The Canadian Press
HALIFAX—Police have charged a 27-year-old Halifax man with second-degree murder in the death of an off-duty police officer who was reported missing earlier this week when she didn’t show up for work.
Halifax police said Christopher Calvin Garnier also is charged with indecently interfering with a dead body.
Garnier appeared in provincial court today and his case was put over to Sept. 30.
Police said Garnier was arrested during a traffic stop at 1:20 a.m. yesterday.
The arrest came about an hour after the body of 36-year-old Catherine Campbell was discovered in a wooded area near an overpass that leads to the Macdonald Bridge connecting Halifax and Dartmouth.
Campbell was reported missing Monday when she didn’t show up for work at the Truro Police Service.
Supt. Jim Perrin of the Halifax Regional Police said Campbell was last seen at a bar in downtown Halifax early Friday morning and police do not believe her work as a police officer had anything to do with her death.
Perrin said the charge of indecently interfering with a dead body was laid “because of the cavalier way that Miss Campbell’s body was disposed of.”
Police allege that Campbell met the accused at a bar last Thursday night, but they don’t know whether they knew each other before that meeting.
“Our evidence has led us to believe that they met in downtown Halifax,” Perrin added.
“Obviously . . . how that meeting took place is something that’s still under investigation,” he noted.
“But we have confirmed that they were together in downtown Halifax. . . .
“We’re continuing to explore whether they knew each other before that.”
Police also are asking for anyone who might have seen a man in shorts and a T-shirt pushing a green bin around 4:30 a.m. on Friday along Agricola Street and North Street to the underpass where Campbell’s body was found to come forward.
When asked if the cart contained Campbell’s body, Perrin only would say it contained evidence.
Perrin said police believe Campbell was killed early Friday at a residence on McCully Street, which is near Agricola and North streets.
Police are not looking for other suspects but more charges could be laid, Perrin said.
