The Canadian Press
TORONTO–A woman whose sister was found dead in a Toronto stairwell two years ago says her mother called her screaming after making the devastating discovery.
On the stand this morning, Rachel Richey described her family’s frantic search to find Tess Richey in the days after she vanished following a night out.
Kalen Schlatter has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Tess Richey’s death.
The prosecution alleges Schlatter met Richey on Nov. 25, 2017 outside a bar in Toronto’s gay village and sexually assaulted then strangled her after she refused his advances.
Rachel Richey says she first knew something was wrong when her sister did not respond to her phone calls and texts the day after Tess went out.
She says she became more worried when she looked at Uber messages that said Tess missed her ride around 4 a.m. on Nov. 25.
Rachel Richey says she last heard from her sister at 12:01 a.m. that night in a text showing she had gotten to Crews and Tangos, a bar in Toronto’s gay village.
She described pleading for help on social media in the days that followed, along with a physical search of the area with her mother and other sister.
Rachel Richey said she was at home with her baby on Nov. 29 when her mother called.
“She was screaming and she told me that she found her and she just kept saying it,” Rachel Richey said as she sobbed.
“I said ‘Is she alive?’ She said ‘No.'”
In the prosecution’s opening address to the jury on Thursday, Bev Richards said Schlatter’s DNA was found on the pants and bra of Tess Richey.
She said surveillance video shows Schlatter leading Richey to a stairwell of a building under construction around 4:14 a.m.-around the same time she was supposed to get into the Uber.
She said the video, which is expected to be presented at trial, will then show Schlatter leaving alone 45 minutes later.
