-She was always the one that was responsible.
She was older and wiser than her age.
So, I just remember knowing in my gut
That something had happened.
-A young mother goes missing in surrey, british columbia.
-At that time, we didn't know what we were dealing with.
-All these wild thoughts were going through our head.
-But did she leave on her own?
-There's no signs foul play.
There's no forced entry into the car.
-Or did someone make her disappear?
-Somebody came across what looks like a body.
-As investigators dig deeper into the mystery...
-She was also starting to realize
That some things needed to change.
-She knew that he was her soulmate.
-This could be a love triangle.
-It reveals... A killer relationship.
-How did he get to that point where he lost his humanity?
-That man's a monster.
♪♪
-Manjit and m.P. Panghali live the canadian dream.
As children of south asian immigrants,
They work hard for what they have --
A beautiful home, fulfilling careers,
And a 3-year-old daughter, with another on the way.
But this picture-perfect family is suddenly torn apart
When manjit goes missing.
And the appalling truth about what happened
To this vibrant young mother haunts her loved ones
And mystifies their community.
-Please, we need your help.
My wife needs your help.
My family needs your help.
-The husband, mukhtiar panghali, made the initial report,
Calling the surrey rcmp police station,
The day after his wife, manjit panghali,
Had last been seen.
-He said on the 18th of October, around 6:35 p.M.,
Manjit panghali left for her yoga class,
And she never returned home.
-I remember getting a call.
It was my mother.
She said, "have you heard from manjit?
She didn't come home last night."
We didn't know what had happened to her.
We didn't know.
♪♪
Manjit was always the one that was responsible.
She was older and wiser than her age.
She just had that personality.
We are punjabi sikh.
I was the eldest.
Manjit was born four years later,
And she was the apple of my father's eye.
-Manjit basra grows up just outside of vancouver
In surrey, british columbia.
-Manj came from a very cultural family.
So, they spoke punjabi at home.
Manj would listen to punjabi music,
But she was a free spirit.
In terms of, like, traditional gender roles,
It wasn't that she was ever restricted.
-Our parents both worked very hard.
My dad worked at a steel mill,
And my mom was a laborer at a mushroom farm.
-Parents in punjab had arranged marriages.
But for people growing up here, it would be,
"focus on school.
Don't focus on dating.
When the time comes, [laughing] it's time.
It'll be time."
-Manjit and I attended high school together
And we were quite close.
She was very charismatic
So always smiling, always bubbly,
Always welcoming.
And she always had a passion for children.
She used to tell us, "I'm gonna be a teacher."
We were just determined and driven that way.
-Manjit remains laser-focused
On creating a prosperous life for herself.
And in 1994,
She enrolls at the prestigious university of british columbia.
-As soon as we got to ubc,
Both of us joined the punjabi students association.
This is where we met mukhtiar panghali,
Who we lovingly called m.P.
Gentle giant, very kind,
Tall, handsome man in a turban,
And he was a good student.
So, manjit was immediately attracted to m.P.
-Manjit told me that she had met somebody.
He was three years older than her.
-She'd be like, "sundeep, what do you think?"
I'd be like, "manj, I don't know.
He's older."
And she'd be like,
"but he's so cool. He's so nice."
-Manjit had some crushes in high school,
But she didn't have any boyfriends,
So this really would have been her first real relationship.
You could tell she was very happy.
-By the time we were in our fourth year,
She knew that m.P. Was her soul mate.
-In the summer of 1997,
Manjit turns 22
And marries m.P. In a traditional indian ceremony.
-Manjit looked gorgeous.
M.P. Was glowing.
-The newlyweds settle into their own home in surrey,
Just minutes away from manjit's parents.
While m.P. Teaches high school physics,
Manjit soon makes good on her childhood dream
When she's hired at nearby north ridge elementary.
-Manjit liked to plan her life.
"I'm graduated, I've got a good job,
And now I want to have children."
And in 2003, they had maya.
-Manjit and m.P. Were very good parents.
They took care of that daughter together.
-In our culture,
Usually the dads are a little bit more hands-off.
He was very hands-on with maya.
I remember feeling this is the perfect --
Perfect relationship for her.
And we really felt secure in that she was safe and protected.
