The husband of a Surrey, B.C. mother found slain four years ago has been charged with first-degree murder, along with two others.

Amanpreet Kaur Bahia, 33, was found face down in a pool of blood in her home on Feb. 7, 2007. One of her three young children was found crying next to her body.

On Monday, RCMP announced charges against the victim's husband Baljinder Singh Bahia, 41, Surrey realtor Tanpreet Kaur Athwal, 42, and Burnaby resident Eduard Viktorovitch Baranec, 33.

RCMP E Division spokesperson Cpl. Annie Linteau said Baranec is known to police and all three suspects are known to each other. Athwal was working as a realtor for Century 21 as recent as a year ago.

Linteau could not confirm the cause of Bahia's death, but described the crime scene as "gruesome and horrific."

"Amanpreet was the mother of three young daughters, age one three and nine. Most disturbing is that Amanpreeet's two young daughters were left to fend for themselves for more than three hours until their mother's body was discovered," Linteau told reporters at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Bahia's cousin Harpal Sandhu gave a tearful statement to reporters, expressing gratitude to police for their work in the investigation.

"I don't know how to say thank you, thank you so much. Now my sisters will maybe have a little peace," she said. "I just pray for you guys that you are successful on this case."

Sandhu recalled the strain put on her family by some in the community who doubted a murder had even occurred. "We can't stay in the temple because everybody [is] blaming us," she said.

Police say the husband had been identified as a suspect in Bahia's death for some time.

A crack in the case

B.C. homicide investigators got a crack in the years-old case in December after receiving fresh information from Mounties working on a cold case file in Saskatchewan.

Investigators there were probing the disappearance of 15-year-old Katelyn Noble when they found a piece of information that led to the Bahia charges.

Noble had moved from Mission, B.C. to Regina in 2007.

"Now we continue on with our investigation here and whether there is a connection between the two. Our members are going to work very closely with E Division members as well and that's how incidents like this get solved," Sgt. Paul Dawson told CTV News from Saskatchewan.

Noble's father told CTV News that at one point his daughter and a former boyfriend were living with Baranec in Saskatchewan.

No charges have been laid in her disappearance.

More Indo-Canadian women murdered

Bahia's death received a great deal of community attention given that hers was the third violent death of an Indo-Canadian woman in the Vancouver area within a few months.

In October 2006, the burned body of Manjit Panghali was found in suburban Delta. She was four months pregnant at the time of her death, which according to pathologists was caused by strangulation. Although there were no suspects immediately after her death, Mukhtiar Panghali, her husband, has since been charged with second-degree murder. His trial wrapped up in December last year no verdict has yet been released.

A few days later, Navreet Waraich, who was 23-years old at the time and mother of a four-month-old boy, was stabbed in her basement suite and died later in hospital. Her husband, Jatinder Waraich, was found guilty in June 2008 of second-degree murder.

In the same month, Gurjeet Kaur Ghuman, a nurse from Coquitlam, was riding in a car with her estranged husband, Paramjit Singh Ghuman, when he shot her in the head before killing himself.

The deaths stunned the Indo-Canadian community who held several meetings to discuss domestic violence.

With files from The Canadian Press