The charge levelled against Matthew Foerster in the Halloween night slaying of Taylor Van Diest has been upgraded from second-degree murder to first.
Mounties announced the upgrade Thursday morning, but did not reveal whether new evidence or allegations had spurred the change.
According to the Criminal Code, murder is classified as first-degree when it is "planned and deliberate" or is committed during a sex assault or kidnapping. Murders that occur during acts of criminal harassment or intimidation are also designated first-degree.
Foerster, 26, was charged on April 5 in Van Diest's death as well as two unrelated attacks on women, including a 2004 assault and home invasion and a sex assault against a Kelowna escort the following year.
He faces counts of unlawful confinement, sex assault, break and enter and assault with a weapon.
Investigators are still trying to establish a timeline of Foerster's activities from December 2011 to the end of March 2012, and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
Van Diest was found unconscious and fatally wounded in the bushes near the railroad tracks that run through the small Okanagan community of Armstrong on Oct. 31. The 18-year-old died a short time later.
The accused's father, 58-year-old Stephen Roy Foerster, has been charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact in the murder.
