HALIFAX — Police have accused a Nova Scotia man of murdering a woman who had been reported missing from the province's Annapolis Valley, but whose body still hasn't been found.
The first-degree murder charge comes one day after U.S. authorities detained the suspect at an airport in Houston, Texas, before he could take a flight to Mexico. The RCMP say they arrested 54-year-old Dale Allen Toole on Thursday after he was extradited and landed at Toronto Pearson Airport.
RCMP Insp. Murray Marcichiw said that while investigators have yet to find the body of 55-year-old Esther Jones, police believe there is sufficient evidence to lay the murder charge.
The search for Jones began on Labour Day after family members reported her missing.
RCMP Cpl. Jeff MacFarlane, lead investigator in the case, says Jones was last seen Aug. 31 at the Kingston Bible College in Greenwood, N.S. MacFarlane says Toole was not a suspect until police received key information from the Jones family and the community days after she went missing.
MacFarlane said the suspect and Jones — who both live in Tremont, N.S. — are not “blood” relatives but have family members in common in the small Annapolis Valley community. Officers are still investigating their relationship, noting “we can say they didn’t reside together."
Investigators believe the alleged murder occurred on Aug. 31, and both MacFarlane and Marcichiw said during a news conference they’re hoping the public can provide police with anything they saw or recorded that day that could help the case.
MacFarlane said “there was a struggle that occurred at the (Kingston) Bible college” involving the suspect and Jones at 4:49 p.m. on Aug. 31. “That’s what began this investigation,” he said.
The lead investigator said that on the day police started to believe Toole had committed an offence, “we learned from our partners in the U.S. that he was already in (the) United States at the airport in Houston.”
“His next destination was Mexico and they were able to detain him before he got onto that plane,” he said. Toole was headed to Merida, Mexico, said MacFarlane, who credited tips and information from the Jones family and the community with leading to the arrest.
He said police executed a number of search warrants at locations in and around Annapolis County, including in the communities of Kingston, Greenwood and South Tremont. MacFarlane said the investigators are working diligently to find Jones’s remains.
“We’re working with members of the community, members of the policing community and doing everything we can to identify and bring her remains home for her family,” he said during a news conference at police headquarters. The lead investigator declined to comment on the alleged motive, noting that proceedings are now before the courts.
The suspect is expected to be flown back to Nova Scotia on the weekend and will appear before a judge in Kentville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press
