A Red Deer man has been ordered to stand trial in the deaths of two women whose bodies were found in 2007 and 2009.
Gordon Alfred Rogers, 60, is facing two first-degree murder charges in connection to the deaths of two aboriginal women, Violet Marie Heathen, 49, and Jeanette Jean Chief, 48, from the Onion Lake Cree Nation.
A trial was ordered following a preliminary hearing this week in Vermilion. No trial date has been set.
RCMP said previously Chief’s body was discovered on June 6, 2007, in a river near Lloydminster by a passerby.
The last known sighting of the 48-year-old woman was in Lloydminster on June 2. An autopsy confirmed her death was a homicide.
Heathen was last seen in Lloydminster on May 15, 2009. Her family reported her missing to the Onion Lake RCMP Detachment after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Her remains were located in a rural area near Kitscoty by hunter on Nov. 7, 2009.
Police were able to connect the two cases after extensive investigations.
Rogers had known Heathen for several years but did not know Chief, police said.
Rogers was arrested in Edmonton in March 2016. He was living in Red Deer at the time of the women’s deaths.