Ayla Egotik-Learn and her daughter Braylee are seen in an undated photo. (Supplied)
St Albert RCMP have arrested a suspect after the remains of an Indigenous woman were found in an apartment and say that her baby is also believed to be dead.
On Friday, Mounties received a report about a suspicious item in the apartment in St. Albert.
Upon entry, Officers located the remains of the woman, believed to be 23-year-old Ayla Egotik-Learn.
Officers also discovered that her nine-month-old daughter, Braylee Beasley, was missing.
Egotik-Learn is originally from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and moved to Alberta in 2024.
On Saturday, officers arrested 33-year-old Christopher William Beasley at a St. Albert hotel.
He is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Egotik-Learn and causing an indignity to the bodies of both the mother and child.
Beasley and Egotick-Learn were in a common-law relationship, and he was also the father of the baby, said Sgt. James McConnell.
Court records show Beasley had been on probation for assaulting Egotik-Learn.
He pleaded guilty in July and was given a suspended sentence and 18 months probation. Other charges of assault and threats against the woman were withdrawn.
St. Albert Mayor Scott Olivieri expressed shock and sorrow over the deaths.
“The deaths of these two people has devastated a family and challenged a community, but it must also serve to strengthen our resolve to support one another in our grief and do everything in our power to prevent such tragedies in the future,” he said in a statement.
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