 Marie Roberts, 29, was found murdered in a London, Ont. hotel on Monday, February 1, 2010.
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ST. THOMAS, Ontario -- Marie Roberts was a young woman with her life ahead of her.
Roberts, 29, and her boyfriend lived in a small home on Woodworth Ave. in north St. Thomas, where the neighbour across the street remembers an energetic woman who baked cookies for friends.
"She was a one hell of a person," said Stan Fil, his eyes tearing up.
"She's the best person you could ever meet."
Roberts' body was found in a ninth-floor room of the Radisson Hotel on Monday afternoon. She was reported missing to police after leaving her home on Sunday.
Her death is London's first homicide of the year.
Roberts lived on the quiet dead-end street in St. Thomas with her boyfriend, Jeff Mifflin, who works at a car dealership in St. Thomas.
The man charged with first-degree murder in Roberts' death, David Hatch, 30, also worked at the same dealership about six years ago, staff there said. They declined to comment further.
Fil remembers the three -- Roberts, her boyfriend and Hatch -- playing baseball outside the Woodworth Ave. home a number of years ago.
"He went to Calgary to work in the oilsands," Fil said of Hatch.
London police confirmed Tuesday Roberts and Hatch knew each other. They also said Hatch was now living in Calgary.
"We're still trying to clarify (the nature of their relationship) ourselves," police Chief Murray Faulkner said, declining to confirm if it's a case of domestic abuse.
"But we know it's not a stranger on stranger homicide. If it is a case of domestic abuse, then the case will be sent to the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee for review. But I'm not sure yet."
On Tuesday there were more questions than answers about London's first homicide. Among them:
How did Hatch and Roberts know each other?
How did Hatch, whom police said lived in Calgary, get to London and why did he travel here?
How did Roberts end up in a hotel room with Hatch?
Although the scene at the Radisson Hotel was being held by police, Faulkner said investigators had to obtain a search warrant to enter and could not say if a weapon had been found or seized.
An autopsy was being performed, Faulkner said, and police will release the cause of the death when the results are confirmed with the coroner.
Roberts worked at Presstran Industries, an autoparts plant in St. Thomas, but managers there declined to comment.
Her mother's family also declined to comment.
Roberts' father, Bill Roberts, who works at a tire shop in St. Thomas, said she was raised by her mother and that he only saw his daughter sporadically.
"I'm pretty devastated," Bill Roberts said.
"She doesn't have any brothers or sisters. It's just her."
Hatch made a short and tearful court appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice Tuesday.
Dressed in a police-issued orange jumpsuit, Hatch had his wrists cuffed together in front of him.
Hatch's family watched him as he was walked to the prisoner's box by court security officers behind the Plexiglass partition.
One woman let out a muffled sob.
He spent most of the five-minute appearance looking at the floor and sneaking furtive glances toward Justice of the Peace Cheri Emrich and the group of supporters.
Hatch is facing an additional charge of breaching a court order for consuming alcohol.
His lawyer Gordon Cudmore said the first-degree murder charge and the breach charge didn't need to be read. His next court appearance was set for Feb. 9 when he will appear by video remand.
Hatch began to cry as he was being led out of the courtroom. A woman with long strawberry blond hair stood up as he walked past her on the other side of the glass.
She was sobbing as the group left the courtroom. None of them wished to make any comment.
One man made that clear outside the courthouse, when he lashed out at an A-News camera operator, and grabbed the camera lens.
"Leave us alone," he yelled.
One of the women yelled to the man to stop and identified him as Corey.
Cudmore said Hatch's family was "very emotional and obviously distraught."
His client is "very upset," Cudmore said adding his arrest made him "essentially a first-time guy" to have a serious matter before the courts.
"This is a new and frightening experience for him."
