Suspect in hockey bag death appears in court

The first person to be charged in the killing of Laura Jessome made a brief court appearance in Sydney, N.S. Friday morning.

Morgan James McNeil, 21, was arrested late Wednesday night and faces a second-degree murder charge.

MacNeil will be back in court Jan. 22. He was remanded back to the Cape Breton Correctional Centre where he's awaiting court hearings on robbery and weapons charges.

Jessome's family filed in and out of the courtroom in silence, reported the CBC's Yvonne Leblanc-Smith.

Jessome, 21, was last seen May 2 in the New Aberdeen area of Glace Bay. A hockey bag containing her remains was found along the Mira River near Marion Bridge several weeks later, on May 25.

Police have not said how she died.

He's been ordered to not have contact with seven people including the man named in police documents as the second alleged killer.

In court documents filed in December, officers identified Glace Bay residents Thomas Barrett and Morgan MacNeil as the suspects in Jessome's murder, though Barrett hasn't been charged.

He is already in custody on a different matter.

Brian Augustine Deruelle, 37, and Robert Edwin Matheson, 49 both from Glace Bay were arrested last month and both were charged with accessory after the fact.