In another troubling sign that honor killings are taking root in the West, police in Kingston, Ontario are charging the parents and a brother of three teenaged girls and their father's first wife, all of whom were found dead in a submerged car June 30.

During a news conference Thursday, Police Chief Steven Tanner described the murders as a "senseless and needless loss of innocent life. The four victims in this case, three of which were teenage girls all shared the rights within our great country to live without fear, to enjoy safety and security and to exercise freedom of choice and expression and had their lives cut short by their own family."

Mohammed Shafii is charged with the deaths of his daughters, ages 13, 17 and 19, and his first wife. The day they died, he reportedly went to the police to report that his car had been stolen. He also identified his first wife as his cousin. Also charged are Shafii's second wife - the mother of the dead girls - and his son.

The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Earlier this year, the founder of Bridges Television in Buffalo was charged in the beheading of his wife. The New York National Organization for Women chapter president called Aasiya Hassan's brutal murder "a terroristic version of honor killing."

In Sweden, police are trying to determine if women who died in falls off balconies were pushed off in honor killings.