The CPS Homicide Unit's Unsolved Team has cracked a cold case going back nearly a decade.
On Friday, police charged a man with murder in connection to the shooting death of 37-year-old Corinne Belanger in her northeast home in 2001.
"Our files are never closed. Our Unsolved Team carried on the great work, and built on the great work, of the initial investigators. They conducted a complete and thorough review of the initial investigation, they conducted additional interviews resulting in new evidence," commented CPS S/Sgt. Doug Andrus.
On April 16, 2001, Belanger was shot to death in her home located at 92 Templeby Road N.E.
The young mother's murder shocked her northeast neighbourhood.
"It was a terrible shock. I couldn't believe what happened, or why it happened," said neighbour Bill Rabiuk.
Details of the "what" and the "why" are still unclear, but police think they finally know the "who".
Nearly 10 years after Belanger's murder, police have arrested 50-year-old Barry David Brown, a friend of her estranged husband.
"I think what it does is bring hope to the other families. They realize that we continue to work on these files and there is a chance that one day they will be getting a phone call from our investigators saying that the file has been resolved," added S/Sgt. Andrus.
Police say one of the breaks in the case came from small DNA samples pulled from the home nearly a decade ago. Back then, the technology didn't exist to test tiny samples, but now it does.
Police always suspected Belanger was killed by someone she knew since the house hadn't been broken into.
Officers interviewed her estranged husband several times, but police now say he had nothing to do with the death of his wife and he's shocked that a friend of his has been charged with her murder.
Belanger's family says they are relieved charges have finally been laid.
"The family is very gratified to the efforts of the Calgary Police and any other police agencies that were involved with this. We just hope that the other unsolved murders that they are working on as well will come to a very satisfactory conclusion at some point," said Belanger's brother-in-law Hugh Tanner.
Police say they did interview Brown at the time of the killing but didn't have enough evidence to arrest him. He's now charged with second-degree murder and is expected to be in court to face the charge on Monday.
