Fire death at Parkdale flat ruled city’s 14th homicide
The death of a man in a northeast apartment Wednesday was a homicide, police said Friday.
The body of Evan Wilfred Moonias, 28, was found after an apartment fire at 117 Avenue and 80 Street, Edmonton Police Service said in a news release Friday.
The medical examiner didn’t release the cause of death “for investigative reasons,” police added.
Investigators deemed the fire an arson Friday.
Detectives were looking for information about where Moonias was Tuesday, May 29, and Wednesday, May 30.
Staff Sgt. Bill Clark said Thursday in a phone interview Moonias’ body showed “obvious signs of trauma not consistent with the fire.”
A forensics team was at the Parkdale apartment Thursday, but police said a private security company was overseeing the site.
Moonias’ death was the 14th homicide in Edmonton this year, and the second suspicious one this week.
Meanwhile, loved ones were mourning the suspicious death of Mason Montana Landry, 20, who was “always smiling even when things didn’t always go his way,” said friend Sean Roy in a Facebook post.
Landry was found at about 1 a.m. Monday in some bushes in the Gold Bar neighbourhood around 103 Avenue and 42 Street.
Detectives deemed the death suspicious, but the Edmonton medical examiner could not determine the cause. Toxicology tests are now underway, and could possibly take months.
In a comment on Facebook, friend Aarona Moniquue said he was sweet and kind and will be remembered for his smile.
“(He) was the boy that would pick the kids that felt like they didn’t belong first before the others,” Moniquue wrote.
Roy, a friend of Landry since childhood, said he had many friends in life.
“(Landry) was a really good person always smiling and happy even when things didn’t always go his way,” Roy said in a Facebook message Thursday, adding that he was “always solid to friends and family ... (He) was loved.”
Landry’s name was released by police when his death was declared suspicious because it “serves an investigative purpose.”
In a flyer handed out to residents in the area, police were asking for any Monday outdoor video surveillance footage, as well as any information about a white SUV seen in the area that morning.
On the same morning Landry was found, a shooting broke out downtown, leaving a 22-year-old man clinging to life.
Police believe a man shot early Monday was in an altercation between several men and not the victim of random gunfire.