-Now, three years later, that security is shattered,
As m.P. Tells the police about what happened
The evening of October 18th.
-Around 6:30, he said manjit went out to the car
To leave for her yoga class.
The last words they said to each other was, "okay, I'm leaving."
"okay, nice, have fun."
He stayed home all night
Because he had his 3-year-old daughter maya.
He puts maya to bed at 8:30.
-By about 9:00 p.M.,
M.P. Says manjit hadn't returned,
Which he thought that was surprising,
That she should have been home.
He said he tried to call her phone numerous times
But there was no answer.
-He figures, perhaps she just went for a tea
With the people from her class.
So, he just waits a little bit longer.
And it was sometime around midnight
That he phoned the ambulance service
To see if they had any reports of accidents
In the area of whalley.
And when they said no, he assumed everything was fine.
So, then he went to bed.
-M.P. Woke up early that morning,
October 19th, expecting manjit to be home.
-But manjit's not there.
And now maya needs to go to preschool,
But he needs to go to work.
-So, he had phoned, his father-in-law, mr. Basra,
To come over and take maya to school.
When mr. Basra arrived, he was concerned, like,
"okay, aren't you worried?"
And m.P. Said, "oh, no, she'll show up.
She's gone away before and come back."
-When my mother told me manjit was missing,
I said, "where's maya?"
She said, "maya's at school."
Right away, I thought something happened to her
'cause she would never leave maya.
-And then, after school,
M.P. Goes to the pub with his fellow teachers.
He said that's something that they would do
And he assumed manjit had come home
And would have grabbed maya.
-But then he says his father-in-law calls him
When he was at brewster's pub
And says, "manjit's not back yet."
-So, then m.P. Ended up driving over
To the basra residence to pick up maya.
The parents are quite concerned, saying,
"you should be calling the police now.
This isn't like her."
And, again m.P. Said,
"I'm not worried. She's done this before."
Then he went home to wait
Because he still thinks that she'll show up.
But when she still wasn't home around midnight,
He phoned the police.
So m.P. Had waited 26 hours to report her missing.
That didn't make sense. Why isn't he more worried?
-In surrey -- population 400,000 --
Six people are reported missing every day.
Typically, they tend to be troubled teens
Or people struggling with mental illness.
But that's not manjit. In fact,
Her life with m.P. Appears to be as stable as it gets...
At least, on the surface.
-2005, that's when we noticed that they were drifting apart.
They were arguing more and more
Over household chores and responsibilities.
-Originally in their relationship,
Everything seemed very equal.
Both of them were going to have careers.
They were going to have a family.
-I think it was very idealistic, for both of them,
To think that, "we're gonna have this
Happily-ever-after married life."
But I think there were subtle shifts in equality,
And she started to realize
That she didn't want to be a subservient punjabi wife.
-Within punjabi culture,
Gender norms are very ingrained and very rigid.
Men were the breadwinners and women were homemakers.
-Punjabi tradition also means manjit has no choice
When m.P. Tells her his younger brother,
Sukhvinder is moving in with them.
-Culturally, it's seen as a duty
That the elder son may have to look after
Their younger siblings.
-It took a big toll on her,
Because there's another person to cook and clean for.
And she was already having problems.
The last thing you want to do is have other people
Living with you, looking in on your marriage.
So, manjit started to really empower herself.
She started reading a lot of self-help books,
Getting involved in yoga,
And being very conscious and mindful.
-For manjit, doing things for herself,
I think, was a radical act
And, I think, something that punjabi women
Aren't encouraged to do enough.
-She was also starting to realize
That some things needed to change.
Eventually manj did put her foot down and say,
"you either need to get rid of him,
Or I'm moving out."
And sukhvinder did end up moving out.
But I think m.P. Felt very disrespected,
Even though he did what she wanted.
-With her brother-in-law out of the house,
Manjit is optimistic life can get back to normal.
-Both of them did see a counselor together.
Things were going in the right direction.
They were starting to repair their relationship.
And then, summer of 2006,
I remember our families, we were camping.
And she said,
"just wanting to let you know that we're having another baby."
She was very happy.
M.P. Seemed very happy, as well.
I was so happy for them. There was hope.
-But only a few months later,
And four months into her pregnancy,
Hope turns to horror.
