A 62-year-old Quebec man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of a 10-year-old girl in a Montreal suburb more than 31 years ago.
Réal Courtemanche, already in prison for other crimes, today admitted that the evidence in the case proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he murdered Marie-Chantale Desjardins.
The 10-year-old disappeared on July 16, 1994, after she left a friend’s house at the end of the day in Ste-Thérèse, Que., northwest of Montreal.
Four days later, her body was found in the woods behind a shopping centre in the neighbouring community of Rosemère.
Her killing went unsolved until Courtemanche’s arrest in prison in 2023 thanks to DNA analysis….