Montreal Police Question 'Suspect'

                                                                                                                         MONTREAL- Police have arrested a man in his 40s in the homicide of Jolène Riendeau, who vanished from Montreal's Point St. Charles district in 1999, when she was 10 years old.

But it is not certain the man will be charged with a crime, said Montreal police Sgt. Ian Lafrenière, a spokesperson for the police department.

"We are still questioning him," Lafrenière said. "We're not 100 per cent sure if he will be charged with anything."

He said the man, a Montrealer, was arrested in Montreal on Friday morning.

                                                                                                                                   "We don't want to say anything about who he is or what his relationship to the family might be because if we do people might start figuring out who he is."

If the man is to be arraigned, it won't be until Saturday, Lafrenière said, as it was already too late in the day Friday to arrange for a court appearance. Police have the right to detain someone for 24 hours for questioning, he noted.

Asked to explain how police could proceed with an arrest without certainty of guilt, Lafrenière said: "We had enough information to question him."

Lafrenière refused to divulge any details on how the Montreal police found Jolene's remains except that they were found in Montreal.

He limited his description of the suspect to "a man in his 40s."

The spokesperson said police are being very careful about what they make public, as investigators need to know, when they are questioning a suspect or a witness, if they are talking to someone who has genuine information on the homicide or someone who is merely repeating what he or she heard from the media.

Lafrenière said investigators have been led down false paths in the Riendeau case before.

More details to come

pcherry@montrealgazette.com