This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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STATEMENT OF DEPUTY CHIEF WARREN LEMCKE, INVESTIGATION DIVISION
Wasn’t she beautiful!
Her name was Poonam Randhawa. She was known and loved by those who knew her for her bright smile and bubbly spirit.
It was that spirit that kept her parents going after losing their son to illness in 1996.
But on January 26, 1999, they would lose this light in their lives.
On that day, just after their daughter had turned 18, a man would take her in his car to a deserted part of a street near her school and shoot her to death.
Police always suspected that the killer was Ninderjit Singh, a man she knew who had apparently been stalking her for years.
Her murder would launch one of the longest police hunts in the VPD’s history.
His picture was run on the show, America’s Most Wanted more than a decade ago.
We almost caught him once in California, but he fled just minutes before we arrived. But we never stopped looking for him.
Today, I get to make an announcement from this podium and I can’t remember when any announcement has ever given me this much pleasure.
We got him.
After years of searching, near misses and heartbreaking attempts…we got him.
In a moment I will ask Inspector Brad Desmarais to give you more details, but I just want to say how proud I am of the VPD team that never gave up. In a world where everyone wants instant gratification it is all too easy to abandon cases that aren’t solved quickly.
We wouldn’t let that happen to Miss Randhawa and her family, or any victim of a crime.
I also want to thank our partners in the United States who helped us catch this man.
STATEMENT OF INSPECTOR BRAD DESMARAIS, MAJOR CRIME SECTION
I would first like to add my congratulations to our team. I would also like to once again express our Department’s heartfelt sympathy to the Randhawa family on the loss of their daughter. I am hoping that today’s announcement gives them some small sense of closure.
On August 19th, 2011, in Riverside County, California, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations agents and officers from the Santa Monica Police Department and El Monte Police Department, aided by Vancouver Police homicide detectives, arrested Ninderjit Singh on a Provisional Warrant for the 1999 murder of Poonam Randhawa in Vancouver.
On January 26th, 1999, 18 year old Vancouver resident and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School student Poonam Randhawa was found murdered in a lane near Granville Street and West 47th Avenue in Vancouver. VPD Homicide investigators began an investigation to discover who had committed this senseless crime.
On January 29th, 1999, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ninderjit Singh for the first degree murder of Poonam Randhawa.
The VPD investigation determined that within hours of the murder, Ninderjit Singh had boarded a plane in Seattle, Washington, bound for Los Angeles, California, where he had family connections on his mother’s side. Singh had previously lived in California in 1998 and worked at an uncle’s gas station.
By the year 2000, investigators believed that Ninderjit Singh was living in an apartment in San Jose, California. Surveillance was conducted, but it is believed Singh became aware of the police presence and fled before he could be arrested.
Ninderjit Singh was featured on the TV show America’s Most Wanted and was the focus of numerous media appeals. Investigators received numerous tips and followed up leads from across North America over the next twelve and a half years but Ninderjit Singh was never located.
A core group of Vancouver Police investigators never gave up. They continued to aggressively search for Ninderjit Singh over the years. It was believed that Ninderjit Singh had assumed a false identity, had changed his appearance and was working as a long haul truck driver.
Several weeks ago, VPD investigators became aware of a name that Ninderjit Singh had possibly assumed as his false identity. They contacted Homeland Security Investigations at the US Consulate in Vancouver, who immediately made available numerous resources required by homicide investigators.
An intensive investigation began, which involved Homeland Security Investigations agents based in Los Angeles and VPD homicide investigators working in Southern California. As a result, investigators focused on a residence in Riverside County, California, approximately a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles.
On Friday, August 19th, 2011, investigators located Ninderjit Singh at work in Irvine, California, but he had altered his appearance so much that investigators needed to be able to confirm his identity.
Around 11:30 am that same day, investigators arranged for a California Highway Patrol officer to pull over Ninderjit Singh, who was driving a big rig, and issue him a ticket. Ninderjit Singh’s thumbprints were obtained during the traffic stop. The thumbprints were rushed to a local police department to be compared to the fingerprints held by VPD homicide investigators.
By 1:15 pm, investigators had what they needed: a confirmed fingerprint match. They had determined that the thumbprints taken from the truck driver in Irvine, California matched those of Ninderjit Singh.
Just after 2:00 pm, another traffic stop was conducted in Riverside County after a vehicle was observed leaving Ninderjit Singh’s residence. The traffic stop was co-ordinated by Homeland Security Investigations agents and VPD homicide investigators. In the vehicle was Ninderjit Singh, his wife and their two young children.
Ninderjit Singh was arrested on a Provisional Warrant without incident. He immediately confirmed his real identity and stated that he was aware he was wanted for murder in Canada.
In an effort to conceal his identity, Ninderjit SINGH had gained weight, grown a beard and wore a turban at times. Today, he looks nothing like the 1998 photo seen in local media reports.
It has since been determined that Ninderjit Singh had allegedly used a false identity to acquire a US Social Security number in New York in 2000. He lived in Northern California for a number of years before moving to Southern California. He was married outside of California and obtained an out-of-state drivers licence, all of this using his false identity. He has worked as a long-haul truck driver and had made weekly trips between Los Angeles and the Seattle, Washington area for the past few years.
Ninderjit Singh’s wife has been interviewed. She has allegedly stated that she did not know his real identity or that he was wanted for murder.
Singh is currently lodged in a Los Angeles jail awaiting extradition proceedings.
STATEMENT OF PATRICK MIZE, ASSISTANT ATTACHE, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT’S HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS
Good afternoon. My name is Patrick Mize. I am the assistant attaché for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Canada — based here in Vancouver.·
I would like to commend the Vancouver Police Department on their dedication and excellent investigative work that lead to the location and arrest of SINGH.
Early last week, my office received valuable information from the Vancouver Police Department indicating that the suspect might be residing in the Los Angeles-area. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents in Los Angeles, along with Officers from the California Highway Patrol, and the police departments in Santa Monica, Calif. and El Monte, California were able to identify, locate and arrest SINGH.
This operation highlights the successful collaboration between the Vancouver Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations.
Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will not allow the United States to be a safe haven for those who have come to our country in an effort to evade prosecution and punishment for crimes they commit in their home country.
Our borders will never be a barrier to bringing international fugitives to justice.
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