A Toronto man accused in the death of Tess Richey appeared in court this morning but was not formally arraigned on an upgraded charge of first-degree murder.

Kalen Schlatter, 21, was initially charged with second-degree murder in Richey’s death but on Wednesday police announced that the charge would be upgraded to first-degree murder.

On Thursday, Schlatter appeared via video at College Park courthouse and was remanded into custody until his next appearance via video on April 23.

Schlatter only spoke to say "good morning" and provide his name at the start of the brief court appearance and was otherwise silent.

Speaking with reporters outside the courthouse, Det. Ted Lioumanis said that the charges against Schlatter were upgraded after investigators became aware of new evidence in the case.

"I'm not going to get into what the new evidence is (but) I'm going to tell you that new evidence presented itself to us," he said, according to The Canadian Press. "I want to acknowledge the community for that. I want to thank them for that for coming forward."

Richey, 22, was reported missing on Nov. 25, 2017 after a night out with a friend at a bar in the in the city’s Church-Wellesley neighbourhood.

Four days later, her mother found her body in an outdoor stairwell of a building under construction in the area of Church and Dundonald streets.

Police initially said Richey’s death was not considered suspicious; however the homicide unit later took over the case after an autopsy revealed that she died of neck compression.

Schlatter was then arrested on the night of Feb. 4, months after police released surveillance camera images of the man that Richey was last seen with.

Lioumanis told reporters on Thursday that police do not believe Richey and Schlatter knew each other prior to the night in question. He said that Schlatter has not cooperated with police.

With files from The Canadian Press