A man arrested in the past on suspicion of pimping, Mahad Farrah, was charged Wednesday with killing a sex worker and her grandmother. His co-defendant, a young adult who allegedly committed four murders in one year when he was a minor, faces the same charges the day after his arrest.
Mahad Farrah, aged 23, and his possible 18-year-old accomplice appeared in court on Wednesday. They are accused of the premeditated murders of Jade Racette Beaulieu, 22, and her 73-year-old grandmother, Huguette Racette Maranda.
One of the victims of the murders in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Jade Racette Beaulieu, worked in the sex industry. Farrah had already faced Ontario justice in connection with pimping charges.
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One of the victims, Jade Racette Beaulieu, 22 years old
Farrah was the subject of a Canada-wide arrest warrant and was located in Saskatchewan. He was then suspected of taking control of several aspects of a woman’s life and taking advantage of her to obtain money, according to a press release issued at the time by police in Peel, Ont. .
This woman had also filed a complaint against him in October 2022 for crimes relating to pimping that occurred in Toronto and Alberta.
The Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) also seized a firearm during a search carried out as part of the arrest of Mahad Farrah.
Accused of two double murders
The youngest accused allegedly committed another double homicide a few months before the tragic death of the two women, killed in December in Pointe-Saint-Charles. At the time of his arrest, he was already detained in Bordeaux prison in relation to these two other murders which occurred in December 2022 in Montreal West.
We cannot name the young accused since he was a minor at the time of the events.
It is very rare for a teenager to be suspected of having committed four premeditated murders, summarized the commander of the major crimes section of the SPVM, Jean-Sébastien Caron, in an interview with The Press.
It doesn’t happen every day, it proves that the person really has both hands in it.
Jean-Sébastien Caron, commander of the major crimes section of the SPVM, regarding the youngest accused
The arrest comes almost a year after Jade Racette and her grandmother were shot and killed. Arrested after a year-long investigation, the two accused were known to police circles.
The other double homicide with which the young person is accused is not linked to the murders of Jade Racette Beaulieu and Huguette Maranda Beaulieu. In July 2022, around 2 a.m., two people in a vehicle were reportedly targeted by the minor. The driver, hit in the upper body, succumbed to his injuries. The passenger died in hospital. They were two men aged 19 and 17, unknown to the police, according to our information at the time.
Complex investigations
There has been a relative lull in armed violence in Montreal in recent months. But the SPVM is still working to resolve the crimes of recent years, which had seriously shaken citizens’ feeling of security, assures Commander Caron. “It’s not because it’s quiet that the investigations aren’t progressing. Our goal is to solve these homicides. It takes time and all files are treated the same way. We need to find solid evidence. »
“These firearms cases take a lot of time. It’s a difficult environment to infiltrate, it takes much longer,” explains the commander. Investigations like these are complex, because there are few witnesses and no collaboration from individuals belonging to the criminal sector.