VANCOUVER -- One of the people accused of murdering a New Westminster woman and setting fire to her body in a Burnaby park is also facing sexual interference charges, according to the B.C. Prosecution Service.
The service confirmed to CTV News Vancouver via email that 21-year-old Carlo Tobias is facing a charge of sexual interference with a minor, a crime he allegedly committed in Richmond in November.
Tobias and a 15-year-old minor who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act are each facing one count of first-degree murder and one count of indignity to human remains.
Police allege that the pair killed 49-year-old Ma Cecillia Loreto - who was known to friends as Maricel or Mycel - in her New Westminster home on March 17. They then allegedly brought her body to Greentree Village Park in Burnaby in the early morning hours of March 18 and set it on fire.
Tobias and the accused teenager made their first court appearances in that case on Friday, joining proceedings at New Westminster provincial court by video.
The B.C. Prosecution Service did not say whether there is any connection between the sexual interference charge against Tobias and the Loreto case.
He is scheduled to appear in Richmond provincial court on April 21 to face the sexual interference charge.
