from the family of a woman missing in Surrey since last week, a teacher pregnant with her second child.
The woman left her home for a prenatal class Wednesday evening, but never arrived.
We wish that we find her alive somewhere.
(REPORTER): Neighbour and good friend Dilip Manghat says Panghali's disappearance has raised lots of questions and caused a divide between Panghali's family and that of her in-laws.
Their silence was evident during yesterday's press conference, where the two families came and left separately.
We were still in the infancy of the investigation.
We didn't know exactly what was occurring in these individual's lives.
And then the call came in.
Hey! I was looking for you.
We got a call about a body on the Deltaport causeway.
It may be related to the missing persons, Manjit Panghali.
At that point, we had little information about the body that had been located.
But could this be her? The Delta causeway is a long roadway that goes to a shipping container port in Delta.
It's kind of a very isolated area.
Most of the people going down there are people that are working at the port facility.
A woman had been walking with her dog.
And the dog ran ahead and started barking.
The female approached.
And, initially, it looked to her like a piece of driftwood.
And as she got closer, she was obviously quite startled when it started looking like it was actually a human that had looked like it had been burned there.
Get forensics down here.
sWe'll need a positive ID.
I remember my heart sinking.
Manjit was 4 months pregnant.
So if this was indeed her, there were two people here, not just one.
A lot of these scenes, there's those one or two things that kind of stand out to you.
And it still etches in my mind.
I can see the nail polish on the hand there.
We had to wait for the official autopsy to verify that it was indeed Manjit.
But until we get to that point of 100% confirmation, we couldn't tell the family.
In homicide investigations, when you provide that unfortunate news to family members that someone that they cared about has died, you want to be 100% sure.
So the Surrey RCMP have to continue with their missing person investigation until that can be confirmed.
- Mr.
Panghali? - Yes.
I'm Corporal Harding.
I'll be handling your wife's case.
I've read your statement.
I just have a few additional questions.
Of course.
All right.
Right this way, please.
I felt there was tension in the air between the 2 families.
We want to know from Mukhtiar: "What are they hiding?" Would you like a coffee? Oh, no, thank you.
You had told Constable Bennett that this wasn't the first time Manjit spent the night away.
Manjit has always struggled with depression.
She could become very emotional, especially lately.
The pregnancy hormones have have made it worse.
Please.
What was your sense of her that night? Had you been fighting? No.
This is different from those times she stayed away before.
Is there anyone she might have stayed with? Please.
Any information might help.
She usually went to a hotel.
Whether she ever met anyone there I don't know.
Mukhtiar was embarrassed that maybe, potentially, his wife had been going and seeing somebody else.
That created some shame for Manjit's family and Mukhtiar and his family.
Could this be why she didn't return? Mukhtiar had started making reference that maybe Manjit was having an affair with somebody, but he didn't know who it was.
A short while later, we received information that Manjit's vehicle had been recovered.
The vehicle was parked in the Whalley area, which was nowhere near where the body was found or near Manjit's yoga class in South Surrey.
It looks clean.
No obvious blood or signs of struggle.
- How tall was she? - Not very.
The driver's seat is pushed all the way back.
Manjit was small in stature.
So she wouldn't have been able to reach the pedals and the brakes.
So the seat being rested back and the adjustment of the mirror would all indicate somebody else had driven and deliberately parked that vehicle in that manner in that location.
Locked.
What kind of killer locks the doors and activates the alarm? Why would Manjit's car be out here, not near her home or her class? Nowhere near the body.
A person could dump a vehicle anywhere, but it didn't make sense.
We had a body in Delta that, potentially, could be Manjit.
So locating the vehicle in the Whalley area is somewhat suspicious, because it wasn't anywhere near where she had gone that evening.
And so why would it be in that location? (MAN): The only update that I've got for you at this point in time is the investigators have advised that the vehicle that belongs to our missing lady has been found at one of the parks here in the City of Surrey.
But where her car was found and what was discovered in it is not being released.
Panghali's disappearance is now even more mysterious.
