The third morning of a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of a Prince Rupert family in 2023 has revealed startling phone searches from the father, Christopher Duong, just days before the family of four was found dead.
Inquest counsel, Steven Liu, shared two searches from Duong’s phone as evidence, with the first search being “painless ways to kill yourself” and the second being “where are the biggest arteries.”
Liu then asked witness Dr. Gerald Belgardt, who conducted a 10-minute mental status examination of Duong around 9 a.m. on June 10, 2023, after Duong had been admitted to the Prince Rupert Hospital earlier that day under the Mental Health Act by former RCMP Const. Matt Jones.
Liu asked Belgardt if he was aware of Duong’s phone searches. Belgardt, who knew Duong for over 20 years as his family doctor and conducted his discharge summary, said he was not aware.
“It happened after I discharged him,” Belgardt recalled. “It was very surprising.”
Belgardt said that Duong did not suffer from any sort of psychotic delusion when he examined him and was fit to be discharged.
“Delusional people do not deny their delusions,” he said. “If you try to argue with them, they actually double-down, whereas the first thing [Duong] said to me was that ‘I don’t believe that anymore,’ so I believed him when he said that.”
Duong had told Const. Jones that he believed a ‘hit’ had been placed on him, but eventually admitted to the officer that his fears were not actually based on reality, according to RCMP testimony on day two of the inquest.
Duong, his wife, Janet Nguyen, and their two children, Alexander and Harlan Duong, were found dead at Nguyen’s parents’ home on Silverside Drive three days later.
“I was devastated, shocked, sick to my stomach, and sort of sick to my stomach every day when I think about it,” Belgardt said. “It’s been two and a half years now, and this is going to affect me for the rest of my life.”