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Boyfriend charged in 2017 murder of Metro Vancouver college student

A 21-year-old man has been charged in the death of 19-year old Kiran Dhesi, whose body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Surrey, in August 2017.

SURREY, B.C. — A man has been charged in the death of 19-year old Kiran Dhesi, whose body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Surrey, in August 2017.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says 21-year-old Harjot Singh Deo faces a second-degree murder charge.

 Handcuffs/ShutterstockHandcuffs/Shutterstock

Supt. Donna Richardson, the officer in charge of the homicide team, says Deo was in a romantic relationship with Dhesi and was arrested by police when he landed at Vancouver's airport last week.

Richardson told a news conference on Monday that Deo is known to police, but she wouldn't say in what capacity.

She says they also know other people have "intimate knowledge" about the murder of Dhesi and police would like them to come forward.

Investigators said in 2018 that they were looking for a grey Audi Q7 and a Dodge Ram truck, two vehicles believed to be involved in the homicide.

Dhesi was a student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey and just six months before her death she had a kidney transplant.

Her family made an appeal to the public last year for help in solving her murder, saying she went through five years with an autoimmune disease and experienced dialysis, surgeries and complications, but she was strong and wanted to live.

Her sister, Anjali Dhesi, said in the statement in August 2018 that when her sister had the transplant, it seemed like everything was finally going to be OK.