Video shows Schlatter, Richey walking together on night she went missing

TORONTO — Security footage presented at a Toronto man’s murder trial shows him walking hand-in-hand with the woman he’s accused of killing on the night she disappeared.

In the video, Kalen Schlatter can be seen with Tess Richey at 4:14 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2017, heading down an alley towards the area where her body was later found.

Another clip played in court Thursday shows Schlatter walking back up the alley alone roughly 45 minutes later.

Prosecutors asked the Toronto police detective who reviewed the footage whether he ever saw Richey emerge, or someone else going to or from the same area.

“I did not,” Det. Stephen Matthews said, adding that he watched at least two more hours of footage that followed Schlatter’s departure.

Matthews said he reviewed recordings from all the cameras around that location, including one that covered a fence line at the back. The cameras were motion-activated and sensitive enough to be triggered by bugs or shadows, he said.

Schlatter has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Richey’s death. Prosecutors allege he sexually assaulted and strangled her in the hours after they met.

Richey, 22, was reported missing after she failed to return from a night out with a friend. Her mother and a family friend discovered her body days later in a stairwell in the city’s gay village.

Court has previously seen security footage from a club where Richey, her friend Ryley Simard and Schlatter were earlier in the night.

The two women did not interact with Schlatter inside the club, but Simard appeared to speak to him briefly outside the venue after all three had left, according to the video shown earlier this week.

Schlatter can be seen walking in the same direction as the two friends a short time after they leave.

The detective is expected to be cross-examined by the defence on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2020.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press