Man pleads guilty to causing indignity to body after 2011 Alberta shooting

The RCMP said a man has pleaded guilty to causing an indignity to a human body in connection with the fatal shooting of 40-year-old Dennis Cardinal – a Cold Lake, Alta. man – in 2011.

According to police, 30-year-old Tyler Arsenault also pleaded guilty in a St. Paul courtroom Monday to careless handling of a firearm and was given a 23-month conditional sentence along with a 10-year firearms ban.

Arsenault was originally charged with second-degree murder before being committed to stand trial on charges of manslaughter before pleading guilty to the lesser charge of careless handling of a firearm.

The guilty plea and sentence wraps up years of investigation and legal proceedings in connection with the case.

Mounties said in December 2011, someone reported Cardinal’s disappearance, saying the man had not been seen since Christmas of 2010. An initial investigation proved unsuccessful in finding Cardinal or determining why he disappeared in the first place. In 2014, the RCMP’s Historical Homicide Unit, which is based in Edmonton, took over the investigation and identified Arsenault as a person of interest.

Arsenault was charged with second-degree murder and causing an indignity to human remains after more evidence was gathered and police said it was only after his arrest that Cardinal’s remains were discovered in a rural area north of Cold Lake.

According to the RCMP, an investigation revealed that on Jan. 4, 2011, Arsenault and Cardinal had a fight over a gun while they were both inside a Cold Lake home they both lived in. Mounties said at some point in the altercation, the “firearm discharged,” resulting in Cardinal’s death. Police said Arsenault then “disposed of” Cardinal’s body in the rural area where it was later found by police.

READ MORE: Second person charged in Cold Lake murder

In 2014, a second man – Gary Green – was charged with accessory after the fact and causing an indignity to a human body in connection with the incident. However, the charges against Green were withdrawn on Aug. 5, 2015.