Suspect accused of killing girlfriend in 2002 makes court appearance
Sixteen years after he is accused of killing his Calgary girlfriend, Stephane Parent made his first court appearance Tuesday.
Parent, 49, said little as he watched Court of Queen’s Bench proceedings from the Calgary Remand Centre on closed-circuit TV.
He is to appear in court again March 20, when a date will be set for the start of a preliminary hearing into the February 2002 slaying of 21-year-old Adrienne McColl.
She went missing Valentine’s Day and her body was found by a rancher three days later in a field near Nanton, 85 kilometres south of Calgary.
Parent, who is charged with second-degree murder, needs time to find a lawyer and to be granted other legal obligations, said Crown prosecutor Shane Parker.
“It’s to allow the Crown to get disclosure to the defence,” he said.
“We gave him a mandate for him to get a trial in French or English.”
Parker said Parent also faces seven other lesser charges, including failing to appear and property offences.
Parent was arrested outside his home in Gatineau, Que., on Saturday and was flown to Calgary on Monday.
Mounties say he’s been their prime suspect all along, and on Monday said advances in DNA technology and tips led to the arrest.
Last week, Alberta RCMP put out a call for public help in solving the case.
Police say Parent and McColl worked together at the Studio 82 sports bar on Heritage Drive S.W. when the woman disappeared.
At about the same time, Parent vanished and was later located in Ottawa, and had been living in Quebec ever since, say RCMP.
A car belonging to McColl’s stepfather also went missing at the time and was found abandoned at the Calgary International Airport.
In an interview with Postmedia in May 2002, Parent admitted to taking the car — insisting he’d borrowed it — but strongly denied killing McColl.
He also said he was looking for McColl’s killer and would return to Calgary to speak to police.