EDMONTON – The house that was the site of the worst mass murder in Edmonton history is listed for sale.
The foreclosed property in a residential north Edmonton neighbourhood — where a gunman killed seven members of his family before killing another woman in her home across town and then turning the gun on himself — was listed earlier this month for $365,000.
The home was owned by the gunman, Phu Lam, and his now deceased wife, Thuy Tien Truong.
After the killings in the last week of 2014, investigators spent days combing through evidence at the house. Almost seven months later, another group went through the house to clean it out.
“They put a dumpster in front of the house and they just piled everything into it,” said Ron Bailey, who lives across from the house, which is located at 83rd Street and 180th Avenue. “Furniture, bedding, toys. Everything.”
The house is listed as “a handyman special needing lots of work inside … To be sold AS IS,” according to the real estate listing.
Bailey remembers Truong’s son who was among those killed. The eight-year-old boy came by Bailey’s house on Halloween and had once asked for help to fix his bike.
The house just looks like anybody else’s house. There’s nothing cosmetic on the outside that shows any signs of trauma
“The thing that bothers me is that I had a bit of a friendship with the little boy whose life was taken. I can’t figure out how someone could put a gun to a child’s head. Not that anyone else’s life wasn’t important,” he said.
Bailey said he wouldn’t move into the house. But he understands that others who don’t have a connection to the neighbourhood may feel differently.
“The house just looks like anybody else’s house,” he said. “There’s nothing cosmetic on the outside that shows any signs of trauma.”
Bailey recalled another Edmonton house that was the scene of a multiple murder in the early 1980s. The residence was never torn down and other families have moved into it.
“People do forget. Their memories do fade,” he said.