A woman aged 63 from Trois-Rivières was taken into custody by the Missing Persons and Unsolved Cases Division of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in connection with the murder of Louis Valentine, a man who was tragically killed in 2000 shortly after winning the lottery.
The SQ made the arrest on Thursday evening, charging the suspect with murder and indignity to a corpse. According to a statement released by the SQ, the woman is scheduled to appear in court on Friday in Trois-Rivières, with search operations already underway.
Louis Valentine was last sighted in Laval back in August 2000 at a friend’s residence. His disappearance was officially reported to the Trois-Rivières-Ouest Police Department in February 2001, with the SQ stressing that no criminal theory had been ruled out.
Shortly before vanishing in December 1999, Louis Valentine had struck lottery fortune. The following month, he relocated to Trois-Rivières, where he crossed paths with a certain woman.
Although the SQ did not confirm whether the arrested woman was the same individual, they did not disclose the breakthrough that led to the arrest 25 years after the crime.
On Friday morning, the SQ, together with experts from the Forensic Sciences and Legal Medicine Laboratory, including a forensic anthropologist, were combing the field for potential evidence.
