Guylaine Potvin, shown in a Surete du Quebec handout photo.HO/The Canadian Press
Jury selection is underway in the trial of a man charged with the sexual assault and murder of a 19-year-old Quebec junior college student nearly 24 years ago.
Marc-André Grenon is charged with the first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault of Guylaine Potvin, who was found dead in April 2000 in her apartment in Jonquière, some 215 kilometres north of Quebec City.
Grenon was present in court and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Superior Court Justice François Huot told potential jurors today at the courthouse in Chicoutimi that the trial is expected to last about five weeks.
The case is expected to shed light on the forensic techniques that led police to arrest Grenon in 2022, more than two decades after the killing.
Huot said a “particular scientific technique” led investigators to hone in on the Grenon surname, which eventually led to the suspect’s arrest after DNA from two straws he used were linked to a sample collected at the crime scene.
The allegations have not yet been proven in court.