Delta Police aren't confirming or denying whether a body found Monday on one of its ports is that of Panghali.
The autopsy was delayed, but was scheduled to be conducted today.
It could be days, however, before an identification is released.
At that point, the RCMP was still conducting their missing person investigation.
Now they had another piece of evidence of her vehicle being located.
And they had more questions that they wanted to ask Mukhtiar.
I heard on the radio that police found a body.
Is it her? Is it Manjit? I cannot comment until we have positive ID.
Don't give me that! The tone of this interview was a bit more more direct, versus the soft, kind of fact-finding.
I've already told you all of these things! He was getting a little bit confrontational and getting his back up when he was being asked these directed questions.
Information is the best tool we have.
Is there anything else that you can think of that might help us? Tony Phunal.
Talk to him.
What's his relationship to Mrs.
Panghali? They're friends from college.
Maybe she didn't go to yoga.
Maybe they were together? Mukhtiar indicated he had confronted Manjit several times about what was this relationship, and she would always just brush him off.
And he always felt that he wasn't getting a right story.
(LEESON): What did you think of him? Not sure.
Definitely some red flags.
Like the reporting delay? Well, that could be denial or shame.
Shame? Yeah, I know a lot of these guys.
Old school.
If he thought Manjit was having an affair, it'd be a huge loss of face in the community.
No one likes to get cheated on.
It's more than that.
He's coming from a conservative background.
Then he's head of the household, the final authority.
If Manjit had left him for another man, it would be a major blow to his masculinity.
Do you think he was just hoping she'd come home before he had to tell anyone? Could be.
But we need to find Tony Phunal so we can get his side of the story.
(PHONE RINGING) Detective Sidhu.
Understood.
Thanks.
(SIGHING) There's been an official ID of the body.
Through dental records, we were able to confirm that the body that we had recovered in Delta was indeed that of Manjit.
It was no longer a missing person investigation.
It was now my job to identify who was responsible for killing Manjit and bringing them to justice.
- Do you have a cause of death? - She was strangled.
We found out through the autopsy that Manjit was indeed 4 months pregnant and that it was a little baby girl.
(SIGHING) Can you do a paternity test? Of course.
Maybe the child wasn't Mukhtiar's, and it could have been Tony's.
We wanted to make sure.
The search for a missing Surrey woman has now turned into a search for her killer.
Police confirmed today the charred human remains discovered in Delta were indeed those of Manjit Panghali.
This was the scene today at the home of Manjit Panghali: an opportunity for family to mourn in private.
A steady stream of people came to show their support.
I don't even know how her family is handling this.
And my thoughts and prayers go out to them for their sorrow and their loss.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Detective Leeson and I will be handling the investigation moving forward.
I want to see her.
I want to see my wife.
I'm afraid the body was exposed to fire.
- She's - I don't care.
I want to see Manjit.
It's just not possible while the investigation is ongoing.
She's my brother's wife.
Who are you to keep her from him? Suk, would you take Mom and Dad in the kitchen? Of course.
When you provide that unfortunate news to family members, we're looking at, what are their reactions, what are their behaviours? Is there something there that may be amiss? Listen, have you spoken to Tony? We'll be taking a statement.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I I need to be with my family.
Yes, of course.
In my mind and my personal opinion, it seemed to be a bit of a feigned: "Oh my God! It's really her!" Feigned tears a little bit.
But then it became very matter of fact with him about, you know, "What happened? What do you know?" those type of things.
Manjit's family, on the other hand, were very distraught.
The mother broke down.
If we have questions, we talk to you? Yes.
I'm so sorry.
It seemed like their concern was: "Did Mukhtiar have anything to do with this?" Look I didn't get a chance to say this before, but, Manjit, when she met Mukhtiar, he seemed like the kind of guy you marry.
Religious, came from a good family, was gonna be a teacher.
But after the wedding, he turned into someone different, controlling.
He decided who she saw, where she went.
But my sister was smart and capable of making her own decisions, and he couldn't handle that.
