While police have arrested a suspect they say is linked through forensic evidence to the 1998 murder of Renée Sweeney, the lawyer representing the man accused of the crime says the public shouldn't jump to any conclusions.
Berk Keaney issued the short statement this afternoon on behalf of his client, Robert Steven Wright, who faces a first degree murder charge and appeared in bail court today..
"It appears that it is the public's perception that the case is solved," Keaney wrote. "To jump to that conclusion would be a huge mistake. We will be making no further public comment while this matter is before the courts."
It is important to note that while Wright has been charged, those charges have not been tested in court and he remains innocent until proven otherwise.
On Dec. 11, Greater Sudbury Police announced they had arrested and charged Wright for the crime. Chief Paul Pedersen said, with assistance from police in North Bay, where Wright lives, they were able to link the 39-year-old to the crime through forensic evidence.
The nature of that evidence has not been made public.
Greater Sudbury Police Services received more than 2,000 tips and eliminated more than 1,500 people as suspects over the course of the investigation. Police made numerous public appeals, released evidentiary photos, and employed innovative investigation techniques as information and technology advanced.
"At the beginning of November (2018), our detectives identified a person of interest, and through investigative techniques gathered forensic evidence," said GSPS Det. Sgt. Sandra Dicaire. "The forensic evidence provided the service with reasonable grounds to affect an arrest and obtain a search warrant; both were carried out earlier today in North Bay."
Wright remains in custody. He was represented at the hearing by lawyers Keaney and Michael Venturi. Keaney asked for a publication ban and agreed to a Dec. 20 court date. Wright will appear by video, when a decision on bail will be made.
The brutal crime rocked Sudbury in 1998, as family and friends struggled to understand why a popular Laurentian University student would be slain.
Wright was arrested at 11:14 a.m. on Tuesday at the North Bay Regional Health Centre, where he worked as a laboratory technician.
“Since the arrest, detectives have executed three search warrants at various locations associated to him and have started examining the items seized during the warrants,” Greater Sudbury police said in a news release Wednesday.
