Quebec provincial police say they’ve arrested a 61-year-old prison inmate in the killing of a young girl in a Montreal suburb nearly three decades ago.
Investigators say Réal Courtemanche, detained at La Macaza Institution in Quebec’s Laurentians region, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the 1994 killing of Marie-Chantale Desjardins.
Ms. Desjardins was just 10 years old when she disappeared on July 16, 1994, after she left a friend’s house at the end of the day in Ste-Thérèse, Que., northwest of Montreal.
Her body was found four days later in the neighbouring community of Rosemère in the woods behind a shopping centre.
Provincial police say Mr. Courtemanche will appear before a judge later on Dec. 12 in St-Jérôme, Que., northwest of Montreal.
Authorities say the arrest was made possible thanks to innovative methods in forensic biology by the province’s crime lab.
