No arrests yet in Joannie homicide

SEAN MCKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — No arrests have been made in connection with the recent Shoatee Joannie homicide in Iqaluit as of Nunatsiaq News press time this week.

Police are still looking for information about the movements of the 39-year-old Iqaluit man, who was found dead in his apartment early in the morning of September 25.

“We’re still looking at those two days [Thurs. Sept. 23 and Fri. Sept. 24)],” Sgt. Mike O’Malley of the Iqaluit RCMP said Wednesday.

“We have something concrete at 1:00 a.m. Thursday morning. We have other people that say they saw him after that, but we have reason to believe they’re mistaken. It’s not consistent with what we know,” he said.

O’Malley was not willing to say whether police are looking at one person or a group of people as being involved in the crime.

He said police are still in the information gathering stage of the investigation, although they are narrowing their scope.

DNA samples have been taken from the crime scene and sent to Ottawa for testing. A DNA profile is expected in late Nov. or early Dec., he said.

By taking a blood sample from Joannie and then comparing it to other samples at the scene of the crime, investigators can determine if someone else’s DNA was present and possibly identify a suspect, O’Malley said.