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‘I Can’t Even Process It’: Father Charged With Murdering His Two Sons
It wasn't immediately clear that Edwin Bastidas' sons Jonathan and Nicolas were the victims of foul play, but investigators eventually determined their deaths to be suspicious.
A Canadian man has been arrested with the murder of his two young sons after the boys’ mother found the children unresponsive in their home.
Edwin Bastidas, 52, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder for the death of his sons Jonathan, 12, and Nicolas, 8, according to the Brampton Guardian.
The boys' mother found them inside their home in Brampton, a Toronto suburb, on Wednesday night, according to the Toronto Sun. Both parents lived in the home with the boys and their maternal aunt.
“They’re a wonderful family,” neighbor Paula Da Silva, who also taught the boys, told the Brampton Guardian. “I can’t even process it.”
The exact cause of death for the boys has not been released; it wasn't immediately clear that they had been murdered.
"When we attended, we didn't find any obvious signs of trauma to the children," Peel Regional Police Const. Heather Cannon said, according to the Guardian. "It was a little bit later on that it was determined to be a suspicious death in both cases."
A possible motive for the boys’ deaths has not been released.
The boys’ death has left their mother devastated.
“The grieving mom is also not clear about why this happened. Nobody is,” an unnamed police source told the Toronto Sun.
Both boys were students at Bonaventure Catholic Elementary School. Counseling has been offered to their classmates, according to the CBC.
“If this is indeed a case, domestic or familial related homicides, it is unfathomable,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown tweeted Thursday. “As a parent, I just can’t comprehend this. The crisis that led to this is yet unknown. But our whole community is grieving.”
