Calgary police have confirmed a 37-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two children, whose bodies were found in the city’s northwest on Thursday.
In a press conference on Friday afternoon, Staff Sgt. Mark Rahn of the Calgary Police Service Homicide Unit identified the man as the father of the two children, a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.
He was arrested around 10 a.m. Thursday after he called 911 and the responding officers located the bodies of the two children inside a vehicle in the 4300 block of 14th Street Northwest.
“He was arrested at the scene,” said Rahn. “He was brought back to our investigative building, where he was interviewed, and he provided a statement confessing to what had occurred.”
Police said the man, who can’t be identified because of a court order had been involved in a six year domestic relationship with the children’s mother for about a year, but they had been separated for about a year and shared custody of the two children.
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“There was no protective order in place. The couple had a domestic history with the Calgary Police Service on four instances. We have attended their, communal address in the past. No charges were ever laid out of any of those domestic investigations. But there was never any violence against the children,” said Rahn.
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Calgary homicide unit investigating after the bodies of 2 young children found in vehicle
Police have also released more details of the timeline of what happened.
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According to investigators, the man picked up the children after arranging it with their mother at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
“He was going to take them out for a few hours to spend some time with them,” said Rahn. “There were no indications of any anything untoward at that point in time. He removed the children, and when they didn’t return, she became concerned and contacted the police.”
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Rahn said police attempted to contact the man, but he didn’t answer his phone and it “went straight to voicemail.”
Investigators allege the man travelled west of the city on Wednesday evening and claim the children were killed shortly before midnight, although they haven’t released any details about the cause of their death.
He is believed to have returned to Calgary around 8 a.m. on Thursday, before calling 911 about two hours later.
“He was compliant with the 9-1-1 operator and following directions,” said Rahn. “He was compliant with the officers on scene who placed him under arrest and he was also compliant during the interview process.”
When the man failed to return with his children on Wednesday evening, police claim they advised the mother to obtain a court order.
“Some sort of court order, parental order that may, you know, enable the police to have powers to return the children to her if that’s what was agreed upon in the court,” said Rahn. “And that’s where we found her the following day to break the news to her.”
Rahn said the case has also been incredibly difficult on investigators.
“The death of a child and investigating a death of a child and discovering dead children is incredibly traumatic for everyone,” said Rahn. “Not just for us, but for the other first responders, EMS that attended, our medical examiners, everyone in the autopsies — that’s incredibly difficult.”
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An autopsy on the children was scheduled for Friday.
The accused also appeared in court on Friday and was remanded in custody.
He is set to appear in court again next week for a bail hearing.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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