Quebec coroner's inquiry into murder-suicide of Montreal family opens

A coroner's inquest will begin today into the 2019 killings of a Montreal woman and her two young children, as well as the death of her husband who is believed to have killed them before taking his own life.

The inquiry was ordered after a coroner's report that was critical of prosecutors and a provincial judge, saying they could have done more to prevent the deaths of Dahia Khellaf, 42, and her sons, four-year-old Adam and two-year-old Aksil.

Coroner Alain Manseau concluded they had been strangled to death and Nabil Yssaad was likely the killer.

The couple had separated at the time of the killing and Khellaf was in the process of divorcing her husband.

Yssaad, 46, died after he jumped from a sixth-floor window at a hospital northeast of Montreal a day before the bodies were discovered.

Without providing details, Quebec's chief coroner said in July 2022 that new facts had come to light that required further investigation.

The inquiry is expected to last over two weeks and will be presided over by coroner Andree Kronström at the courthouse in Joliette, Que., northeast of Montreal.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 23, 2023.