-This isn't a normal occurrence here in surrey.
You know, a 30-something mother that's pregnant,
That's gone to a yoga class,
Then all of a sudden, she just disappeared.
-There was something that didn't feel right about it.
In my career, I've never investigated
A pregnant woman's disappearance
Where their husband reported them missing
26 hours later.
-All these, like, unreasonable,
Wild thoughts were going through our head.
Maybe she had a miscarriage
And she's hemorrhaging somewhere.
What if, you know, someone raped her
And threw her in the woods?
What if...Someone killed her?
-He was really looking for us to answer this question for him.
Like, "where was my wife?"
-Could she have been leading a secret life?
-Manj, if you're out there, just let us know if you're okay.
Maya needs you. Maya loves you.
I could clearly see a body.
It was badly burned.
Definitely a human.
-What kind of crazy monster would do something like that?
♪♪
-It's Friday, October 20th, and no one has seen
31-year-old schoolteacher manjit panghali
For nearly 36 hours.
After her husband, m.P., files a missing persons report
With surrey police,
The search is on for the young pregnant mother.
-We immediately look at cellphone
As well as bank records.
We talk to family and friends.
You just have to drill back on the last few days
Of that person's life.
-The rcmp actually called manjit's phone
To see if it was ringing anywhere,
And it was out of service.
So, part of the investigation
Was trying to locate that cellphone.
-And we put manjit and her vehicle
Into what we call cpic,
The canadian police information centre,
So that everyone in canada can be aware
That this person is missing.
-While m.P. Remains home
To look after their 3-year-old daughter, maya,
Manjit's friends and family gather at the basra residence.
-When we arrived at manjit's parents' house,
People were crying.
And I remember just feeling empty.
-My father and my mother were just...
You know, just in a state of shock.
I just remember knowing in my gut
That something had happened.
-With little to go on,
The investigators try to retrace manjit's steps
Based on m.P.'s missing person's report.
-This yoga class was something
We're obviously going to check in on
Because that is the last place she was going to be seen.
But we found out there was no yoga class
In the area of whalley on Wednesday evening,
Which I thought was interesting.
So, I called m.P. And asked him to come in
To speak with me about this case.
And he was happy enough to do so.
He seemed very professional, calm, courteous.
I said, "okay, let's talk about the yoga class."
And he had said that for the last four weeks,
She had been going every Wednesday night
To this prenatal yoga class at the whalley library.
And I had told him we had checked,
And there was no yoga class at the whalley library,
Or anywhere in that vicinity.
Immediately, he seemed upset because he couldn't figure out
Where his wife had been every Wednesday,
If this didn't exist.
And he was really looking for us as the police officers
To answer this question for him.
Like, "where was my wife?"
-The investigators wonder the same thing.
They press m.P. For details about his marriage to manjit.
-M.P. Said, "she's done this before.
I don't know where she is,
But she's gone away before and come back."
-He started off with telling me for the last two years
Manjit was not happy with his drinking
And how they had gone to a counselor
About m.P.'s alcohol usage.
And he said on two different occasions,
Manjit has left the house because of a fight.
One was, she went to her parents' home
For a matter of three to four days.
Another time, she went to the sheraton for a night.
But then the follow-up question is,
"well, so, was there a fight?"
And he said no,
Not in the days leading up to her disappearing.
-But what m.P. Divulges next is even more surprising.
-He says, "well, I think she's actually cheating on me
With a high school friend of hers named tony phunal."
Almost suggesting that, "yeah,
She's probably somewhere with tony, for all I know."
-Is this possible?
Could manjit really be living a double life?
And did she run away with a man from her past?
-So, I ask m.P. About tony,
And what I learn is that tony and manjit
Hadn't seen each other for years.
-Tony got married as well, and then,
About a year or so before this incident occurred,
Tony and manjit had re-acquainted over social media.
First, they used to mostly have phone calls,
And a lot of it was tony having his own issues
In his own marriage,
And he was trying to reach out to manjit to get advice.
-Then m.P. Started talking about how tony and manjit
Would go for dinner.
And he believed manjit would try extra hard
To look great for these dinners.
And the speed of his language was becoming more rapid,
Like, "why, why, why, why, why?"
