RCMP have arrested a suspect in a murder case dating back to 2004.
David Boulanger, 28, also known as Divas B, was found murdered on November 3, 2004. Boulanger's body was found at a rest stop east of Portage la Prairie.
Boulanger, a transgendered person, worked in the sex trade.
Officers said Boulanger died from blunt-force trauma somewhere in Winnipeg.
Boulanger had been reported missing by family members on October 18, 2004.
Harmony, a friend of the victim, said news of the arrest brings some closure.
"We have mourned for a long time and (to) not know what happened was the hardest thing," said Harmony.
She still wants to know what exactly led to Boulanger's death.
On Friday, RCMP said Theodore Raymond Herntier, 40, had been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
He was arrested in Arcola, Saskatchewan on July 14 and will be brought to Winnipeg. Police said the suspect was living in Winnipeg at the time of the murder.
When asked at a press conference on Friday why the arrest took six years to make, RCMP spokesperson Const. Miles Hiebert said there were multiple witnesses and mountains of evidence to go through in the case.
"All of that takes time and it has to be done thoroughly and concisely and it's taken this long to put the evidence together in a fashion that an arrest can be made," said Hiebert.
Police said this case is not linked to any other cold cases. The RCMP still has 56 unsolved cases of murdered or missing people in Manitoba, which includes both men and women.
Officers said they continue to investigate those cases with the hopes of bringing closure to more families in the future.
"It's important to know that every missing and murdered investigation is important and is treated as important," said Hiebert.
- with a report from CTV's Caroline Barghout
