All the people suffered multiple stab wounds, died within minutes of each other and Mr. Lee was the last to die, she said.
Mr. Lee, 38, and the others were found dead early Tuesday in the family's blood-spattered home in upscale Oak Bay after police received a 911 call from the house. A knife with a 10-centimetre blade was seized from the home as evidence, said Ms. Stanton.
"Both sides of the blade were sharp and it was about four inches long. It's in the police's custody."
The tragedy has sparked calls for reviews of the justice system after it was revealed Mr. Lee faced criminal charges and civil suits involving violence towards his wife, employees and others prior to the five deaths.
Mr. Lee and his wife were also in the midst of divorce proceedings.
Victoria police said Mr. Lee should not have been granted bail for a July 31 car accident in which his wife suffered a badly broken arm when the Land Rover Mr. Lee was driving crashed into a power pole. Police said Mr. Lee deliberately crashed the vehicle in an attempt to harm his wife.
He was also facing unlawful confinement charges after a Victoria man said Mr. Lee drove him to a beach and forced him to smash his own toe with a rock.
A former restaurant employee had launched a civil suit saying Mr. Lee cut her hand at the restaurant and then offered her money to say the injury was an accident she suffered at home. The employee also said she was physically assaulted by Mr. Lee at the restaurant.
But a noted forensic psychiatrist who has testified for the Crown and defence in many past murder cases, said family killings are rare events and it's difficult to determine if a person is capable of such huge acts of violence.
Until there's a blood test or some other method that detects when people are on the verge of a rampage the courts are left with precious few resources with which to decide whether to hold crime suspects in jail or release them from custody, said Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe.
Dr. Lohrasbe, who serves as a consultant to the B.C. police complaints commissioner, said he can't comment directly on the Lee family homicide.
But he does have views on what he calls the "hit and miss" situations the court system encounters when deciding whether to release people facing criminal charges.
"I wish there was a simple way, you know, a blood test to differentiate between those who are in that trajectory towards violence from those who aren't."
Dr. Lohrasbe said judges are faced with making the final call on whether or not to release a person and many times they are under time and workload pressures.
"Courts are overworked places," he said. "Judges have got to deal with whatever is plonked in front of them, and it's very easy in retrospect to say, 'well, you should have looked at this subtlety or that one, but it's not the way it tends to play out in courts. Decisions have got to be made with limited information a lot of the time."
Opposition New Democrat Mike Farnworth called on the B.C. Liberal government to review justice policies in the wake of the Oak Bay deaths, especially when it comes to issues of domestic violence.
"We need to look at how we approach issues around domestic violence, because they are very, very serious and we need to be looking for warning signs," he said. "If this wasn't a warning sign, I don't know what was where he (Mr. Lee) rammed the vehicle into the tree."
New Democrat children's critic Nicholas Symons said he will ask B.C.'s independent children's representative to investigate the death of Mr. Lee's son, Christian.
"This case raises questions again about our systemic response to kids in homes with domestic violence," he said.
B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal could not be reached for comment.
Dr. Lohrasbe testified on behalf of the Crown in the 2003 case against Vancouver Island resident Jay Handel, who admitted killing his six children and then setting his home on remote Quatsino Island on fire.
Mr. Handel, who was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, said he should be found not guilty due to a mental disorder.
Dr. Lohrasbe said Mr. Handel was driven by anger towards his wife Sonya.