Like, "I'm a man, and when a man takes a married woman
Out for dinner and pays for it, that is a date.
That is not a shoulder to cry on."
So, he's getting emotional about it.
Then m.P. Ended up telling me that it took them over a year
To get pregnant with this new baby.
He said, at one point, manjit yelled at him and said,
"you know, I have other people that can get me pregnant."
-The interview lasts 90 minutes, and by its end,
The investigators must consider some alarming questions.
-Did this yoga class even exist?
Has manjit run off with tony?
Is this not m.P.'s baby?
-Could she have been leading a secret life?
Absolutely. We had to find out.
♪♪
-Two and a half days after manjit panghali disappears,
Her husband, m.P., stuns the police.
He believes his young, pregnant wife
Is having an affair with an old high school friend
Named tony phunal.
-After my interview with m.P.,
I wasn't honestly sure what to make with the tony situation.
This could be a love triangle.
So, we delve into tony.
-Tony was interviewed by the surrey rcmp,
And they asked what's his relationship to manjit.
Could it be possible that he that he was the father
Of manjit's unborn child?
He said, "no, there was no sexual relationship."
Then he was asked what's his alibi
For the night that manjit went missing?
October 18th, he said he was with his wife that evening.
They were together at home.
During that interview, tony seemed to be nervous
That his wife may come home when he was being interviewed.
Maybe his wife would also think,
"okay, is there something going on here?"
So, now the investigators, we're wondering,
"okay, is he telling us the full truth,
Or is there possibly something more to this?"
-Monday morning marks day five since manjit disappeared.
Hoping the case gains exposure,
Her desperate family holds a televised press conference
At surrey police headquarters.
This is completely out of character for her.
She wouldn't leave her daughter. She wouldn't leave her family.
She was so excited to be pregnant.
The press conference was extremely difficult.
Even though we still had hope,
We knew something really bad had happened to her.
Manj, if you're out there, we need you,
We love you, call us, call the police,
Just let us know if you're okay.
Maya needs you. Maya loves you.
-Please, we need your help.
Thank you.
-That same morning,
Unbeknownst to m.P. And the rest of manjit's family members,
The police discover a gruesome scene 20 miles away.
-Monday, October 23rd,
We get advised that there might be something suspicious
Down at the deltaport causeway.
-It was an area people frequented
To walk, to hang out.
Kids would party there on weekends,
But it is remote enough that it takes a bit to get out to.
-Somebody was out there walking their dog
And then came across what looks like a body.
-It was kind of a built-up area with rocks,
Almost like a makeshift fireplace,
And I could clearly see a body.
It was badly burned. Definitely a human.
Appeared to be a female.
But the state of the body wasn't such
That you could identify a face or even clothing.
The fire had caused significant damage.
And it smelled like fuel, like gasoline,
So we believe there was some accelerant that was used.
This was obviously a homicide.
-At that time, we didn't know what we were dealing with.
But there was a natural connection to,
"oh, could this be manjit panghali
That's missing from surrey?"
-The detectives won't know for sure
Until they can perform a full autopsy
And check dental records.
Later that afternoon, around 2:00 p.M.,
There is another critical discovery.
-The vehicle in question has been located.
-Manjit's vehicle was found about
10 kilometers from her home
On a side road
In the whalley area of surrey.
-There's no signs of foul play.
There's no forced entry into the car.
There was no purse or cellphone
Or any other effects associated to her.
It just looked like the car was parked
And somebody had walked away from it.
-Now, the whole question was,
Did manjit park that vehicle there,
And did she run away from home?
We don't know the story.
-The investigators make arrangements
To have manjit's car impounded and brought to their crime lab.
Two days later, on Wednesday, October 25th,
The coroner performs an autopsy on the burned body
Found at the deltaport causeway.
-The autopsy determined that it was a female.
The female was four months pregnant with a female fetus.
-They were able to actually confirm the identity
Via dental records that their deceased was manjit panghali.
At that point,
The pathologist needs to determine cause of death
And take samples from the fetus
For a dna comparison to determine paternity.
That's something we had to find out.
Was m.P. Or tony phunal
The father of manjit's unborn child?
