Man charged in city’s 4th femicide now faces more offences in separate incident
Posted Jun 5, 2025 04:18:34 PM.
Last Updated Jun 5, 2025 04:18:40 PM.
Ottawa police are laying more charges against Stephen Doane after learning of a separate incident that happened after the city’s fourth femicide earlier this week.
On June 2, police were called to an apartment building on Carousel Crescent in the neighbourhood of Emerald Woods-Sawmill Creek, just off Albion Road in the south end. There, they found the body of Tracey Duncan, 54, of Ottawa.
According to police, Doane, who was later arrested and charged, is also facing offences in connection with an assault at a medical facility hours after officers found the body of Duncan.
The second incident happened around 5:30 p.m. at a building in the 1100 block of Carling Avenue. In this situation, one person sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries, a press release notes.
As a result, police are now laying attempted murder charges against Doane in connection with the second incident. The accused is also facing offences of assault with a weapon and aggravated assault. He remains in custody.
Officials say the investigation is ongoing and they are not able to provide further details.
Fourth femicide of the year
Police called the murder of Duncan a femicide:
“The intentional killing of women and girls, 2 Spirit, trans women and gender non-conforming individuals because of their gender, overwhelmingly committed by men,” the Ottawa police force notes.
Over the last several months, over a dozen people have died as a result of violence in the nation’s capital, with the policing agency naming three other murders as femicides.
The first two happened within days of each other.
Police were called to Henry Street on April 1. They identified the victim as Renee Descary, 51, and charged Oliver Denia, 24, with second-degree murder.
On April 6, police were called to Bentbrook Crescent in Barrhaven. Inside the home, police found 61-year-old Brenda Rus deceased.
Robert Rus appeared in court facing charges of first-degree murder.
May 26, Ottawa police charged a 35-year-old man with the alleged murder of a missing woman whose body may have ended up in a local landfill.
Police say the Ottawa man faces charges of second-degree murder and indignity to a dead body.
Investigators say 54-year-old Rachelle Desrochers has not been found, but they have reason to believe she was killed and that her body may be in a landfill.
Police are still looking to find the remains of Desrochers.