He was abusive, drinking, partying, treating Manjit like crap.
Mmm.
I asked her: "Do you think Mukhtiar is responsible for this?" And she goes: "I don't want to go there and believe that, but there's a possibility that he was".
Here's what we know: Manjit left for prenatal yoga from the Panghali family home at 6:30 on the 18th.
Yoga studio is in South Surrey.
Her husband stays at home with their daughter, Maya.
According to him, Manjit never makes it back.
At 12:04 a.
m.
, he starts calling local hospitals.
The next day at 11:30 p.
m.
, he reports Manjit missing.
On October 23rd, Manjit's body is found on the Deltaport causeway.
Her car is found shortly after in Whalley.
Nowhere near the body or the yoga studio.
The husband, Mukhtiar, high school teacher, no criminal record.
His reactions when Manjit went missing were unusual.
After his wife went missing, he didn't report her for 26 hours.
And Jasmine told us they had had some domestic violence related issues in the past.
Those were all red flags that: "Okay, something's going on here".
We also need to look at Tony Phunal.
Mukhtiar thinks they were having an affair.
If Mukhtiar believed that Tony Phunal was the father of Manjit's unborn child, then that could be Mukhtiar's motive to kill his wife.
He could be a flight risk.
So let's put the Indian Consulate on notice, make sure they don't give him a visa, just to be on the safe side.
But let's not put blinders on.
Manjit and Tony had reacquainted about 4 or 5 months earlier.
So if there was an affair that was occurring, if Tony was confronted with the fact that she was pregnant, and it wasn't Mukhtiar's and it was his, could that have led to the murder of Manjit? So, let's pull bank and phone records on our principals.
I also want full video canvas as well, all surveillance from around the house, uh, the causeway and the area where the body was found.
An accelerant was used to burn the body.
So let's pull footage from any nearby gas stations or hardware stores.
All right, we got a lot of work to do.
Let's get going.
(DOORBELL RINGING) We had to speak to Tony.
Uh, how long is this going to take? Why? You got somewhere to be? My wife will be home soon.
I don't want to freak her out.
We just have a few questions.
Can you tell us how you met Manjit? What's this guy hiding? Was this her best friend or was there more to it? We worked at a sporting goods place when we were in college.
We lost touch, but then bumped into each other at a wedding and just remembered how much fun we used to have.
What kind of fun? Just joking around.
We had a lot in common.
- You see her often? - Not really.
Sometimes, we went hiking.
Um, we mostly talked on the phone.
What did you talk about? I don't know, just stuff: our families, our jobs our marriages.
You having trouble in your marriage, Tony? I don't know.
Sometimes, you fight or whatever, and I need someone to speak to, so What about Manjit? Did she need someone to talk to? Yeah.
Mukhtiar, he likes to drink, a lot.
Manjit even tried to get help from Al-Anon.
When Mukhtiar was drunk, he liked to tell her what to do, or at least he tried to.
When she didn't listen, he got angry.
And when they fought, she talked to you.
Tony was quite adamant that he knew nothing about what had come of her, that he was quite concerned.
And it seemed like he genuinely cared for Manjit.
She said I was like her little brother.
You have to believe me.
Would you give us a DNA sample, take a lie-detector test? Yes.
Whatever it takes.
It looked like Mukhtiar wasn't the person that he portrayed himself to be.
He wasn't this beautiful husband, respected high school teacher.
He had a dark side to him.
We needed to ask Mukhtiar if he would be willing to take a polygraph as well.
We look at who had motive, who had opportunity and look from the centre and move out.
He was at the centre of this.
Talked to Tony.
He's agreed to do a polygraph and give a DNA sample.
You do the same? No! You have my statement.
Do your job! In my heart of hearts, I believed Mukhtiar was responsible for murdering her, and I wanted him to be held accountable for it.
But we didn't have any direct evidence to link him to committing the homicide, and then burning the body.
Still no public word about the investigation into the murder of Manjit Panghali.