[ train horn blares ]
-One week after 31-year-old manjit panghali vanishes,
An autopsy confirms
The body found on the deltaport causeway is indeed manjit.
Now the medical examiner focuses on the cause of death.
-In this case, the key findings were
Contusions at the sides of the neck
And that the hyoid bone was broken.
-The cause of death was strangulation.
The pathologist had said it would have taken
Considerable force to break that type of a bone
In somebody's neck,
So there's a lot of rage and anger there.
It was also determined that the body was burned postmortem,
After they were dead.
-Next, the investigators must determine
The father of manjit's unborn baby girl.
Is it her husband of nearly 10 years, m.P. Panghali,
Or tony phunal,
The man m.P. Believes was having an affair with his wife?
-At the autopsy, we did draw a tissue sample from the fetus
That we sent off for a dna comparison
To determine paternity.
-After we had done the autopsy,
We needed to notify the family.
Obviously, it was going to be emotional.
-I advised m.P. That the deceased body
That we found was, in fact, his wife, manjit panghali.
M.P. Started crying, as you'd expect.
I mean, this is beyond believable news.
-At the same time, we have other investigators
Over at manjit's parents' house, the basra family,
Who are conducting the next of kin there as well.
-They came in and told us all together.
Her body's been found, and it's been burnt.
I didn't know what to do with it.
I just sat and just cried.
What kind of crazy monster would do something like that?
-Why would somebody want to hurt manjit?
She was such a beautiful person, a beautiful soul.
-We were all in such a state of, like, trauma and disbelief.
And so many questions.
-At this point in our investigation,
Obviously, the husband, mukhtiar panghali,
Was a potential suspect.
He had motive.
He thought his wife was unfaithful with tony,
And he couldn't take that, to have that shame.
In the punjabi culture, a lot of it is about public perception,
What would the community think?
And if people saw tony and manjit at a restaurant,
You know, that shame would be very hard
For someone like m.P. To take.
-But from the tony phunal side of it,
If they were having an affair,
This could be motive for him.
Could this be a matter of manjit had a relationship
Outside the marriage, and that went sideways,
And she ended up losing her life?
We have to investigate that.
-We went back to speak to tony.
Again, he said he was with his wife
That evening of October 18th.
Then we asked tony, could manjit's baby be his child?
And he adamantly denied that
And again indicated that it was a platonic relationship.
But we still hadn't eliminated him.
We wanted to make sure he was not the father
Of the unborn child,
Which is going to take several weeks.
-Later that same day, Thursday, October 26th,
The police finally locate manjit's yoga class.
-Because the story was so prevalent in the media,
One of the participants
At the yoga class that manjit did attend
Ended up contacting us.
And it turned out the yoga studio
Was in south surrey,
Not in the whalley area
Where m.P. Had thought she was.
He had gotten it confused.
-So, totally different directions.
Quite a distance apart.
-We verified from talking to participants at the yoga class
That manjit did show up at 6:30 that evening,
And she had last been seen leaving around 8:30,
Driving out of the parking lot
Towards the direction of her house.
Now we started gathering surveillance video
From all of the roadways
That manjit could have traveled that day.
It was probably over 80 kilometers of roadway.
And we were really focusing on gas stations
Because we knew that an accelerant had been used
To burn her body
Because you could smell gasoline at the scene
Down at the deltaport causeway.
So, the gasoline had to come from somewhere.
-With hundreds of hours of video to search,
It's a long shot that might not pay off.
Meanwhile, on Monday, October 30th,
Nearly two weeks after manjit went missing,
Her family and friends gather to mourn their loss.
-I remember walking into that funeral home.
M.P. Was crying, and I was crying.
And I was thinking about maya,
This young, beautiful, gentle soul
That her mom had raised with such love and care.
What was gonna happen to maya?
-Three weeks after the memorial,
The investigators continue to comb through
The surveillance footage
Until finally, they come across something suspicious.
-One of our investigators,
He pulled the video from the chevron gas station
At 176 and 64th avenue.
-The chevron gas station is a couple blocks
From where manjit panghali and m.P. Live.
-When he gets around 15 minutes after midnight,
He sees what appears to be m.P. Come into this gas station.
-M.P. Said the night that manjit went missing,
He never left the house.
He stayed home all night with maya.
