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Gregory Tessman Arrested In Edmonton Killing Of Montrealer Valerie Maurice

The victim was found strangled in a home.

The suspect in a Montreal woman's death has been arrested in Vancouver said police.

Edmonton police issued a Canada-wide warrant for Gregory Christopher Tessman, 49, on Tuesday after Valerie Maurice, 29, was found strangled in Tessman's north-end home on Aug. 31.

On Tuesday evening, Vancouver police arrested Tessman at a downtown homeless shelter and he is now charged with second-degree murder.

Police issued images of Gregory Christopher Tessman taken him taken earlier this week as part of their second-degree murder investigation.
Edmonton Police Service
Police issued images of Gregory Christopher Tessman taken him taken earlier this week as part of their second-degree murder investigation.

Edmonton police Staff Sgt. Bill Clark said in a press conference Tuesday that Maurice showed up at a home on Aug. 29 around midnight and was not seen again. She and Tessman were not known to each other, he added.

Investigators believed that the suspect travelled to Victoria, B.C. on the weekend.

Tessman was previously convicted of sexually assaulting an escort, according to CBC News.

Victim travelled often to Alberta: friends

One of Maurice's friends told CTV Montreal that she went to Edmonton to work as an escort, but a family member denied that she worked in the sex trade.

Quebec outlet TVA spoke to friends who said they worried about a pimp that travelled with Maurice on her trips to see clients. She often went to Alberta, they said.

A friend named Crystal Jones told CBC Montreal that she had grown concerned about Maurice, who was "very secretive" and had started to distance herself.

Clark acknowledged Tuesday that Maurice "led a high-risk lifestyle," but the focus of the investigation was on apprehending Tessman.

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