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Teen from Ajax is the murder victim found in Oil Springs

January 26, 2022

Lambton OPP has identified a teen from Ajax as the person found south of Oil Springs in a double murder.

On. Dec 28, around 2:30 pm, OPP were called to Crooked Road in Enniskillen Township, south of the village. Police say human remains were found. Shortly after, police searched a home on Watson St in Sarnia and found another man dead.

Forensic investigators and the coroner have been trying to positively identify the person found in Enniskillen. Today, they say Jelani Byer-Coates, 18, of Ajax has been identified as the second victim.

Police identified the first victim as Lance Richardson, 31, of Mississauga on Jan. 1.

Richardson, who had a criminal record which dated back over ten years, had been arrested in a summer drug raid in Toronto. In October he was released after the crown dropped the charges.

Richardson was in Lambton visiting friends before Christmas according to his lawyer, Stefan Peters. His partner was expecting Richardson would spend Christmas with her and their two year-old son, but he never returned home.

Peters says Richardson had recently called him, concerned about rumours he had traded information about other drug dealers in return for the trafficking charges being dropped. Peters says that wasn’t the case.

A 42 year-old man is facing second degree murder charges. Matthew Theriault, of Sarnia and a native of Oil Springs, had been charged with two counts of second degree murder and two counts of indignity to a dead body.

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