Waterloo Regional Police have announced that they are now treating the death of an 88-year-old woman in Wilmot as a homicide.
Police also confirmed that the victim was Viola Erb, one of the co-founders of the Erb Group of Companies.
On Monday, police reported that emergency services had been dispatched to a home on Sandhills Road in the Baden area for a medical call on Saturday afternoon.
“Upon arrival, our officers did locate a female who was unfortunately deceased,” police spokesperson Cherri Greeno said.
“Information gathered at that time led officers to conduct a suspicious death investigation.”
On Wednesday, they announced that information gathered as part of an investigation being run alongside the coroner’s office had led to the homicide declaration.
Greeno could not say what led to the homicide declaration.
“That’s all part of the investigation,” she said.
“Details related to that I obviously can’t disclose at this time, but I can say that information and evidence gathered throughout the investigation led our officers, along with the chief coroner, to determine that this is now a homicide investigation.”
Police did not release details of the cause of the woman’s death.
This is the fourth homicide of the year in Waterloo Region.
According to the Erb Group of Companies’s website, Viola Erb helped found the company in 1959 alongside her husband, Vernon.
The privately-held company says it now has 1,500 employees and owner/operators and now has terminals across Ontario as well as one in Quebec and another in Manitoba. It also moves product across the U.S. from its terminals in Canada.
Vernon Erb died after a battle with cancer in 2020.