Surrey woman found dead remembered as hardworking, loving mother
Posted February 21, 2019 7:18 am.
Last Updated February 21, 2019 2:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – A mother of three whose death is being investigated as a homicide is being remembered as a kind and hardworking woman.
Rajwinder Bains’ body has been found, after she was reported missing last month, however police have not said when or where she was located.
Manjit Heer says she can’t believe her friend is gone.
“She was so nice. She was always friendly. She made nice friends and loved to talk with everybody,” she told NEWS 1130.
She remembers that when she moved onto a quiet street in Surrey’s Newton neighbourhood, she never imagined that’s where she would meet her old friend. She and Bains, 38, went to high school together in India before coming to Canada separately.
The two reconnected and their children regularly played together.
“She had three kids. Two daughters, one son,” she said, adding she believes the oldest is Kindergarten-aged.
Heer says their neighbourhood is a quiet and friendly one. “We know all our neighbours. We’re friendly because our kids go to school together.”
Bains worked multiple jobs including packing food near the airport, cleaning homes, and catering, according to Heer, and regularly spoke about saving for her children.
“She says ‘I’m spending money for my daughters. They’re growing up, they need a good future.’ She said ‘always I’m spending or saving money,’” Heer said, adding she believed the husband is a truck driver.
Heer said Bains and her husband rented a home across the street from her and lived with her husband’s parents. Several neighbours confirmed police surrounded the home for several days last week. Heer says police asked her for her home’s security camera footage.
She believes Bains’ kids went with their grandparents to India in November, leaving the two parents in Surrey.
Bains was seen leaving the TD Canada Trust bank on 152 St. and 56 Ave. in Surrey around 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 7. Her image was captured on security cameras. She wasn’t reported missing until over two weeks later, on Jan. 23.
Rajwinder Bains, 38, was last seen at a TD Bank on 152 St. near 56 Ave. in Surrey on Jan. 7, 2019. (Courtesy: IHIT)
RCMP sent an alert about Bains’ disappearance two days after she was reported missing, noting she may be travelling with another woman in a Honda Civic. Investigators said it was possible she was heading to Alberta.
Heer finds that hard to believe, saying her friend barely knew the world outside her neighbourhood. “She’s not used to going anywhere. She said, ‘I don’t know where the PNE is’ … She said, ‘I don’t know how to go to Vancouver.'”
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken over the case, after the Bains’s body was found and believe her death was a homicide. No arrests have been made.
“IHIT is exploring all avenues of investigation into Ms. Bains’ death,” Corporal Frank Jang of IHIT said in a news release. “Detectives continue to pursue leads that may answer the many questions remaining and are urging anyone with information to come forward.”
Anyone with information the case is asked to call IHIT at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