The burned remains of the pregnant Surrey school teacher were found beside the road that leads to Deltaport.
A white cross marks the spot where her body was found.
Police won't say if they have any suspects or if they think it was a targeted murder.
Thousands of mourners are expected to attend Panghali's funeral this Saturday at the Riverside Funeral Home in Delta.
People do have concern.
People are getting eager that arrests should be made.
And people want to go on with their lives.
By the same token, this is a major grief in our community at this point in time.
The radio station is offering a $50,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest in the Panghali case.
The community was quite upset and concerned about what was occurring.
(PHONE RINGING IN DISTANCE) But we needed more.
I decided to go over Mukhtiar's statements to see if there was anything we'd missed.
We've been trying to figure out why Manjit's car ended up in Whalley when her yoga class was in South Surrey.
Bottom of the page.
Mukhtiar told us it was in Whalley.
He got the location wrong.
Mukhtiar, in his initial reports to the police, indicated that the yoga class was in Whalley, 'cause that's what he knew from previously being told by Manjit.
He had no knowledge of her switching to a new yoga class in South Surrey.
So the vehicle was located where Mukhtiar thought the yoga class was at.
Mukhtiar is our prime suspect.
Here's the theory we're working with: Mukhtiar thought Manjit was having an affair with Tony Phunal, an affair we don't think existed.
Mukhtiar and Manjit argued about it a lot.
The night Manjit disappeared, Mukhtiar told us he thought she was seeing Tony.
After yoga, our guess is she went back home.
And Mukhtiar kills her.
Mukhtiar then leaves their daughter, Maya, at home alone, sleeping, takes Manjit's body and her car to the causeway.
He burns it.
Then he ditches her car near where he thinks her yoga studio is.
But we can't prove any of this.
We've got circumstantial evidence, but no forensics.
We need proof that Manjit came home after yoga and proof that Mukhtiar left the house that night.
Let's get combing and logging all the footage from the video sweep.
But we also will put surveillance on Mukhtiar to be able to make observations on where was he going, what was he doing and, basically, keep track of his behaviour.
There was a lot of these red flags that were popping up for us.
His wife was murdered and her body set on fire.
And he's basically acting as if everything was normal.
So we watched him at his residence to see where he was coming and going.
I made observations when he went to work.
He seemed to be smart enough to be that one little step ahead of us in regards to not making any missteps, not making any wrong comments to anybody.
We watched him for several weeks, but we got nothing to make an arrest and to convict him for the murder of Manjit.
We needed to continue to secure more evidence.
Mukhtiar received a phone call the day after Manjit disappeared, 2:02 p.
m.
Okay.
Why is that important? The phone records show that Manjit's phone was used near the yoga studio on the night she disappeared.
But after she disappeared, her phone was used at her home with Mukhtiar's SIM card in it.
He moved his SIM card into her phone.
The same phone she had with her when she went to yoga.
Mukhtiar got ahold of her phone after she went to yoga.
He's a cheap bastard.
He wanted the cell phone 'cause it was a nice cell phone.
He didn't want to get rid of it, so he kept it.
He said he never saw her after yoga.
Exactly! He lied to us.
It's not all he lied about.
Check this out.
Doesn't that look like Mukhtiar to you? Where is this from? A gas station near the Panghali home.
Taken at 1:00 a.
m.
the night Manjit disappeared.
He said he never left the house.
We had located video from a gas station near Mukhtiar Panghali's residence of a gentleman with a turban and an orange shirt, just after midnight on the night in question.
I thought it looked like him, but can you 100% say: "This is Mukhtiar that's in that video"? I don't know.
It's pretty grainy.
It's just not all that clear.
I don't know if a jury will be 100% sure.
(EXHALING SHARPLY) We went to the gas station to speak to the attendant to see if he could remember anything.
Uh, yeah, yeah, I was working that night.
I don't remember who came in, though.
Um They're long nights, so they tend to blur together.
You still have the receipts from that night? I I'll go check.
