The preliminary inquiry in the case of Nicholas Fontanelli, charged with first-degree murder in the death of Samantha Higgins, is scheduled to begin at the Montreal courthouse on Monday.
Higgins, a 22-year-old mother of two from LaSalle, was reported missing by her family on July 7, 2015. Her dismembered body was found days later in the town of Hinchinbrooke, close to the U.S. border.
Fontanelli, Higgins’s partner and father of their two young children, was charged soon after with first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a body. He’s been detained ever since.
The preliminary hearing had been scheduled to begin in November but was postponed at the time because Fontanelli’s lawyer, Marc Labelle, was committed to another trial at the time.
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