Inmate arrested in killing of 15-year-old girl in 2007

RADISSON, Sask. — Police have laid a murder charge against a convicted contract killer in the 2007 disappearance of a 15-yearold British Columbia teenager in Saskatchewan.

Katelyn Marie Noble was last seen on Aug. 27, 2007, in the Radisson area, northwest of Saskatoon.

Eduard Viktorovit Baranec, a 41-year-old man who is serving time at a federal prison in B.C., was arrested Tuesday. He is charged with first-degree murder.

RCMP Cpl. Rob King said he hopes the arrest will bring some level of closure or measure of comfort for Noble’s family.

“Hopefully, the long ordeal that they’ve been going through is hopefully coming to an end,” King said.

Baranec appeared via video link in Saskatoon provincial court on Wednesday and is scheduled to appear again Oct. 16.

He is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Surrey mother of three.

In 2016, a B.C. court heard Baljinder Bahia paid Baranec $15,000 to kill Bahia’s wife.

Amanpreet Kaur Bahia was stabbed to death in 2007. Her inlaws found her body lying on the kitchen floor with her one-yearold daughter crying next to her.

It was information from the Noble investigation in Saskatchewan that helped police crack the Bahia case.

King wouldn’t confirm the relationship between Baranec and Noble, but media reports have said Noble had lived with Baranec.

He said the cause of death along with motive will be presented in court. “Investigations are complex, investigations take time,” King said. “The number of officer hours on this and the number of kilometres travelled is well into the thousands.”

After Noble’s disappearance, a number of searches were conducted in the Radisson area.

Her mother, Leona Noble, made multiple trips to Saskatchewan to help look for any sign of her daughter.