(SIGHING) (DOOR OPENING) - Anything? - They only have one camera.
- Nothing outside.
- Dammit! Okay.
So These are all the receipts we have from between midnight and 2:00 a.
m.
that night.
12:55 a.
m.
here.
He bought a newspaper and a lighter.
I couldn't believe it.
Here he is buying a lighter and newspaper the night that Manjit's murdered.
And we know that her body was burned.
There's no other explanation for that, that either he was directly involved or knew what happened.
I was confident that that was Mukhtiar in that video.
But in a court of law, would the judge come to that same conclusion? I was unsure.
His lawyer could say that it could be somebody else that looked like him.
We needed more.
We were gonna have to come up with a plan to get it beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
- Wait.
Who's that? - I don't know.
I remember looking at the video and seeing another individual in that video.
I had a revelation.
Oh, you have something? If Mukhtiar finds out we have a witness, he might panic and crack.
We decided that we were gonna put that into the media as a bit of a tactic hoping that if this story was out there, hopefully, Mukhtiar would see it and it would make him do something that may be incriminating.
It has been months since the charred remains of pregnant Surrey teacher Manjit Panghali were found.
And police haven't had much to say about their investigation into her murder.
But now they may have a break in the case.
When our investigators canvassed a variety of locations, attempting to locate information, perhaps captured images from various surveillance cameras, this photo was captured.
And we would like to speak to this person as a witness that may have information or made observations that would assist us.
By doing that public appeal and suggesting that this person was a key witness, we wanted to make Mukhtiar think that we were closing in on him and that it was just a matter of time that he was gonna be arrested for this and the noose was tightening around him.
The man in the black shirt came in and spoke to us.
Unfortunately, he didn't remember anything.
But we observed Mukhtiar the next day.
Well, he doesn't look happy.
Must have hit a nerve.
We wanted to see what his reactions would be.
We threw bait out there.
Let's see if he takes it.
It worked.
It completely spooked Mukhtiar.
He went directly to that gas station.
He's looking for cameras.
He didn't purchase gas or go there for any other reason.
He was looking around to see what kind of surveillance cameras were there.
Mukhtiar looked like a guilty individual trying to figure: "Did I cover my tracks?" and, "Oh my God! What do they know now?" and, "They're gonna have a potential witness that's gonna put me at the scene there and refute all of my alibis".
And I felt to myself: "Gotcha!" Like, I had that gotcha moment.
If we arrest him now when he's finally cracking, he might confess.
We got arrest warrants.
And we got to confront him with the evidence that we have, proving the murder that he had committed of his wife.
What is it? Mukhtiar Panghali, I'm arresting you for the murder of Manjit Panghali.
It is my duty to inform you, you have the right to retain counsel and Are you serious? You're still using it? Her phone! I was disgusted.
But that being said, we were rolling the dice a bit.
All we had was circumstantial evidence, and that scared me.
If you go up to an individual, and you advise them they're being arrested for murder, especially the murder of their loved one, you'd think that there would be more of an emotional reaction or more defiance or anger.
"How can you do this? Why are you arresting me? The real person is out there".
There was none of that.
Mukhtiar was very matter of fact, very emotionless.
I believe that he thought that he was still gonna get away with this murder.
He was a smart individual.
He was a teacher.
He was well educated.
He's probably already prepared for this day of when he was gonna be confronted and probably had already rehearsed of how he was gonna act and behave.
We had to come up with some sort of strategy to appeal to his emotional side of being a father and a husband that lost a wife in order to be able to get through to him at this time.
We definitely needed to try to get a confession from him.
You need to take responsibility for your actions.
Make yourself a better man and a better father for Maya.
You need to tell the truth, Mukhtiar.
Honour Manjit's memory.
She was your wife.
We had confirmed that the unborn child was his.
He just didn't kill his wife, he also killed his unborn daughter.
You know, you'd think that that would create an emotional reaction, but it never did.
What's this? It's you, 1:00 a.
m.
the night you killed your wife.
The night you burned her.
You said you were home all night.
