Police are investigating a possible link between a B.C. murder case and dozens of missing women in Winnipeg.
For the past two days, Mounties have been searching the former Winnipeg home of a B.C. man recently charged with the murder of his wife on Hanson Island near Port McNeill.
Sources have confirmed with CTV News that the search is connected to Project Devote, a joint effort by the RCMP and Winnipeg police to address 28 unsolved murder and missing person cases.
Traigo Andretti is the former resident of the home, but has been living in B.C. on Hanson Island for the past five years. The 37-year-old man was charged Tuesday with the second-degree murder of his wife Jennifer McPherson.
McPherson, 41, was reported missing by friends and family who hadn’t heard from her since April 29, according to RCMP.
“In the early hours of that investigation, the detachment members in Alert Bay had some suspicions that things weren’t adding up,” said Cpl. Darren Lagan with Island District RCMP.
Human remains believed to be McPherson were found by investigators over the weekend.
Police aren't saying how McPherson was killed, but say the murder was committed on the island, located five miles by boat from Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.
The couple had been working at a fishing lodge on the island. Before that, Andretti lived in the Point Douglas neighbourhood of Winnipeg.
It is not clear yet which of the missing or murdered woman cases police in Winnipeg are working on or what exactly they are looking for inside Andretti’s former home.
CTV News has learned that three sisters who were sex trade workers once lived in one of the home’s apartments.
With files by the Canadian Press