And here he is on video,
At a gas station just after midnight.
-We're able to actually see him come up to the counter
And makes a purchase.
-He's buying a newspaper and a lighter.
He's not a smoker. What do you need a lighter for
At 1:00 in the morning?
-This was huge.
This was a definite game-changer.
He needed those items to start the fire.
-This is going to blow his alibi out of the water.
-We're able to show manjit's phone was currently active.
-That was the missing piece.
It's just a matter of time. We're coming.
We're gonna get you, you son of a bitch.
♪♪
-In late November 2006,
One month after the brutal murder of manjit panghali,
The police discover potentially stunning new evidence --
Surveillance video from the night manjit went missing
Of what appears to be her husband, m.P.,
Buying a newspaper and a lighter at a nearby gas station.
-It's two blocks from his house. Looks like him.
He's buying stuff that would be used to burn a body.
But it was a bit of a blurred picture.
And so, subsequently,
We have a forensic specialist look at the surveillance video.
He's able to do a side-by-side comparison
Using the video from the press conference,
And in his professional opinion,
He believed that that was mukhtiar panghali.
It's just circumstantial. But my god,
For the first time I felt,
It's just a matter of time, we're coming.
We're gonna get you, you son of a bitch.
You're on video.
-As the investigators continue
To build their case against m.P.,
They finally receive the lab results
They've been eagerly awaiting.
-Scientifically, we did prove through dna,
The father of the unborn child was mukhtiar panghali.
But at that point we weren't gonna share that with m.P.
Because we wanted to use it later
To see how he would react
And maybe get a confession out of him.
-With tony phunal, it was pretty clear-cut.
He was just a good friend of manjit.
There's nothing there to indicate
A romantic relationship.
And we're able to determine
That he wasn't involved in manjit panghali's death.
-So, now we've eliminated tony,
And things are starting to move on m.P.
-As horrifying as it sounds,
The police are confident m.P. Strangled his pregnant wife
And burned her body.
But the motive is still unclear.
Is it possible m.P. Didn't believe the baby was his?
Did that cause him to snap?
-You do wonder, how did he get to that point
Where he lost his humanity?
-Honor is such a big thing in the punjabi community,
And infidelity is seen as a huge wrongdoing.
But, specifically, if a woman is the one responsible
For the infidelity,
It comes back to the honor of her husband.
So, if there was an assumption on m.P.'s part
That manjit was unfaithful to the marriage --
Even just based on how he perceived it,
Not based on the reality of the situation --
That could've led him to manjit's ultimate murder.
-The police zero in on m.P.,
But right now, all they have is a theory,
Grainy video, and a paternity test.
To make an arrest, they need evidence
That directly links m.P. To the murder.
-We try to use cellphone information
To give us the whereabouts and location of individuals,
And obviously the cellphone hadn't been recovered.
-We never found it at the scene. There's no indication it burned.
The whole question was, was that cellphone used
After she left the yoga studio?
And so, manjit's cellphone records were analyzed,
And we were able to determine
That she was actually using her phone
On the night of the 18th, around 6:30 p.M.,
When she left the house.
-She made a series of four phone calls
To the landline of the panghali residence.
-They ranged anywhere from 30 seconds
To almost two minutes in duration,
Which was kind of interesting
Because m.P. Indicated he had not spoken to manjit at all
After she had left the residence to the yoga class.
We also could determine that after about 7:00 p.M.,
That phone number was never in use again.
-With manjit's final call,
The detectives have reached the limit
Of what they can learn from her phone records.
So, they go outside of law enforcement,
Looking for help.
-We're not technical people.
So, we then brought in experts
From our telecom companies.
-We asked, is there any other way through their system
That we could try to track down this phone?
And they started telling me about something called imei's.
It stands for international mobile equipment identity.
-It's basically the serial number of the phone itself.
-They're able to determine that the distinct imei
That was associated to manjit's phone was currently active.
Even more significant, manjit's phone
Was actually using the phone number
Associated to m.P.'s phone.
-We determined the sim card
That's attached to m.P.'s phone number
Gets inserted into the phone hardware of manjit
On October 19th, the day after manjit is missing.
-M.P. Was actually using her phone.
Even during the press conference,
He had that phone in his pocket.
