Police charge man, 21, with second-degree murder in Tess Richey case

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Six months after his mother praised him for stopping a vicious attack in a park, a man has been arrested and charged in connection with the November slaying of 22-year-old Tess Richey, who was found strangled after a night of clubbing in Toronto's Church-Wellesley Village area.

Kalen Schlatter, 21, appeared in court on Monday and was charged with one count of second-degree murder.

He is the man on security-camera footage police released in public appeals following Ms. Richey's death, homicide squad Detective Sergeant Graham Gibson told reporters.

"We became aware of him fairly early on in the investigation," Det.-Sgt. Gibson said.

Mr. Schlatter is an exterior contractor with no prior criminal record.

The accused and the victim did not know each other until they met that night after Ms. Richey and a friend left a bar on Church Street called Crews & Tangos, the detective said. He called it a crime of opportunity.

Ms. Richey was last seen around 3 a.m. on Nov. 25. The suspect was recorded on security videos as he walked north on Church Street after 5 a.m.

After her family reported her missing, it was her mother, Christine Hermeston, who had travelled from North Bay, who found Ms. Richey's body by an external stairwell next to a house under renovation, two blocks from Crews & Tangos.

The family was initially critical of the police force's search efforts. However, in a Facebook post on Monday, one of Ms. Richey's sisters, Varina, said the family had been advised several weeks ago that investigators had someone in sight and had been saying they were happy with the progress of the investigation.

"This is not a celebration for us but it is a victory of sorts," she wrote, saying that the family wanted to focus on honouring Ms. Richey's memory.

"We will have to use all the strength and energy we can muster to be dignified while staring at the alleged evil who destroyed our family … we prepare for the next step as unwilling participants in this unfolding nightmare."

Second-degree murder, is an offence that usually indicates that the homicide was intentional but not premeditated.

The charge would also indicate that police do not have evidence of sexual assault, which would also have raised the charge to first-degree murder.

Mr. Schlatter was arrested on Sunday night near his home on Lansdowne Avenue in Toronto.

The property is co-owned by Helga Schlatter, who describes herself on Facebook as Mr. Schlatter's mother.

In an Aug. 7 post on her Facebook page, Ms. Schlatter praised her son's bravery, saying he came home covered in blood after intervening to save a man under attack.

"Couldn't be more proud of him. Not only did he have the courage to stop a murder in progress. But he then went on to save this man's life. When I approached Kalen, he was covered in blood from head to toe. I've always known he's helpful, kind and caring."

At the time, police were looking for a Lansdowne-area resident, Whitley Hunter, who was wanted for attempted murder after allegedly attacking his neighbour with a hammer.

A witness, whose face was blurred and name withheld, was interviewed on Aug. 8 by Global News, which called him a Good Samaritan who had stumbled onto the attack as it unfolded at Earlscourt Park, across the street from Lansdowne Avenue.

The witness said he saw the victim being hit on the head several times and yelled at the hammer-wielding assailant, who ran away. The witness then tended to the bleeding, unconscious victim.

"It was quite horrific," he said.

Ms. Richey's death in the Gay Village in November was one of several tragic events that have rattled the city's LGBTQ community, coming around the same time police identified the remains of Alloura Wells, a transgender woman whose body was found in a ravine, and amid fears caused by several missing-men cases that have now led to five murder charges against Bruce McArthur.