Tess Richey

Tess Richey (30 November 1994 – 25 November 2017) was a Canadian woman who was killed after a Friday night out with a friend in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood of Toronto.

Four days after she had disappeared, her body was discovered by her mother at the bottom of an outdoor stairwell two houses from where she was last seen.

A homicide investigation led to the arrest of Kalen Schlatter, who has been convicted of first-degree murder.

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) was criticized for failing to find the body when it was so close to where Richey had disappeared.

TPS Chief Mark Saunders quickly ordered an internal review of her case, and later recommended an external review of how the TPS conducts missing persons investigations.

Richey's death, along with the deaths of other missing persons at Church and Wellesley, led the TPS to create a dedicated missing-persons unit.

Tess Richey was born 30 November 1994, the youngest of five daughters in a close-knit family from North Bay, Ontario.

She attended E.W. Norman Public School and Widdifield Secondary School.

Richey worked as an assistant manager at the Days Inn in North Bay before moving to Toronto.

She completed the flight services program at Seneca College in April 2017 and applied for jobs with airlines and a Toronto hotel.

In the meantime, she juggled multiple part-time jobs, working primarily at a downtown coffee bar.

With no job offers from the airlines or hotel, she began studying Italian and seeking an au pair position in Italy, still wishing to travel.

Rachel Richey, her only sister living in Toronto, described Tess as her best friend and soulmate.

She said that Tess was "spoiled rotten" as the family's youngest child, but also described her as a hard worker and very protective of the family.

She was a marathon runner, about 5 ft and 115 lb with a petite build.

Richey spent the afternoon of Friday 24 November 2017 at her sister Rachel's house in midtown Toronto, sharing a meal, games, and conversation.

Richey left the house around 11:30 pm and went to the nearby Church Street strip for a night out with a high school friend from North Bay who she had not seen in two and a half years.

They went to Crews & Tangos, a drag bar on Church Street that was popular with students and young people.

According to Richey's friend, they had consumed a large amount of alcohol before they left the bar, sometime after 1:30 am.

They walked to Dundonald Street, one block north of Wellesley Street East, and stopped outside a house to talk with the woman who lived there and an unidentified man.

Richey's friend received a text at 4 am from her boyfriend requesting that she return home and walked to the College Street streetcar.

Rachel sent text messages to Richey the next morning starting at 8:45 am but did not hear back, and by evening realized that the messages had not been delivered.

Rachel then started phoning hospitals and the police.

Richey had used the same account as her mother for her Fitbit and used her mother's credit card for her Uber account.

From these accounts, the family had received a message that Richey had taken about 300 steps after 3 am followed by a sequence of 4 am notifications that indicated she had requested a ride from Uber that was then cancelled, though it was unclear who had cancelled the trip.

A missing persons investigation was initiated by officers from Toronto Police Service (TPS) 41 Division in the east end of the city, where Richey had previously lived, rather than 51 Division where she was last seen.

TPS stated on 28 November that they had few leads on Richey's whereabouts and expressed concerns for her safety.

On 27 November, Richey's mother Christine Hermeston and other family members drove 4 hours from North Bay to search for the missing woman.

They spent the next two days putting up posters, handing out flyers, asking for information and organizing searches at Church and Wellesley.

On the afternoon of 29 November, Hermeston and a friend took a closer look at a house closed for renovation, two doors from where Richey was last seen.

Hermeston found her daughter's body at the bottom of a narrow stairwell to a basement apartment, which she said was like looking into a grave.

Police officers from 51 Division were called in around 4 pm.

The body had no visible signs of trauma and due to evidence at the scene and interviews with witnesses, her death was not initially treated as suspicious.

Police thought the death was an accident, however a post-mortem examination conducted on 1 December found that she died from a neck compression, and her death was ruled a homicide.

The investigation was turned over to the TPS homicide squad on 1 December and police officers continued to canvas the area for video surveillance and potential witnesses.

By 3 December, investigators were looking for a man Richey was alone with on Church Street shortly before her death.

At a news conference on 8 December, Detective Sergeant Graham Gibson outlined the sequence of events: After leaving Crews & Tango, Richey and her friend went to a hot dog cart at the intersection where they met a number of people including the unidentified man who had become a suspect in the murder.

The three spent some time talking with a man and woman on Dundonald Street, then went their separate ways.

Richey and the suspect walked north and video surveillance showed them entering an alley at 582 Church Street and a basement stairwell where Richey's body was later found.

The footage then showed the man leaving the stairwell by himself.