A 22-year-old Kitchener man was arrested Wednesday and will be charged with first-degree murder in the death of Erin Howlett, Waterloo Regional Police say.
It is expected the man will be charged with offences beyond the murder charge.
“There are additional charges pending. They will be read out in court on Thursday,” Waterloo Regional Police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel tells CTV News.
“We’re not in a position at this point to release those charges today.”
Howlett, 28, was found dead in the Grand River in northeast Kitchener in July.
Police quickly labeled her death as suspicious, but stayed quiet about her exact cause of death and other details of their investigation.
Officers were seen searching a home on Chestnut Street in Kitchener on multiple occasions – from which they removed several pieces of large furniture – and also used metal detectors while searching ponds in a south Kitchener park.
Last week, police revealed for the first time that they had multiple persons of interest in Howlett’s death.
Police are not releasing details of the accused’s identity until he is formally charged in court Thursday.
“We would be in a better position to discuss any relationship that the accused might have had with the victim after the name of the accused is released,” says Heinzel.
Howlett’s brother, Dane Howlett, calls news of the arrest “bittersweet”.
“We don’t get my sister back, my mom doesn’t get her daughter back – but at least at this point it starts to head down the road toward closure,” he says.
Erin Howlett’s purse, which police issued a public plea for during the investigation, has not been located.
No further arrests are anticipated.
Dane Howlett says he’ll be in court Thursday to watch as the suspect is formally charged.
“I want to see who it is and look them in the face,” he says.
