HALIFAX – The body of Benjamin Denim Hare was found outside a Truro apartment building the morning of July 8, 2010.
The 26-year-old was involved in a brawl outside a multi-unit building at 67 Lyman St. that ended with two other people suffering injuries, seven people being taken into custody and then 22-year-old Dustan Joseph Preeper being charged with manslaughter.
Days later, police upgraded Preeper’s charges to second-degree murder.
It wasn’t the first time Preeper, originally from the community of Noel, had a connection to an incident involving a member of the Hare family: He was charged with assaulting Hare’s brother in October 2009, but was acquitted just weeks before the fatal fight.
Although Preeper was denied bail, he was released after the Crown withdrew the second-degree murder charge in Sept. 2010, citing insufficient evidence.
The investigation remained open.
RCMP arrested Preeper July 4, 2012 and once again charged him with second-degree murder.
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Mounties arrested Preeper Tuesday in connection with the death of 21-year-old Melissa Peacock of Dartmouth.
Joshua Michael Preeper, of Kennetcook, is also facing a first-degree murder charge in that case.
Police say the link between the two cases is the suspect and they don’t know if Peacock had any connection to Hare.
“I can tell you, from our investigation in Truro, he was the suspect from the very beginning,” Truro Chief David MacNeil told reporters at a joint news conference Wednesday.
“Through forensic investigation, further interviews of witnesses and through other techniques that we can’t give out today because the matter is before the courts we were able to successfully charge him with a homicide,” MacNeil said.
RCMP Chief Supt. Bill Moore explained as the Peacock investigation moved forward it was possible that a suspect was involved in both homicides.
He did not elaborate on the specifics of how they linked the two cases.
At the time of Hare’s death, Hare was remembered for his love of music and skateboarding. Friends and family held a vigil in his memory at a local skate park after his death.
His friend Colan Paris spoke to Global News in the days following the murder, saying “He was really, really a good guy and everyone knew him around here.”
Paris lived in an upstairs apartment of the building where his friend was killed, but wasn’t home when the fight took place. The friend reportedly knew each other for 15 years.
The victim’s cousin, Jordan Hare, also spoke to a Global News reporter: “I’ll remember him by his talents and he never really got to express them fully… He was good at sports, music and we find a lot of that runs through our family. But it’s not easy either way, so we’re going to try and remember the good thing instead of the bad.”
Family used his death to spread an anti-violence message and friends asked Truro city council to re-name the skatepark in his honour.
*With files from Global News, The Truro Daily News and The Chronicle Herald.
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