Police suspected 'murder-suicide' in Prince Rupert family's deaths: B.C. official

Murder-suicide suspected

Photo: The Canadian Press

A snowy mountain top is seen in Prince Rupert, B.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

An official with the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development says police told her office that a couple and their two young sons had died of a suspected murder-suicide in Prince Rupert, days after the father was released from apprehension under the Mental Health Act.

The testimony at a coroners inquest by Julie Furlaino, director of operations for the ministry in the region, offers the first description of how Christopher Duong, Janet Nguyen and their children might have died in 2023.

Duong had been detained under the Mental Health Act and brought to Prince Rupert Regional Hospital after being pulled over with his family in a pickup truck at 2 a.m., telling police they had to keep driving or they would be killed in a "hit."

The inquest heard Duong was released a few hours after he was admitted, but on June 13, all four members of the family were found dead.

Furlaino, who was asked to clarify what information police had provided for the ministry's "case review" form, testified that the family was suspected to have died "of the murder-suicide."

A doctor testifying at the inquest said earlier Wednesday that Duong told him in a June 10 psychiatric assessment that he had no suicidal or homicidal intent, and he was sickened by the discovery of their bodies three days later.

Dr. Gerald Belgardt, who was Christopher Duong's longtime family physician as well as a doctor at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital, told the inquest that Duong was "very friendly and calm and co-operative" in the assessment at the hospital on June 10, 2023.

Belgardt said he was shocked to later learn of the deaths.

"I was devastated, shocked, surprised, sick to my stomach. I'm still sick every day when I think about it — for two and a half years now," he said on Wednesday on the third day of the inquest in Burnaby, B.C.

"This is going to affect me every day for the rest of my life."