On one end of a packed courtroom in Toronto, the family of Tess Richey cried as the Crown laid out its case that 23-year-old Kalen Schlatter killed her in November of 2017 and that he bragged to undercover officers about his past sexual conquests.
On the end other end, Schlatter's mother shook her head side-to-side at the suggestion, as his first-degree murder case got underway Thursday.
Tess Richey's crumpled body was found in an exterior stairwell wall of a construction site on November 29th in Toronto's gay village by her mother, a day before Richey would turn 23 years old.
"This is a murder trial," Crown prosecutor Beverley Richards said in her opening statement."It is about a young woman who is sexually assaulted and brutally strangled to death by a man whom she had just met. The man then left her dead body discarded in the bottom of a stairwell."
"The man who did this to her was Kalen Schlatter."
The Crown laid out its overview of the evidence to the jury that they'd hear about how Richey and Schlatter met on the night of November 24th at Crews and Tangos in the village.
The Crown said the jury would see surveillance footage showing Schlatter trailing Richey and a friend after the two had left the bar around 2:15 a.m.
And then at around 4:00 a.m. after they had stopped at a hot dog stand and interacted with several other people, Richey's friend left, leaving the two alone.
Richards said Richey ordered an Uber to pick her up at 4:14 a.m. at the corner of Dundonald and Church, but that she never shoed up.
"Tess Richey did not board the Uber ride she ordered that night. She did not go home to her apartment in Scarborough, she did not answer the sister Rachel's text messages because she was dead," Richards said.
As the Crown laid out its case, Richey's family and friends wiped away tears at the graphic details. That she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death with injuries that indicated she fought against an attack.
On the opposite side of the room, Schlatter sat behind his defense lawyers and not in the prisoner's box, wearing a blue suit, with a white unbuttoned shirt.
Richards spoke softly and slowly through the opening statement, explaining how surveillance video would show a man leading a woman up a gravel driveway of a construction site, but just a man leaving about 45 minutes later.
Richey's disappearance prompted a frantic search by her family and friends and four days later, her mother travelled from her hometown of North Bay to try and find her.
In a case that would lead to heavy police criticism, including officers facing disciplinary matters, it would be the mother who would find her youngest daughter in that wall.
She did not sit in court during the opening statement.
Richards said semen and other DNA found on Richey's clothes match that of Schlatter and that she was either starting or ending her menstrual cycle.
The Crown also told the jury that it would hear from undercover officers about how Schlatter was arrested for the crime several months after her body was found.
Richards said officers will testify that Schlatter bragged about the more than 40 women he had sex with, and that girls "beg" to sleep with him, adding he had been arrested for "something big."
She said the officers would testify that he explained that he kissed and grinded on Richey that night and that's how his semen ended up on his pants.
"Kalen Schlatter told the undercover officers he was upset because he wanted to have sex with Tess Richey. Kalen Schlatter was upset because Tess Richey told him no," Richards said.
The trial is scheduled for six weeks.