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Red Deer woman facing murder charge in Christmas Day death

Second-degree murder charges are pending against a Red Deer woman arrested after a 58-year-old man who was found dead in his apartment in Riverside Meadows on Christmas Day.

Second-degree murder charges are pending against a Red Deer woman arrested after a 58-year-old man who was found dead in his apartment in Riverside Meadows on Christmas Day.

Red Deer City RCMP were asked to check on Shaughn Lumley, who lived in the Potter’s Hands Housing apartment building on 61st Street and 58th Avenue, on Sunday afternoon.

Family members, who live out of town, had tried to reach him for several days.

Cpl. Kathe DeHeer said Lumley was found dead and had multiple injuries that were consistent with a struggle. On Wednesday, police arrested a person of interest in the case who was an acquaintance of the victim.

The Red Deer woman is 43 and is known to police, DeHeer said. Her identity has not been made public.

Police are also not releasing the cause of death.

Neighbour Lorraine Gooler, 71, last saw Lumley on Dec. 22, when he asked to borrow loonies for the laundry.

Gooler said Lumley was a nice man and mostly kept to himself. Gooler said Lumley didn’t have any relatives in the city and believes his family is in British Columbia.

Gooler lived in the building for seven years and never felt the need to lock her doors.

“This is terrible,” said Gooler. “I feel very uneasy in this building right now.”

She said Lumley was the quietest tenant in the building until he started dating a particular woman.

Gooler said they used to fight all the time. One time, Gooler said, the woman kicked in a window in Lumley’s apartment door.

Another neighbour, Ervin Harrison, 63, used to see Lumley in passing in the hallways. A few times they had a beer together.

“I usually keep to myself,” said Harrison. “I didn’t really know him except to say, ‘Hi, how are you.’ ”

RCMP are continuing to investigate.

Lumley’s death is the city’s sixth homicide of 2011, the most murders in one year in recent memory.

On Jan. 20, William McDonald, 40, was choked to death during a fight inside a home in the Fairview neighbourhood. Martin David Munro, 37, of Red Deer, was sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Jolyn Ten Hove, 38, of Red Deer was sentenced to 10 months time served earlier this month after pleading guilty to accessory after the fact to manslaughter.

In May, Jenna Cartwright, 21, was killed in Red Deer and her body was found in a ditch in Olds. Bashir Gaashaan, 29, of no fixed address, is charged with murder and interfering with a dead body. He will have a five-day preliminary hearing beginning on Nov. 7, 2012, in Red Deer provincial court.

On Aug. 2, Oscar Salazar, 22, was shot while in a car at the back alley off of 63rd Street. The case remains unsolved.

On Sept. 11, elderly couple Rudy and Elsa Hagen died as a result of a murder-suicide. The 93-year-old woman was murdered.

In November, four-month-old Zaria McCall was killed on Nov. 25 at her family home. Her biological father, Julian Thomson, 21, faces second-degree murder charges and appears in court on Thursday.

crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com