Halifax police say they worked meticulously to build a case against Steven Elliot Laffin before laying a second-degree murder charge against him yesterday over the disappearance of Nadine Taylor.
Taylor, a 29-year-old Halifax prostitute, was reported missing July 31 and in September police announced they were treating the case as a homicide, though her body was never found.
Police searched Laffin’s home on Weyburn Drive in relation to the case in late August.
Laffin, 36, has been at the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Burnside since mid-August to face charges of kidnapping, forcible confinement and aggravated sexual assault in relation to an incident with a different woman on Old Sambro Road. He was also charged with attacking a sex worker in 2009, but that case was dropped.
“Laffin was identified as a suspect in this matter as a result of the charges he currently faces,” said Deputy Chief Chris McNeil of Halifax Regional Police.
Taylor was a sex worker, though police haven’t said if she was working the night she went missing. Her fiancé said Taylor went to make a phone call and never returned to her Fairview home.
“This has been a complicated investigation,” McNeil said. “We’ve been taking our time putting it together because we’ve had the advantage that our primary suspect has been in custody and there was no further risk to the public from him.”
He said the court case would be based on witness testimony and physical evidence. “Nadine’s body has yet to be located and we have reason to believe that we will not be able to locate her remains,” McNeil said, declining to elaborate.
