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Update: Victim of weekend homicide identified

Body of 40-year-old Lee Chiodo was found in the area of 108th Avenue on Mission Island.

THUNDER BAY -- A 40-year-old Thunder Bay man has been identfied as the murder victim whose body was found on Mission Island.

Thunder Bay police on Wednesday confirmed the city's first homicide victim of 2019 was Lee Chiodo, after he was found dead in the area of 108th Avenue on Sunday. 

Det.-Insp. Ryan Hughes, who wouldn't answer questions about Chiodo's cause of death or any weapons that may have been involved, said the investigation is ongoing.

"The investigators are trying to follow up with family to see who his friends were, who were the people he was known to associate with," Hughes said. "We're working backwards trying to see if we can get where he was last and move forward from that."

Police responded to a call at about 1:45 p.m. on Sunday after a passerby noticed what they believed to be a body laying in the snow.

Hughes wouldn't say if the where the body was found was the murder scene, or if Chiodo had been killed elsewhere and brought to Mission Island.

"We're asking for the public if anyone knew him or saw him Saturday, Sunday, if they can contact police or Crime Stoppers with any information to help us with their investigation," Hughes said.

Hughes would not confirm whether Chiodo, who had been arrested as part of a 2014 drug bust at a Tupper Street home and charged with possesion of a controlled substance, had a criminal record or connections to the drug trade.

The investigation is still in the early stages, Hughes said, and it's not clear whether this case is connected to any other recent murders.

"The officers are working different avenues. We have nothing linked together as for homicides that happened last year or this year," Hughes said.

The weekend death is the first homicide of 2019 to be investigated by the city police force.

The body of a 21-year-old man from the Greater Toronto Area was found on the shoulder of Highway 527 in Shuniah on Jan. 13, just outside of Thunder Bay. Provincial police are the lead investigators in that case.



About the Author: Matt Vis

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