LaSALLE – Montreal police were trying to determine Wednesday night whether a body found amid debris in a vacant lot in LaSalle is that of a taxi driver who went missing on Sunday.
The man’s body was discovered by a passerby who spotted it underneath pieces of carpet, branches and other debris yesterday morning. It was near a tree on a lot near the corner of Wanklyn Ave. and Des Oblats Sts., just west of the Mercier Bridge.
The Montreal police major crimes division is investigating the death as a homicide, said Constable Anie Lemieux.
The police spokesperson said the body had yet to be identified. But source close to Mohammed Nehar-Belaid’s family, who spoke on the condition his name would not be published, said the cabbie’s wife was asked by police to help determine if the body might be his. The 64-year-old St. Laurent resident was last seen alive leaving for work Sunday night.
Investigators found marks of violence on the body and determined immediately the person had been killed, Lemieux said.
“Investigators are trying to find the circumstances behind how the body got there and the motive behind all of this,” she said.
The police were first alerted to the body’s presence at around 11:20 a.m. An ambulance was called and a doctor with Urgence Santé declared the person dead at the scene.
Lemieux said because the body has yet to be formally identified it is too early to say if the homicide investigation might be related to the Nehar-Belaid’s disappearance.
“It is difficult to draw conclusions that it could be (related). For the moment nothing can be confirmed” she said.
According to the Montreal police, a witness spotted Nehar-Belaid’s taxi, a Ford Taurus, at an Ultramar station in Verdun early Monday morning and it appeared that someone else was behind the wheel.
The Montreal police released photos and a video, taken from a surveillance camera at the Ultramar station, of the man who was believed to be behind the wheel of the taxi.
Investigators also are trying to locate a person who used the cabbie’s credit cards after Nehar-Belaid went missing.
At the time he disappeared, Nehar-Belaid had been working for Champlain Taxi for only a few months. He normally picked up fares downtown and in the St. Laurent borough.
The homicide is the 29th reported in Montreal so far this year. There were 20 reported during the corresponding period last year.
pcherry@thegazette.canwest.com
1 comment:
well they may have got a little punk for this crime:
MONTREAL – A 26-year-old man is to appear in Quebec Court Monday to be arraigned on a first degree murder charge related to the death of a taxi driver whose body was found in a vacant lot in LaSalle on Wednesday.
The suspect was arrested at his home early this morning by members of the Montreal Police Special Weapons and Tactics team and Major Crimes unit.
The victim, 64-year-old Mohammed Nehar-Belaid of St. Laurent, was last seen alive last Sunday night when he left for his night shift. His body was discovered under a carpet in a vacant lot in LaSalle on Wednesday morning.
Nehar-Belaid’s taxi, a grey 2005 Ford Taurus was found the following morning in Côte St. Luc near the corner of Clanranald Ave. and David Lewis St.
Constable Raphaël Bergeron of the Montreal police said the suspect was seen in a surveillance video at an Ultramar gas station in Verdun in Nehar-Belaid’s taxi early Monday morning, not long after Nehar-Belaid would have started his shift. Police also believe the suspect used the victim’s credit cards.
The victim was a father of four and had been working as a taxi driver for the 15 years since he arrived in Canada from Algeria.
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