Human remains that were found inside a basement apartment in Oshawa last week belong to an 18-year-old woman whose torso was found floating in Oshawa Harbour in September, police say.
In a news release issued on Friday, police said that a post-mortem examination has confirmed that the remains discovered in a residence on McMillan Drive on Dec. 29 belong to Rori Hache.
Hache’s torso was previously found floating in the Oshawa lakefront on the night of Sep. 11. Hache was reported missing by her family on Aug. 29. Police were able to identify the torso through DNA.
Following the identification of the torso in November, Hache’s godmother Krysia Meeldyk described the 18-year-old “beautiful, vivacious and smart” in an interview with CTV News Toronto.
“It didn’t matter – nothing fazed her and if you had something to say you had to go into another room just to make sure she didn’t hear you because she just swallowed information,” Meeldyk said at the time.
Police also located explosive device
Police were called to the address on McMillan Drive at around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 29 after a citizen completing some work at the property located something suspicious and contacted authorities.
In addition to the remains, police also located a “suspicious package” inside the home which they now say was an explosive device.
Police arrested 45-year-old Adam Jeffrey Strong, who is believed to be tenant of the home, at the time. He is charged with one count of improper/ indecent interference with a dead body.
It is not clear what relationship, if any, exists between Strong and Hache.
Hache’s uncle, who is a member of Oshawa’s Hell’s Angels, said his 18-year-old niece was pregnant at the time of her death in a Facebook post published on Friday.
“So this is the weirdo Adam Strong that was arrested with possession of the missing parts of my 18-year-old pregnant niece, Rori Hache,” the online post said.
“Would have wished to be able to get to him before the police but clearly he’s about to have a tough go for the rest of his life which is nearly as satisfying [sic].”
Investigators will have to find a clear link between the suspect and victim before any further charges can be laid, former homicide detective and CP24 crime specialist said.
“Because this happened so quickly – the police unexpectedly came across those remains,” Ryan said. “Once they were identified as that of Rori, they only charges they could lay at that time was the indignity of interference to a dead body because that’s all they had.”
“Now they need to work on establishing some sort of relationship or connection between the deceased and the accused, and they’ll do that through interviews, through phone record, banking records.”
Ryan added that even though the remains were found in one’s residence that doesn’t neceassrily mean that that person is the killer.
In the release issued Friday, police said that the investigation into Hache’s death continues.
“There is the one charge right now and investigators advise me that right now these are the appropriate charges based on the evidence and the information they have collected thus far,” Const. George Tudos told CP24 on Friday afternoon. “I know the homicide investigators have extended the warrant for that residence for a 30-day period and our investigators advise that they will be there for a minimum of 30 days collecting evidence. Hopefully that will conclude with some sort of homicide charges.”
