Mohammed Arif Ansari, 27, is charged with second-degree murder in the 2022 deaths of Coquitlam couple Kiesha Garie and Umair Kasim.

Four years is a long time for a family to wait, and Garie's family said so publicly, including a protest outside RCMP headquarters in February. The delay has an explanation that matters for how to read this charge: B.C. prosecutors approve charges only when they see a substantial likelihood of conviction, a higher bar than in most U.S. courtrooms. That bar has now been cleared on paper. The evidence behind it has not been tested in court.

Mohammed Arif Ansari, 27, has been arrested and charged in the 2022 homicides of Kiesha Garie, 31, and Umair Kasim, 30, a Coquitlam, British Columbia, couple whose bodies were found inside a car in Burnaby, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. Two counts of second-degree murder and one count of indignity to human remains were approved against him, according to IHIT, as reported by CBC News, CityNews Vancouver, CTV News and the Vancouver Sun.

Burnaby RCMP found the bodies on Oct. 17, 2022, inside a vehicle near Ecole Alpha Secondary School, in the area of Alpha Avenue and Venables Street. The Vancouver Sun reported a passerby spotted them around 1:45 p.m. The couple had been reported missing to Coquitlam RCMP a few days earlier. Investigators said the homicides were targeted and that the victims and the accused knew each other.

"This was a complex investigation that demanded years of dedicated work by investigators who were committed to finding answers," IHIT Sgt. Freda Fong said, according to the Vancouver Sun. "Through the persistent pursuit of multiple investigative avenues and the meticulous examination of evidence, this case has reached a significant milestone with the approval of charges." The Vancouver Sun reported that police attributed much of the delay to the high threshold the B.C. Prosecution Service sets before approving charges, which requires a substantial likelihood of conviction.

Garie's family pushed for answers throughout the investigation. The Vancouver Sun reported that with few publicly released leads, her family started a Facebook group to draw attention to the case, which later became the subject of a true crime podcast. In February, Garie's mother, Christine Angelis, protested outside RCMP headquarters in Surrey, telling the Tri-Cities Dispatch that the pain of losing her daughter had been compounded by the agonizing wait for justice.

Investigators have not publicly described the evidence that led to the charges or a motive. Ansari's next court date was not included in the initial reports. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and in Canada the Crown must prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt.