A Sri Lankan man who pleaded guilty to one of Ottawa’s most horrific mass murders has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Febrio De-Zoysa admitted to killing a mother, her four children, and a family friend in a brutal stabbing rampage in March 2024 in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven. He pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, and one count of attempted murder.
The victims were identified as 35-year-old Darshani Ekanayake; her children, Inuka (7), Ashwini (4), Ranaya (3), and baby Kelly (2 months old); and family friend and tenant, 40-year-old Gamini Amarakoon. The children’s father, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, survived the attack but sustained severe injuries.
Justice Kevin Phillips described the killings as “one of the worst crimes in the city’s history,” telling De-Zoysa that he had destroyed “two beautiful families” and left the community “shaken to its core.” The judge called the violence “stupefying, monstrous — even demonic,” and told the convicted killer, “You are the stuff of nightmares.”
Although he said he would impose consecutive life sentences if permitted, a 2022 Supreme Court ruling prohibits consecutive sentencing for first-degree murder. As a result, De-Zoysa was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole eligibility for 25 years, with all sentences to run concurrently.
De-Zoysa, who was 19 at the time and living in Canada as an international student at Algonquin College, had been staying in the family’s basement. According to court testimony, he first stabbed Amarakoon in the basement, deceived the family into believing the noise came from a horror movie, and then went upstairs to kill the mother and her children.
When the children’s father, Dhanushka, returned home late after work, De-Zoysa attacked him as well. Despite being stabbed multiple times, Dhanushka managed to overpower his attacker and escape to the street, covered in blood, where police later arrested De-Zoysa.
Victim impact statements from grieving family members were read aloud in court. Amarakoon’s wife, speaking through tears, said her world had been “shattered beyond repair.” Dhanushka described March 6, 2024, as “the darkest day of my life,” saying he lost his entire family, home, and livelihood in what he called an “unbearable tragedy.”
A statement from Amarakoon’s 12-year-old daughter revealed the deep emotional toll the killings have had, saying she wakes up crying and scared, struggling both financially and academically.
The court also heard that De-Zoysa, who had stopped attending classes and feared losing his student visa, ordered a 38-centimetre hunting knife online weeks before the murders. He later told police that he had intended to take his own life but was “too weak to do it.”
Justice Phillips rejected De-Zoysa’s claim of diminished responsibility, ruling that he was “fully capable of understanding the nature and quality of his actions.”
Crown Attorney Dallas Mack said a conviction was inevitable, crediting the bravery of the surviving father, who fought back despite his injuries in a desperate attempt to save his family.
