Jury selection started Monday in the case of a Toronto police officer charged with killing a woman in 2002. Constable Richard Wills will soon be tried for first-degree murder in the death of Linda Mariani.
Mariani was a 40-year-old mother of a teenage son. She went missing in February of 2002 and her body was not recovered until the suspect surrendered to police about four months later.
Investigators alleged they found Mariani in Wills' suburban home north of Toronto, located behind what police believed was a false wall.
Police also believed that her body had remained inside the home for nearly four months.
An autopsy conducted shortly after Mariani's body was found indicated that she died from blunt force trauma.
According to court documents filed by Wills' wife in January 2001, he and Mariani were having an affair around the time of her death. They were also partners in a power skating business.
A group of about 600 people went to the Newmarket courthouse on Monday. From that group a jury of 12 people will be chosen over the next two weeks. The trial could get under way by the end of the month.
Wills has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
With a report from CTV's John Musselman
