SQ, BEI will investigate after bodies found in an SUV in St-Léonard

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Quebec’s provincial police department and the province’s police oversight agency are investigating after two people reported missing this week were found dead inside a car in St-Léonard on Thursday.

Giuseppe Arcuri, 59, and his mother, Lucia Giovanna Arcuri, 76, had been reported missing on Wednesday. Police are treating their deaths as suspicious, but would not comment further given the ongoing investigations.

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In a statement, the Sûreté du Québec said Montreal police were alerted about the deaths shortly after 12:30 a.m. Thursday. The car was located in a commercial parking lot on Pascal-Gagnon St.

Police officers gather around the open trunk of a car.
Officers from the Sûreté du Québec and the BEI confer next to a vehicle where two bodies were found in St-Léonard on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

The Sûreté du Québec has now taken over the criminal investigation.

The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, on the other hand, will be investigating how the Montreal police handled the case before the bodies were found.

In an initial missing-persons notice issued Wednesday, the Montreal police had noted Giuseppe Arcuri was last seen Tuesday morning at a restaurant business on Perras Blvd. in the Rivière-des-Prairies district.

Two people look inside the open trunk of a car.
Police investigators examine the trunk of a car in a St-Léonard parking lot on Oct. 17, 2024. Two bodies were found in the vehicle. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Police said they had reason to believe Arcuri and his mother, with whom he lived in St-Léonard, were together. They also noted they feared for his safety since he had made “disturbing comments before his disappearance.”

Police said Lucia Giovanna Arcuri was suffering from memory loss and had left her home without her medication or cane, which she needed to get around.

The car the bodies were located in Thursday appeared to match the description of Giuseppe Arcuri’s car provided by police this week.

A side view of a car with the trunk popped open and police tape on the door.
Two bodies were found in a car in a St-Léonard parking lot on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

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