Suspect in cold-case murder may have other victims, SQ says

A man charged this week in connection with a murder and separate sexual assault 22 years ago is suspected by police of having other alleged victims.

Marc-andré Grenon, 47, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault in the death of Guylaine Potvin, 19, in April 2000. He was also charged with attempted murder and aggravated sexual assault in connection with an attack that occurred about 200 kilometres south, in Quebec City, in July 2000.

The Sûreté du Québec are investigating Grenon within a “serial crimes management structure,” spokesperson Sgt. Beatrice Dorsainville said in an interview Friday. That type of operation, she said, allows various police forces to pool resources to identify predators.

“Given that we're talking about the same suspect alleged to have committed the same type of crime on similar victims, this is why the management structure for serial crime investigations was deployed,” Dorsainville said.

Potvin was found dead on April 28, 2000, in her apartment in Jonquière, now a borough of Saguenay, north of Quebec City. She lived with two female roommates, also students, who were not home when the killing took place inside their Panet St. residence.

In the Quebec City case, the victim — also a college student who lived alone — was left for dead in her apartment but survived. A court-ordered publication ban protects her identity.

More than two decades later, the SQ arrested Grenon on Wednesday in Granby. He appeared by video on Thursday in courtrooms in Saguenay and in Quebec City. Grenon remains detained until his next court appearance on Nov. 21.

The SQ said Friday in a statement there could be other crimes connected to Grenon, and they released photos of the suspect over the years so that other potential victims may recognize him.