Brenda Doria Domingo moved to the quiet Burnaby neighbourhood in B.C. three months ago, happy she had found her dream environment to raise a family. The 27-year-old had given up a promising career as a systems analyst with Intel in Arizona to realize the dream with her husband, Bernard and their newborn daughter Breanne. But the dream of a new life in a safe place was shattered on the afternoon of Tuesday Nov 4. That was when Bernard Domingo returned to his apartment at the 7100 block of Linden Avenue in Burnaby to find his wife stabbed to death and their baby left unattended.
Within hours of the 911 call, police were on the trail of the suspect - 56-year-old William Patrick Turpin of Burnaby - a former resident of the same building. The next day he was charged with Brenda Domingo's murder. Police have said little else about the murder - only the second this year in Burnaby - a far cry from the U.S. city the Domingos had left. "My wife gave up a good job. We chose Canada because we thought it was a nice country, a peaceful country. We wanted to raise our children here," Bernard, an electronics and communications engineer in the Philippines, said in a published interview.
Brenda, was pregnant with Breanne when the couple arrived in Vancouver last February. For five months they lived with a friend before moving into the Burnaby apartment. "We can think of one hundred million ways how that incident could have been avoided. But it could not be avoided, it had to happen. It has a purpose," he continued. "I believe God is with me, my wife is with God now." said Bernard, 28, who has returned to the Philippines to bury his 'Brends' in her hometown of San Carlos, Pangasinan.
The senseless murder comes on the heels of what looks like the random killing of Renato Tibay, of New Westminister, B.C. Tibay, a machine operator at a paper manufacturing facility, was repeatedly knifed Sept. 13 by an unknown assailant as he walked toward his home close to midnight after visiting friends. The church-going Tibay left behind a wife, Alicia, and three children, Kristian, 21, Kristine, 15, and 11-year-old Krista. Police have no solid leads on the case but have issued a composite sketch of a male suspect, described as Caucasian, in his mid-20s, with a slight build and dark hair.
Tibay, a native of Sta. Rosa, Laguna, arrived in Canada with Alicia in 1983. He was a long-time member of St. Peter's Parish in New Westminster and the Knights of Columbus. The senseless murders have shocked B.C.'s Filipino community, said Tom Avendano president of the Vancouver-based Multicultural Helping House Society, a not-for-profit immigrant support group run mostly by Filipinos-Canadians. The society organized a fund raising driving last week to help Bernard Domingo return with his wife's remains to the Philippines. The Domingos had few friends and no relatives in B.C., but the efforts of the community to help the new immigrant family drew almost 800 people for Brenda Domingo's funeral service in Surrey last week.
"It was a good fundraising effort, the collection was more than enough to send the body back to Philippines," said Avendano. "They were starting a new life, her husband had just found a new job. Brenda was not working, she had a new baby, but she was starting to look around for a job." "Brenda was a very bright and educated person, her husband said she was even smarter than him. "We keep on wondering why this tragedy occurred There are many rumours going around about the suspect," he told The Asian Pacific Post. Avendano said he and other community leaders are looking to call the attention of the government to Brenda Domingo's murder.
"Who wants to live next to someone who has a criminal record We are looking into holding a rally to raise awareness to this kind of issue," he said. Avendano said he is still haunted by what Bernard Domingo told him before leaving for the Philippines with his wife's body and their baby. "He told me he always believed that Canada was a peaceful place and that they could fulfill their dreams here, but now he does not want to come back. "I could not answer him," said Avendano "I have been asked many times why is this happening I just tell them we have no answer for that." "We need to come together now as a community and work together and help the government and the RCMP so they can help us," he said.
