 Leanne Freeman (FACEBOOK PHOTO)
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TORONTO - A second man is now accused of killing a 23-year-old drug addict who was fatally shot, stripped of her clothes and dumped in the city’s Portlands late last year.
Toronto Police initially arrested Jonathan Ash on Dec. 15, 2011 and charged him with accessory after the fact to murder for the slaying of Leanne Freeman two weeks earlier.
But Homicide detectives have now upgraded the charge to a murder rap.
“Due to further investigation, there was sufficient evidence to lay the charge of first-degree murder,” Const. Tony Vella said Tuesday.
He refused further comment “because the case is now before the courts.”
It’s believed Freeman, the city’s 42nd murder of 2011, moved to Toronto from Winnipeg a few years ago.
Relatives have said she suffered from drug addiction and sometimes prostituted herself to feed her habit.
But whether it was drugs or something else that led to her demise remains a mystery.
Freeman was found on the road — her nude body covered in blood — by a passerby near Unwin Ave. and Leslie St. just after 1 a.m. on Nov. 29.
She was rushed to hospital but could not be saved.
The passerby believed she may have been hurt by a hit-and-run driver, but an autopsy later determined she died from a gunshot wound to the body.
Police have also charged Robert Henry “Joseph” Beauregard, of Whitby, with first-degree murder in the case.
