Months after Tess Richey was found dead by her own mother in Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Village, police have charged a man with her murder.
Kalen Schlatter, a 21-year-old west end resident, was charged with second-degree murder by Toronto police late Sunday night.
Richey was last seen in the Village by a friend around 4am on Nov 25, 2017. The two had spent the night at Crews and Tangos, a popular Church Street bar, and then later went to a woman’s house on Dundonald Street a few blocks away.
Richey had ordered an Uber to pick her up, but never got in. She was reported missing the same day and was found dead four days later, in a stairwell of a building under construction, by her mother who had travelled down from North Bay to search for her. Richey had been strangled to death.
Graham Gibson, a detective sergeant in the homicide squad, told reporters at a press conference on Feb 5, 2018, that police believe Richey and Schlatter had met for the first time the night she was killed.
“The opportunity presented itself,” Gibson alleged.
In December, Toronto police circulated images of a man who was seen walking with Richey on Nov 25. Gibson said that they were able to identify him as Schlatter early on, but only recently did they have enough evidence to make an arrest. Schlatter has not been charged with an offence before, Gibson said.
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