Victim in Montreal double homicide identified; suspect was spouse, father

A Quebec group supporting conjugal violence victims has identified the woman killed in a double homicide in Montreal earlier this week. 

Ansuya Patel, 56, was found dead in her Lachine home Thursday morning, along with her 12-year-old daughter.

The body of Patel’s 59-year-old spouse was discovered hours later in the Lachine Canal. Police said he was the only suspect in the killings and now consider the case closed.

Housing records reveal his name was Mukesh Patel.

Police have yet to officially reveal the victims' identities, but SOS violence conjugale confirmed the woman was Ansuya Patel in a social media post. 

"Again. This time, with her 12-year-old daughter. The violence is real, and so is the victims' fear for themselves and their children," the group wrote on Facebook Friday.

MAN'S BODY FOUND IN CANAL

Mukesh Patel's body was spotted Thursday by passersby near Des Iroquois Road, which juts out onto the waters near the Lachine Marina, where the canal meets the St. Lawrence River.

Investigators were conducting marine searches that afternoon because the family vehicle was spotted parked on Du Musée Road near the water's edge.

"We confirm that the man found lifeless in the water had a conjugal relationship with the 56-year-old woman and a parental relationship with the 12-year-old girl," SPVM spokesperson Julien Lévesque said Thursday night.

The case began at 12:15 a.m. after police received a call from concerned relatives about multiple missing people. Officers were directed to a residence on Terrasse J.-S.-Aimé-Ashby, the street that borders Renaissance Park, where they discovered the inanimate bodies of Ansuya Patel and her daughter inside. 

They were declared dead on the scene. 

A VIOLENT WEEK

Their deaths marked the 17th and 18th homicides of 2023 on the Island of Montreal in what has been a particularly violent week.

There have been four homicides in the city since Monday alone; a 45-year-old man was found shot dead inside a car in Montreal North on Wednesday, and on Monday evening, a 42-year-old man was fatally stabbed in the Mile End. 

It's also not the first time in recent memory that a Montreal-area father appears to have taken his own child's life.

In September, a man from the South Shore was charged with the murders of his wife and two children, ages five and two. 

About a month later, in Laval, another man was charged with the murders of his 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.

According to SOS violence conjugale, Ansuya Patel's killing is Quebec's third femicide of 2023. 

Placeholder: Support for victims of domestic violence id: 7.758171

With files from The Canadian Press.