Teen, 21-year-old charged after burned body found in B.C. park

Woman killed at home, dumped in park: IHIT A 15-year-old and 21-year-old have been charged in the death of a woman whose body was found burned in a park.

VANCOUVER — Homicide investigators say two people have been charged with first-degree murder and indignity to human remains after a grisly discovery in a Burnaby park last week.

The accused, a 21-year-old man named Carlo Tobias and a 15-year-old minor who police cannot name, are charged with killing 49-year-old Ma Cecilia Loreto, whose body was found burned in Greentree Village Park early in the morning on March 18.

Sgt. Frank Jang, a spokesperson for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, told reporters Wednesday that police believe Loreto was killed at her home in New Westminster earlier in the evening on March 17.

Police were called to the park around 1 a.m. that night, where they found her burned body.

The discovery left residents in the neighbourhood on edge, concerned that the violent crime that had occurred in their local park might mean they too were unsafe.

Jang said neighbours' concerns were "valid," but that the investigation so far indicates that the crime was an isolated incident and does not pose an ongoing threat to the public.

"We believe that this was not a random incident," Jang said. "This was not gang-related. This was not drug-related. This was not a random incident. From what we can tell from the investigation, we believe that everybody knew each other. The two accused and our victim, Ma Cecilia, knew each other."

Asked what the relationship between the three individuals was, Jang said he could not share that information in order to avoid inadvertently identifying the accused youth. Information about their relationship will come out in court, assuming there is a trial, he said.

Friends of Loreto tell CTV News she was caring, and full of life. She had a passion for singing, and was a vocalist in a cover band.

Loreto worked at an East Vancouver grocery store up until her death. She recently moved to Canada from the Phillippines, and was an active member in the local Filipino community, volunteering and singing at local events.

The charges of first-degree murder indicate that police believe the killing was planned and deliberate.

Jang said police have a "very good idea" of what happened on the night of Loreto's death, but he declined to share their narrative of events with the media, citing the rights of the accused to a fair trial.

"It's incredible, I realize," he said. "I mean, 21, 15 years old, those are young lives, young people, now facing the most serious of charges that we have in the book."

He said neither Loreto nor the two people accused of her murder had criminal records that would make them "known to police."

Jang offered condolences from IHIT to Loreto's family and thanked the Burnaby RCMP, the New Westminster Police Department and the Richmond RCMP for their assistance in the investigation, which he said is still active and ongoing.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Travis Prasad