-It was an a-ha moment
Because there's no other explanation
For that phone to be in his possession.
He had to have gotten it from manjit.
Manjit came home that night,
And he was the only one that had the opportunity
To kill her.
That was the missing piece that we were looking for.
-The investigators get a warrant to seize m.P.'s cellphone.
-We were able to physically confirm the imei number.
-On the morning of Monday, March 12th, 2007,
After an exhaustive five-month investigation,
The police take m.P. Panghali into custody
As he exits his home.
-He was arrested for the murder of manjit panghali.
He was told at that time that, "you just didn't kill your wife,
You killed your unborn child,"
Just, obviously, see if that would rattle him.
Because if he did what he did,
Believing that it wasn't his child,
And now he knew, wouldn't there be some reaction?
Like, "oh, my god. What have I done?"
-No reaction. Just stone-faced.
-That same day, March 12th,
The police also notify the basra family
Of m.P.'s arrest.
And the heartbreaking significance of the date
Is lost on no one.
-Today is...
Would have been my sister's due date.
We should be in the hospital right now,
Welcoming the newest member of our family.
-I remember crying, thinking,
"I can't believe that m.P. Murdered my friend."
But that man is not the man that I met at university.
That man's a monster.
-There is a lot of self-reflection,
Like, "what did we miss?
Where did things go wrong?"
Because I never, ever would have thought
That he would have strangled her to death...
Knowing that she was pregnant with his child.
-In November 2010,
Four years after manjit's murder,
M.P.'s trial begins in british columbia supreme court.
But the outcome is far from certain.
-In canada, it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt.
It's a high threshold,
And the burden of proof is on the prosecutor.
-It would have been nice if you had dna
And a video of him killing her.
We didn't have any of that.
-So, yeah, we were worried.
We didn't have a smoking gun. We had no confession.
-We knew it was him.
It was just do you have enough evidence to prove it?
♪♪
-On November 15, 2010,
M.P. Panghali stands trial for second-degree murder.
The stakes are high, especially in canada,
Where "reasonable doubt" lies on a razor thin line
Between less than absolute certainty,
But more than probable guilt.
For manjit's family,
Who have been waiting four long years for justice,
The possibility of m.P. Being found not guilty
Is more than they can bear.
-I remember being in a deep state of anxiety...
...Because if he got off,
Then he would take maya.
♪♪
-It was our belief that he was jealous.
He thought she was having an affair.
And she returned from yoga,
And there was some sort of confrontation.
He lashed out and he killed her.
-A motive is nice,
But there's no need in canada to show a motive.
Ultimately at the trial,
I had to prove that he killed her in a way
That he knew was likely to cause her death,
Because it's his state of mind
That elevates it from manslaughter
To second-degree murder.
The key piece of circumstantial evidence was the autopsy.
She had been strangled in a way
That broke the hyoid bone in her neck.
And the force applied was so significant
That any idiot would know it's likely to cause death.
-The trial lasts three weeks.
Then, on February 4th, 2011, the verdict is returned.
-M.P. Was found guilty of second-degree murder.
-It was a huge, just relief and burden weight
Off a lot of people's shoulders.
-On March 17th, 2011,
The judge sentences m.P. To life in prison,
But with the possibility of parole.
And in October 2023,
The parole board grants his full release.
Today, after serving 16 years, m.P. Is a free man.
-When they say life, he didn't actually get life.
Compared to somebody who can't come back,
Is 16 years -- is that justice?
It's not justice.
-I think it's unfair.
But manjit's legacy... Should not be her murder.
I want people to remember manjit being the light in the room,
For being kind and being a beautiful mother
Who was able to raise maya with such love and care.
-We fought for custody of maya
'cause that's what manj would have wanted.
And manjit would be so proud of maya right now.
-Maya is like her mom.
She's a beautiful, charismatic young woman.
-She's really blossomed.
She reminds me so much of manj in so many ways.
So, it's kind of like having her there.
-Manjit panghali was a doting mother and a loving wife,
With a bright future ahead of her.
But that future was snatched away
By a man fueled by misplaced jealousy
And blind rage.
M.P.'s early parole means
His "life" sentence is anything but...
Unlike manjit, who fell victim to a killer relationship.