EDMONTON—The suspect in the gruesome case of a man who was starved and burned before being dumped at a Regina hospital has been arrested in Edmonton, police in Alberta say.
Terry Larson, acting inspector with the Calgary police, said Dustin Paxton has been arrested.
The 30-year-old man is facing aggravated assault, forcible confinement and other charges after Dustin LaFortune was dumped at the hospital in Regina in April.
LaFortune was reported missing the same month.
LaFortune's family says the 26-year-old man moved to Calgary from Winnipeg two years ago to work for a moving company and they lost contact with him in February.
The official word comes after Edmonton radio station CHED reported earlier that a police tactical unit took the suspect into custody without incident at a home in the city's southeast Tuesday evening.
CHED said Paxton was being questioned by Calgary police and that Regina police are also expected in Edmonton to interview him.
Police had said Tuesday they were confident they would find their suspect.
While they only this week publicly fingered Paxton as their suspect, LaFortune's family has been pointing to him for months, using the Internet to make its case.
Regina police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich said Tuesday that there were challenges in the investigation, including that LaFortune initially couldn't give officers a statement.
The 26-year-old LaFortune weighed just 87 pounds, down from his usual weight of 245, when he was left at the hospital. His family has said that in addition to extensive physical injuries, he suffered brain trauma and amnesia.
Regina police couldn't interview him until May 14 and Popowich said even then there was some difficulty in getting an accurate picture of what had happened.
LaFortune was reported missing in Calgary on April 12.
Earlier this week, word of the warrant for Paxton's arrest had been welcomed by LaFortune's family. His mother, Renee LaFortune, called the investigators “heroes” in a Facebook post on a page dedicated to the case.
She said an arrest would be important to her son.
“If Paxton is in custody, Dustin will feel safe ....”
Police said the investigation was over four provinces — British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Justin was in ICU on full life support. He is now in an isolated neurosciences critical care unit where he will remain for months and months. Dustin weighs about 45kg., is being tube fed. There are multiple fractures to his face and body, evidence of new and old wounds in various states of healing, burn marks, old stab wounds, infections etc… Dustin has pneumonia and c-difficile.
His lips and tongue were cut off. Dustin has severe to moderate acquired brain injury (ABI).
