A senior crown prosecutor is shedding more light on why charges were dropped in the 2nd-degree murder of a northern woman.
Heather Ballantyne was found near a trail in Pelican Narrows on October 29th.
At the time it appeared she had been strangled.
19 year-old John Bob Glen Custer was arrested and charged with her murder.
However the charges against him were stayed in late November.
Crown prosecutor Fran Atkinson says the case has been dropped:
“Regrettably John Bob Glen Custer is no longer alive so we can not proceed against a deceased person.”
She said he died suddenly last week but she couldn’t comment on it as it was under investigation.
Custer was the only person charged in Ballantyne’s death.
Meantime sources are telling MBC that Custer is the inmate who died alone in his cell at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre on November 23rd, and that a funeral for the man was held this past weekend in Pelican Narrows.
Foul play was not suspected in that death.