Arrest connected to alleged assault on 17-year-old girl

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BY KRIS MCDAVID
Times & Transcript Staff

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ESGENOOPETITJ - Just days after RCMP wrapped up a major search of an Esgenoopetitj First Nation home located just steps away from where missing teenager Hilary Bonnell was last seen, police returned to the home on Sunday to make an arrest in an unrelated case.

District 8 RCMP Insp. Roch Fortin said yesterday that police arrested a 29-year-old man at the Route 11 property Sunday evening after receiving a complaint from a 17-year-old girl at about 6 a.m. relating to a sexual assault.

Police are not releasing the man's identity at this time.

The brown bungalow where the arrest was made was confirmed last week by several sources, including Hilary's mother Pamela Fillier, her husband Fred Fillier and family friend Denise Parker, as belonging to Christopher Bonnell, Hilary's uncle and a band councillor.

The Burnt Church house was one of two searched by RCMP last week for evidence pertaining to an unnamed criminal investigation.

Fortin said the 29-year-old is being held in Tracadie-Sheila while he awaits a court appearance. The RCMP said last night he will appear in Miramichi provincial court this morning. He said the arrest is solely linked to the alleged sexual assault reported Sunday and not to the Hilary Bonnell investigation.

Meanwhile, Fortin said police completed their search of the sprawling Tabusintac property, also belonging to Christopher Bonnell, located on the Cains Point Road on Saturday, as well as other searches of undisclosed properties in the Burnt Church and Neguac area.

He said that while RCMP aren't able to disclose whether the search of the properties belonging to Christopher Bonnell were in any way tied to the missing teen, he said that the follow-up searches of separate properties in the area, including two additional properties yesterday, were indeed linked to Hilary.

"We were looking with a dog handler looking for possible evidence linked with the Hilary Bonnell case, but I cannot give you any more information than that," he said.

"I cannot link the two properties we did with a search warrant (to Hilary) because no one has been arrested or charged, but the other properties are directly related to the Hilary Bonnell case."

Addressing the media yesterday in the parking lot of the 4D's convenience store where her daughter was last seen on surveillance camera over two months ago and clutching a portrait of a newborn Hilary, Fillier vowed to continue her own personal search for Hilary, pointing out that she'll be going wherever she needs to go until she has a reason to stop.

The only day she'd ever stop fighting for her daughter, she said, would be the day she finally comes home.

"We need to stand up and protect our children, our babies, and if we don't then who will?" she added, tears streaming down her exhausted face.

Fillier issued another plea to the public to come forward to police with any information they may have.

Anybody with information pertaining to the missing teen can report it anonymously to New Brunswick Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

A combined reward of close to $18,000 is being offered by the band and Crime Stoppers for information leading to Hilary's safe return.