RCMP make arrest in Daisy Curley homicide

After finding found the lifeless body of 33-year-old Daisy Curley inside house 1631 in Iqaluit on May 24 2009, police circulated this photo of the woman in posters aimed at persuading members of the public to come forward with information about her death. (FILE PHOTO)

RCMP have arrested a 44-year old Cape Dorset man in connection with the 2009 killing of Daisy Curley in Iqaluit.

Jeffrey Salomonie was taken into custody without incident June 6 and now faces a charge of first degree murder. In a news release, Sgt. Jimmy Akavak said there’s no date set yet for Salomonie’s first court appearance.

The arrest comes after a two-year investigation by V Division’s major crimes unit, which saw Nunavut RCMP bring in outside help.

“Two retired RCMP members, experienced in the field of homicide investigations, were brought in to do a complete and comprehensive review of all the information that had been gathered,” Akavak said in the release.

Police found Daisy Curley’s body on May 24, 2009 at house 1631 in Iqaluit, the home of the 33-year-old woman’s mother.

Investigators used yellow police tape to cordon off a wide area around the house, which sits at an intersection in Iqaluit’s Happy Valley area. They kept the area secure for an entire week while they sifted the house and its surroundings for evidence.

In the two years since that date, police, and Curley’s mother, Ookalik Curley, issued repeated pleas to the public for information about the woman’s death in radio interviews, posters and fliers.

At first, police did not describe the incident as a homicide, referring to it instead as “a suspicious death.”

In September 2009, Supt. Steve McVarnock, commanding officer of RCMP V division, acknowledged the matter had become a homicide investigation and said investigators “are definitely working on an angle of interest in this case.”

(More to follow)

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