FREDERIC SERRE
The 1019 Report
A 16-year-old Ontario girl has been charged with killing a 16-year-old boy – eight months after his battered body was found in a field in St. Zotique.
The Sûreté du Québec made the announcement last Friday, adding the girl is also charged with killing an Ontario teenager, identified as a friend of the victim whose body was found in St. Zotique. The SQ said the accused was 15 at the time of the killings.
On April 17, a farmer made the grisly discovery of a severely beaten body in a field off 69th Avenue in St. Zotique. SQ investigators could not identify the teen because of his injuries. Photos of his face and the tattoos were made public, leading to his identification. He was a resident of the town of Prévost in the Laurentians. The investigation also include surveillance camera footage of an SUV driving into the field, where the body was dumped, before the vehicle quickly drove away.
The victim’s family members told the SQ that they had reported the boy missing at the end of March, and he was last seen at the Côte Vertu metro station in Montreal three weeks before he was killed.
The lengthy investigation led to the arrest of a Mississauga girl, who last week was charged with first-degree murder at the Valleyfield youth court. She was also charged in Ontario youth court with complicity following the St. Zotique killing in various cities in Ontario, including Ajax. Prosecutors are considering having the girl tried in adult court, according to the SQ, due to the gravity of the crimes she is charged with.
The girl is currently being held in Mississauga, where she is facing an additional accusation in the killing of Zackhry Ramnath, identified as a friend of the St. Zotique victim. Ramnath’s body was found off a road about 50 kilometres north of Toronto last April 23.
York Regional Police arrested the girl last June and charged her with Ramnath’s murder. A 19-year-old man was also arrested.
The SQ said the girl will return to court in the coming weeks.