Man charged in deaths of sibling, mother, mother's partner in B.C. triple homicide

A man has been charged in connection with the deaths of his sibling, mother and mother's common law partner after what police described as a triple-homicide ended in a house fire in Langley, B.C., last month.

Homicide investigators said Monday Kia Ebrahimian, 24, was charged Friday with three counts of second-degree murder in relation to the deaths of his family members.

The bodies of his sibling Befrin, mother, Tatiana Bazyar, and mother's partner, Francesco Zangrilli, were found after a fire at the family home in the Langley Meadows neighbourhood on June 13.

"There is really no other word than tragic to describe what happened inside that Langley home," said Sgt. Frank Jang with the RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

Police said Kia, the accused, walked away from the fire with minimal injuries. Jang said Kia was interviewed "at length" and gave "quite a bit" of information to investigators, but two days after the fire, he was still not considered to be a suspect.

The officer did not elaborate Monday on how Kia was implicated in the triple homicide or what led to his arrest on Friday.

Jang also declined to say whether the victims were killed by the fire or whether they died earlier, except to say the coroner had determined the bodies "had not been there long."

Two dozen firefighters responded to the fire in the the 19600-block of Wakefield Drive, which threatened to spread to two neighbouring homes.

Kia and the victims all lived in the house.

A neighbour previously told CBC News the family had rented the house since 2016 from her former neighbours, who now live in the Okanagan.

Jang said the father of the suspect and the sibling who was killed was not involved in the incident. He said the family was not previously known to police.

Kia is due in court on July 20.