Familicide: The High Cost of Protecting a Lie

Menhaz Zaman, 24, Quadruple Murderer

"Words such as brutal, cruel, cold and callous do not begin to convey the enormity of his violence. It is difficult to imagine a more horrific way to take a human life than by slitting the victim's throat. Mr. Zaman did so not just once, but four separate times over a span of hours." 

"No right-thinking member of society would see any remote correlation between the imminent disclosure of the secret of Mr. Zaman's non-attendance at school and the vicious taking of the lives of the four people closest to him."

"That Mr. Zaman saw such a connection and acted on it in the cold and calculated manner that he did is deeply disturbing."

"The betrayal of trust involved in these crimes is enormous."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Newmarket Ontario Court of Justice, November 2, 2020

Back in July of last year, an online gamer told CTV News Toronto that Zaman “messaged many of his friends, including myself, about the details of the murder, during the act.”

A young man living in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto, and part of the Greater Toronto region, lied for years to his family who were under the impression that he was attending York University in north Toronto toward a degree in engineering. He was not attending university, but chose to attend Seneca College for an electronics engineering program for several years, which he failed in. He then spent his daytime  hours in a mall nearby his family home, and played video games at home, all the while describing to his family his university courses and how well he was managing his classes. 

His purpose was simply stalling for time, with no end-game in sight, as long as his family continued to believe he was following the course set for him, to get a good education in his chosen field of endeavour, to become a responsible young adult and to forge a life for himself. All the while he was leading his family to believe he was doing just that, while he was not. With each lie told, a deeper pit was dug. He seemed aimless, content to while away the hours, keeping the truth from his trusting family. Whom he was determined to keep the reality of the situation from.

And it seems he finally found the route to ensure they would never discover his ploys and his chosen field of endeavour; hanging out, playing online games, finding community with other gamers. It was some of those other gamers whom he contacted, informing them that he was in the process of solving his dilemma. As he planned and undertook to complete the plan to rescue himself from the network of lies he had woven. A gaming friend in Minnesota, another in Tunisia, were texted informing them of what Zaman was doing and just to ensure they fully understood, photographs of the bloody bodies of  his family accompanied the texts.

Those far-flung friends frantically called the Toronto police hoping to alert authorities. The IP address from the communications was identified at a home in Markham. York Regional Police, whose jurisdiction it was, were called into action by the Toronto Police Service, and they sent officers to the home where they discovered the bodies of 70-year-old Firoza Begum, 59-year-old Monirus Zaman, 50-year-old Momtaz Begum, and 21-year-old Malesa Zaman.

On the afternoon of the day prior to Zaman's 'graduation from university', he began to carry out his plan to avoid having to tell his family that he had lied to them for years. He killed his mother by slitting her throat, and an hour later he did the same to his grandmother. It would be hours before his sister and father arrived home, so he played video games and napped while he waited. When his sister got home around 11 p.m. she too was killed by having her throat slit. His father was next, attacked as soon as he returned home an hour later.

 

Police took Zaman into custody, and he pleaded guilty. The Crown attorney and the defence both requested Zaman receive 25 years of parole ineligibility for the first-degree murder counts to be served concurrently, along with an additional 15 years of ineligibility for the second-degree murder count to be served on top. Menhaz Zaman pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one-count of second degree murder for killing his parents, sister and grandmother in their home in Markham on July 27, 2019. All of those murder counts carry automatic life sentences. 

At his sentencing hearing, Zaman apologized to anyone he had "impacted negatively" as a result of the murders. That apology needless to say discounted his immediate family members for they were indeed negatively impacted and no apology would ever reach their ears, and nor would they find comfort in such words from an accomplished liar. For his "deeply disturbing" crimes, Menhaz Zaman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years, a particularly benevolent penalty for an unspeakable crime.

The victims were his 21-year-old sister Malesa Zaman, his 59-year-old father Moniruz Zaman, his 50-year-old mother Momotaz Begum, and his 70-year-old grandmother Firoza Begum. Facebook

 

"Mr. Zaman executed four unsuspecting family members in their own home. It defies understanding that while his mother and grandmother lay upstairs in their own blood, Mr. Zaman played video games and napped to pass the time, apparently untroubled as he lay in wait to slay his sister and father in the same manner."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Ontario Court of Justice