deadmonton 2007 - other police matters - suspicious death of 19-year-old

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Just before noon on April 7th, 2007 emergency medical personnel were called to the Newton Place apartment block at 5608 118 Avenue.


CTV Edmonton image CTV Edmonton image

There they picked up a 19-year-old woman and transported her to the Royal Alexandra Hospital. She died shortly after arriving at the facility and police were called.


A building landlord told CTV Edmonton that the five men occupying the suite where the woman was found were the cause of numerous complaints from tenants but details weren't given. Other media reports indicated the suite was only occupied by the woman and a male friend.


CTV Edmonton image

Police remained at the apartment unit throughout the day and several persons were taken in for questioning.


"It just didn't look quite right, so they gave us a call," said homicide Det. Brian Robertson.


Robertson did not specify what didn't look right other than to say it always raises suspicions when a young person dies suddenly.


CTV Edmonton image

When asked if he knew how the woman died, acting Insp. Stewart Callioux said, "No, that's why – because of her age – and people don't just drop dead at that age – that's why we're trying to figure out what's going on with them."


There was no word if charges were contemplated against any of the men and police described their investigation as being far from over.


Detectives were waiting for autopsy results to determine the course of their investigation.


In seeming contradiction to other reports, neighbours told the Edmonton Journal the residents of the apartment where the woman's body was found were a young couple who kept to themselves.


"They were typical, mainstream teenagers, with their hair spiked up," said a man who lived across the hall.


"I have to say that they never bothered me, other than going in and out late on weekends," adding the couple had moved in just before December 2006.


Everything was quiet in his neighbour's suite the day before the young woman's body was found, the man said, assuming the couple had gone away for the Easter weekend.


An autopsy completed April 12th, 2007 failed to pinpoint the cause of the woman's death. Toxicology tests, scheduled to take several weeks, were expected to determine how the woman died and provide investigators with direction in the case.