Calgary Herald

CALGARY — Waves of shock and grief roiled a quiet Calgary residential community Friday, as neighbours struggled to process the discovery of four bodies — three of them infants — in an area home.

Calgary police continued to say very little Friday about what they were calling the "suspicious death" of 27-year-old Harsimrat Kahlon and three "newborns," whose bodies were found Sunday in a rental suite.

Police made the discovery public Thursday.

Police still won't say whether the children were Kahlon's, whether they were triplets or born separately, or specify their ages and sexes.

Even neighbours who knew Kahlon — and no one seems to be claiming to have known her well — said they were completely taken aback by the circumstances of her death.

 Friend Parminder Sandhu said she had no idea Kahlon had become a mother.

"I'm so shocked. Whose babies were those? I have no clue where those babies come from."

Sandhu said she used to meet Kahlon every Friday to take in a movie.

"She was just beautiful," she said.

Khalil Karbani, president of the local Taradale community association, said the deaths have cast a pall over the community.

"It's shocking and devastating to all of us," said Karbani, himself a father of four children.

"What I would like to do is go to the house and . . . find out if there's anything that we as a community association can do to help."

Sandhu said the woman was born in India and moved to Winnipeg when she was about 10 years old. Her parents stayed in India, so Kahlon was raised by an aunt and uncle, she said.

She and her boyfriend, whom friends identified as Harnek Mahal, have been together for about eight years and were to be married in India at the end of this year, Sandhu said.

"They loved each other to the maximum," she said. "They were very, very good to each other and really loved each other a lot. Everyone who knows them knows they were happy, that's why this is so sad."

While autopsies have led police to believe the children's deaths are suspicious, police said the medical examiner must perform more tests before investigators can determine how the infants died.

The tests could take weeks, or even months.

The deaths are bringing up some grim memories for Calgarians. In May 2008, police rushed a city house and found a horrifying scene — the bodies of Joshua Lall, 34, his wife Alison, 35, and their two young daughters, Kristen, 5, and Rochelle, 3, dead in their home. Their youngest daughter was unharmed. A fifth victim, Amber Bowerman, was a tenant in the home.

Joshua Lall was later deemed responsible for the deaths.

"The shock was overwhelming and the people really couldn't believe that it had happened —it was just unreal," said Jerry Hauge, president of the Dalhousie Community Association. He lives across from the former Lall residence.