Here you are at a gas station buying a lighter.
- It's not me.
- Oh, it's not you? It's a guy in a turban with a beard.
But it's not me.
It's you.
I know it's you.
You've been lying to us.
You had her phone.
You ditched her car at the wrong yoga studio.
You lied about your alibi.
And you know what the worst part is? You don't even care.
You think you did the right thing.
And you think you're gonna get away with it.
I was pissed off.
Yeah, like: "What else do we have to do? We're hitting you with everything here.
You know, there's nobody else did this but you".
He was shown photographs of the crime scene.
When that's put in front of you, you'd think on some human level, you would have, you know, a tear drop or something, 'cause emotionally, you can't control certain things, but there was nothing.
I didn't do anything.
And if you have any more questions for me, ask my lawyer.
(SIGHING) There was no confession.
It was very frustrating.
We had to move forward with prosecution on the evidence that we had.
This is the moment Manjit's family had been praying for for 5 months.
Manjit was 4 months pregnant when she was brutally murdered.
Today would have been my sister's due date.
We should be in the hospital right now, welcoming the newest member of our family.
For Panghali's family, it's been a nightmare.
We now must persevere on this most difficult journey and trust that justice will prevail for the sake of our sister and our family.
Please be seated.
(MEN AND WOMEN WHISPERING, INDISTINCT) Mukhtiar now, when the trial had started, had shaved off his beard, was clean shaven and cut his hair.
So when I was looking at Mukhtiar, that was not the same person that was in the gas station video.
He looked nothing like that individual anymore.
I believe that was obviously done deliberately by his counsel in order to create doubt around the video evidence.
I knew I had to convince a judge that I believed that that was Mukhtiar Panghali on that video.
I'd say 90% of the Sikhs in the community I went through significant testimony on the stand in cross-examination by defence.
And I reiterated a lot of the observations that I had made.
I had spent a considerable amount of time with Mukhtiar to recognize the features of his jawline, the face, the nose, the eyes, but also, the style and manner he tied his turbnan.
(TALKING, INDISTINCT) Being from the South Asian culture, I know the idiosyncrasies of how they wear their turbans, kind of how they wear their beards.
They're very distinctive to individuals.
The turban you see in the photos of Mr.
Panghali at the press conference and the suspect at the gas station, that's just not how it's usually done.
Mukhtiar wears his turban kind of in a rounder style.
It's not the traditional formal pointy style.
And most people only wear that round kind of a turban look more so when they're playing sports or being active.
But Mukhtiar chose to wear that turban on a regular basis.
I was sure Mr.
Panghali was the man in the footage before I noticed the turban.
Now I'm positive.
Mr.
Panghali is the man in the footage buying the lighter.
I spent 2 and a half days on the stand.
I was still unsure as to: Had we proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt or not? Mr.
Panghali's behaviour was certainly unexpected and unusual.
His delay in notifying the police would, on its own, have limited significance.
However the possession of the victim's phone as well as the compelling testimony identifying Mr.
Panghali as the man purchasing the lighter on the night of the victim's death, they certainly have significance.
For the reasons I have given, I conclude that the only rational inference is that Mr.
Panghali killed Mrs.
Panghali.
I find Mr.
Panghali guilty of the second-degree murder of Manjit Panghali.
It was a sense of relief.
We had made that silent promise to her, and we fulfilled it.
We got justice for Manjit, but there was also the sadness of the loss.
She seemed to be a good mother, a great sister, friend, loyal, cared about people.
And was a good person.
So I guess we need more of those in the world, right? It's sad when those type of people get taken away.
I think it's a little darker in the world.
Maya became an orphan.
And she lost a mother.
She lost a sister.
And, obviously, her father went to jail.
And so the people that loved her and she loved were no longer in her life.
Thank God for the Basra family and the sister Jasmine, who stepped up, and then eventually adopted her as her own.
I felt for Maya.
And I never told this to the family.
I don't think they know.
But I wanted to honour her, so so I named my daughter Maya.