2nd woman's DNA found at Oshawa home where Rori Hache's body parts discovered, police say

Police say they've found DNA traces of a second missing woman at the same Oshawa, Ont., house where body parts of 18-year-old Rori Hache were discovered last year.

Durham Regional Police revealed the new information at a Tuesday morning news conference attended by Hache's family. Adam Strong, a 45-year-old Oshawa man, has been arrested in the case and remains in custody.

A fisherman discovered Hache's torso in Lake Ontario in September 2017, before officers later found more of the teen's remains, and a homemade explosive device, in a basement apartment on McMillan Drive in Oshawa in December.

Hache, who would have turned 19 on Monday, was pregnant at the time of her death.

While searching the McMillan Drive home, police say they also identified the DNA profile of Kandis Fitzpatrick, an 18-year-old Oshawa woman who went missing in 2008.

Police didn't provide any details about the nature of the DNA evidence.

Police are now asking anyone with information about Fitzpatrick's whereabouts, before she went missing, to contact them. Investigators are also trying to figure out if she had any connection to Strong.

A Facebook group devoted to finding Fitzpatrick suggests she lived on the street and often hitchhiked.

Det. Darren Short said police have been in contact with two of Fitzpatrick's sisters. However, he said, police have not found a link between Fitzpatrick and Hache.

'Daughter was tough,' Hache's mom says

Shanan Dionne, Hache's mother, said it was a struggle to sit through the police news conference only to find out a murder charge still hasn't been laid 10 months after her daughter's remains were found.

"It's the worst feeling in the world," she told reporters, adding it feels like her daughter's life has been "minimized" amid the investigation.

Dionne said she believes her daughter's case should be closed by now, but said she's confident police will eventually lay a murder charge in her death.

Previously, Dionne said she believed her daughter had been "hunted." Today's news, she said, is adding to the suspicions that the person who killed Rori knew what they were doing.

"My daughter was tough," she said. 

"She would not have been an easy catch for anybody to handle."

Police probe continues

Last year, Durham police launched a review of all missing persons cases in the region going all the way back to 1963.

Investigators are now reviewing one of those cases, dating back to 1996, even though there is no linkage between that missing person and Strong at this time.

Meanwhile, extensive forensic work continues at the McMillan Drive home, with the police force announcing plans to dig up the backyard in search of more evidence in the near future, even though other renters are living in the home's upper floors.

Police seek anyone who helped move boat

Strong has been charged with indecent interference to a body in connection with the discovery of Hache's remains.

However, no murder charges have been laid in connection with the women who went missing and no new charges were filed against Strong today. 

Police are looking for anyone who can help them document Strong's movements from the mid-1990s until his arrest in  December. Before renting the basement apartment on McMillan Drive, Strong lived at two other addresses in Oshawa.

In particular, police are looking for anyone who may have helped Strong tow his 18-foot-boat to any body of water in the area. 

That boat has now been seized as potential evidence.