The Vancouver Police Department announced Monday the arrest of 25year-old Matthew James Scott, who faces a second-degree murder charge in the 2011 death of Melanie Alexis O'Neill, a Simon Fraser University professor.
On July 26, 2011, around 10 p.m., police discovered O'Neill's body in her Vancouver home.
A concerned acquaintance had asked police to check on her welfare after not having heard from her lately, said Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton.
The Vancouver police held a Monday morning press conference to announce Scott's arrest and what has transpired since last summer.
Vancouver Police Department Insp. Brad Desmarais said in The Vancouver Sun that Scott and O'Neill had an "on-again, off-again relationship over several months" and Scott had stayed at her house on occasion.
"He was known to the police for previous police contacts," Desmarais added. "The exact nature of the relationship will come out during the trial."
According to Desmarais, O'Neill died on July 22, 2011 and her body was not discovered for four days.
Scott was arrested on Saturday in Vancouver.
SFU's director of public affairs and media relations, Don MacLachlan, told the Burnaby NOW on Monday that university officials were apprised of developments in the case on an ongoing basis.
"Our first thought is we really have to hand it to the Vancouver Police Department. They stuck through this through thick and thin, and it's good to see a conclusion to this," said MacLachlan. "We were notified shortly after the arrest, and the police have really put a lot of resources into this case."
According to SFU's website, O'Neill, 37, was an associate professor in biophysical and biological chemistry at SFU. She earned her PhD at Dalhousie University in 2001 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology from 2001 to 2004.
After O'Neill's death, the university dedicated a memorial bench in her honour near the reflecting pond at the Burnaby campus.
In addition, the university set up an endowment fund in O'Neill's memory. According to MacLachlan, the university has collected $50,000 so far in the fund. The fund offers an annual $2,000 award to an undergraduate student in the SFU chemistry department who demonstrates research excellence.
- with files from The Vancouver Sun
