Family photo taken on the day of the incident. Picture by: The Canadian Press Photo taken by: Emma Weller/CBC.
De-Zoysa is a 19-year old male international student, who resided at the Wickramasinghe family’s rented townhouse’ basement, in a suburb called Barrhaven.
On Thursday, 6th November 2025, De-Zoysa was sentenced to life imprisonment without the any possibility of parole for 25 years.
De-Zoysa has pleaded guilty to four counts of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the father of the deceased family, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, who sustained major injuries.
De-Zoysa stood by his lawyer Ewan Lyttle in the Superior Court in Ottawa, Thursday morning, 6th November 2025, and pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of the following victims:
Ranaya Wickramasinghe (3-year-old daughter), Ashwini Wickramasinghe (4-year-old daughter), Inuka Wickramasinghe (7-year-old son) and Gamini Amarakoon (40) who was a close family friend and their tenant.
De-Zoysa pleaded to the lesser offence of second-degree murder. This is known to being a typical concept in plea bargaining.
In exception to the infant, the Wickramasinghes family originate from Sri Lanka and were new to Canadian life. Amarakoon was in Canada for work-related reasons. De-Zoysa is also a Sri Lankan citizen.
Court in Session
During an interview with a designated homicide investigator, De-Zoysa claims that the Wickramasinghe family have shown nothing but love and kindness towards him.
De-Zoysa made a questionable statement of him having bashed them out for “money” as he was now broke and did not want to return to Sri Lanka by the time his visa reached the expiration date.
He further claimed to have been too weak to take his own life.
De-Zoysa expressed himself to Sergeant Chris O’Brien and said: “I am tired of all these rules and people, it is all just stupid, just like the world itself.”
Crown attorney, Dallas Mack informs the court that on the 1st of March 2024, which was reportedly five days prior to the gruesome act, De-Zoysa took the decision to proceed with the killings.
After this, De-Zoysa planned to continue residing in the house for a couple of days leading to his arrest.
According to O’Brien , On the 31st January 2024, De-Zoysa reportedly ordered a hunting knife online (38cm) to use on himself.
This was roughly around the time De-Zoysa put a halt to school attendance and in completing his assignments. He developed an addiction to video games and and started spending irresponsibly on takeaways.
De-Zoysa believed and hoped that him failing his grades at school would result in a student visa cancellation, in return, putting an end to financial support he aided his family with.
Basement Horror
6th March 2024, Dhahnushka worked two jobs of being an uber driver, and starting off the day at his cleaning business from 03:30 am.
The father took breaks in between to drop off his two daughters at school and have breakfast with his wife and two younger children.
He would then later take another break to pick the kids up and stop for some doughnuts on his way home. He dropped the kids off and went back to work again.
Later that day, De-Zoysa invited his other tenants to his basement to watch a movie.
Crown explained how De-Zoysa gave Amarakoon multiple stab wounds in the bedroom, that had him lifeless within a couple of minutes or seconds. This was a recap from the forensics’ pathologists report.
Their 7-year-old son heard Amarakoon screaming and informed his mother who was that time, nursing the infant.
Darshani gave her husband a call to inform him of what is happening, Dhanushka called De-Zoysa to enquire about what was going on.
In De-Zoysa’s interview with O’Brien, De-Zoysa mentioned that he had lied to Dhanushka saying that the screams were coming from the movie he was watching in the basement with Amarakoon.
After he convinced the couple that all is well, De Zoysa headed upstairs and proceeded to stab all four children to their last breath. It was established that all victims succumbed to their injuries seconds after their attacks.
A Clear Confession
Dhanushka arrived home at around 23:00pm, he apparently found all lights off and presumed that everyone was asleep. He sat in the car for roughly 10 minutes then proceeded to enter his home through the garage door entrance.
As he walked in, he witnessed De-Zoysa standing with a hunting knife behind his back, Dhanushka greeted him but De-Zoysa immediately attacked Dhanushka.
Dhanushka ran to his neighbors for assistance as De-Zoysa chased him from the kitchen. The neighbors called 911.
De-Zoysa did not hesitate to inform the arresting police officer that: “I was going to get deported, I had no choice but to kill all of them.”
De-Zoysa Begs for Forgiveness
He sat still and very quiet during court proceedings, facing forward. He looked emotionless.
The Judge had asked him whether was there anything he would like to say, he proceeded to express his regret and said he is sorry for what he had done.
“I will spend the rest of my life acknowledging the truth of my doings.”
Judge Phillips withheld nothing and held him accountable.
Phillips said: ” You have shocked the community and have shaken it to its utter core.”
As it was alleged, by Assistant Crown Prosecutor , Louis Tansey that the perpetrator’s mental well-being was unstable during the time of this murder.
Phillips slammed this possibility: “Even if I was to accept those mental health allegations, they are in no position to excuse your behavior.”
“The evidence provided proves that you were fully capable of accepting nature and the quality of your actions, you are aware of how wrong they are.”
The Judge proceeded to impose the joint position and court was adjourned.
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