Despite a no-contact order, a violent man continued to stalk his partner before strangling her along with his two young sons at their home in Pointe-aux-Trembles.
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“She saw him in the alleys near the house. He was always there. He was so crazy that he could walk past the branch [de la banque]which was made entirely of glass to see whether she was really in the office or not,” Najla Ben Ammar said during the public inquiry.
Dahia Khellaf was 42 years old when she was killed by her partner Nabil Yssaad in December 2019. Photo Facebook
In the months before her murder, Dahia Khellaf had confided her relationship problems to this colleague at Laurentian Bank, with whom she was also friends.
The mother was also afraid of seeing her husband Nabil Yssaad come out of his car every morning to clear the snow, despite the ban on contact. “He chased her,” said Najla Ben Ammar.
Recall that on August 27, 2018, two charges of assault were brought against the 46-year-old father and he had to respect certain conditions, including not having contact with his partner.
Photo Frédérique Giguère
She mimes strangulation
“The war has begun.” This is what Dahia Khellaf said to her colleague when she returned to the office on the morning of December 9, 2019. During the divorce process, she then talked about the steps to get custody of her children.
At around 5pm, before leaving work that evening, Ms Khellaf made a choking gesture by placing her hand on her neck.
“I was busy talking on the phone with a customer, we made a sign that we would call each other in the evening to talk,” explained Najla Ben Ammar.
Dahia Khellaf ultimately never called her colleague that evening. And the next morning she didn’t come back to work.
On December 11, 2019, Montreal police patrol officers finally found the bodies of the mother and her two sons, ages 4 and 2, in the family’s home in Pointe-aux-Trembles.
The victims were strangled, probably with the wiring of electronic devices. A few hours after killing his family, Nabil Yssaad threw himself from the sixth floor window of a hospital near Joliette to take his own life.
A public inquiry chaired by coroner Me Andrée Kronström is underway to shed light on these deaths.
More details to follow…
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