A London man charged with manslaughter in the death of an Elgin County woman was initially charged with trafficking cocaine, according to court records.
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The Ontario Provincial Police launched an investigation after police searched a home in West Elgin, southwest of St. Thomas, on Aug. 23, the OPP said.
Court records show police arrested Edgar Marshall, 27, on Aug. 23 and charged him with trafficking cocaine, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and failure to comply with a release order that required him to live at a London address.
Marshall, who has been held in custody since his arrest, was additionally charged with manslaughter, the OPP announced last week.
The OPP didn’t release any additional details about the manslaughter charge, including the name of the deceased or their cause of death, citing a publication ban on the case.
But court documents show the only publication ban placed on the case is a ban on any evidence presented at Marshall’s bail hearing, a routine order placed on most criminal cases. Marshall is scheduled to appear in a St. Thomas court Friday.
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Marshall is accused of “unlawfully” killing a woman “on or about” Aug. 9, the documents say.
The family of the woman listed as the victim in court documents declined comment.
The 54-year-old woman, who had two children and a granddaughter, died “sadly and unexpectedly” in her Rodney home on Aug. 10, her obituary says.
In recent years, police in Southwestern Ontario have laid manslaughter charges in a handful of fatal overdoses. Most of those cases involved fentanyla synthetic opioid that’s 100 times more potent than morphine and has been linked to deadly overdoses across Canada.
In May, Huron OPP charged a Kitchener man with manslaughter in the death of a 19-year-old who was unresponsive at a home in Central Huron home on Sept. 13, 2023. Investigators determined the person, whose name wasn’t released, died of an opioid overdose.
Justin Vasey, 23, was additionally charged with possession of cocaine and hydromorphone. Vasey had been charged with trafficking morphine and cocaine two days before the Huron County death, according to court documents. His cases remain before the courts.
With files from Free Press reporter Brian Williams
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