Three suspects face charges of indignity to a corpse after the discovery of “human remains” Sunday afternoon in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, near Quebec. According to the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the alleged victim died in a residence in a peaceful neighborhood of Contrecoeur, before his body was abandoned 220 km away, on the grounds of a pruning company located in west of the capital.
At 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, the SQ arrested two men and a woman while the trio was traveling in the territory of the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, south of Montreal. The 44-year-old man, Jean-Philippe Lamontagne, and the 31-year-old woman, Cassandra Major, come from the metropolis. The third suspect, François Bouchard, also 31 years old, resides in Contrecoeur, in Montérégie.
The three appeared Monday afternoon by videoconference at the Quebec courthouse. They face a charge of indignity to a corpse, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The prosecutor in this case, Mr.e Jean-Simon Larouche has already indicated that other accusations will be added to the file.
Two searches took place Monday morning: a first in the vehicle in which the three suspects were sitting at the time of their arrest, a second in a house on rue Dozois in Contrecoeur, where “everything suggests that the murder would have occurred », According to the SQ.
The Forensic Identification Service and the Forensic Sciences and Forensic Medicine Laboratory were on site to collect evidence and determine the causes of death.
The circumstances surrounding the death remain unclear, particularly due to the advanced deterioration of the corpse. According to information from Dutythe machinery present on the land of the tree felling company would have been used to dispose of the body.
The identity of the victim remained unknown more than 24 hours after his discovery.
Police do not rule out that the alleged murder is linked to organized crime. The discovery of the body on Sunday in Quebec City adds to the four murders that have occurred since the start of the year in the national capital, three of which took place in recent weeks.