Pleas have been reserved for two of three suspects arrested in B.C. last month by police investigating an escort services scam in Red Deer.
Red Deer City RCMP allege that two men and one woman had set up a scam in which men using the Internet to hire escort services were subsequently robbed of cash and credit cards. Investigators further allege that one victim was kidnapped and held for a period of time before escaping and contacting police for help.
All three suspects were arrested in Kamloops, B.C., on June 13 and transferred back to Red Deer, where they are being held in custody on a variety of charges, including kidnapping, extortion with a weapon, armed robbery, unlawful confinement, uttering threats and various weapons offences.
Red Deer resident Lindsey Rae Mazzei, 30, and Florian Edward Poitra, 31, of no fixed address, both appeared in Red Deer provincial court on Wednesday but reserved their pleas to later dates.
Mazzei is wanted on additional charges laid in February in connection with a rash of thefts from rural homes in the areas around Bentley and Blackfalds. She is due back in court on Tuesday for a bail hearing and to enter pleas.
Poitra is back for his bail hearing and pleas on July 26.
In addition to the charges relating to the alleged escort scheme, Mark William Bitterman, 33, is also charged with first-degree murder.
The murder charge was laid by police investigating the death earlier this year of Red Deer resident Curtis Leroy Rangen, 43, whose body was found in the freezer of his Potter’s Hands apartment on May 3.
Bitterman, 30, and of no fixed address, had previously reserved his pleas in Red Deer provincial court on June 21. His next court date is set for July 19.