Ottawa law enforcement has publicly named a 34-year-old man connected to the killing of a 27-year-old Saint Lucian woman whose body was discovered in a downtown Ottawa apartment building, in a case that Canadian authorities have formally classified as a femicide.
The victim, Kesi Fevrier, a former pageant competitor and recent university graduate from Mom Repos, Saint Lucia, had just returned to the Canadian capital from her home country to resume her academic work when she was killed. Fevrier, who graduated from Carleton University in 2023, was a well-known community volunteer with deep roots in local organizations. She previously attended secondary school at Saint Joseph’s Convent and post-secondary studies at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, and earned the title of first runner-up in the 2018 Miss Universe Saint Lucia pageant.
The sequence of events unfolded over the weekend of Fevrier’s death, starting on Friday night, the evening before her body was found. According to local sources, neighbors of Fevrier’s Lowertown apartment reported hearing loud, disturbing sounds coming from her unit and placed a call to police that night. Fevrier herself had also told a family member that her ex-boyfriend, the man later linked to her death, had requested a meeting to talk before her killing.
On Saturday morning at 11:09 a.m., police entered Fevrier’s apartment and found her unresponsive, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Roughly concurrent to the discovery of Fevrier’s body, law enforcement officers in Quebec responded to a report of a single-vehicle crash on the eastern side of Highway 50, near the small town of Papineauville. First responders found 34-year-old Kingsley Nwude, an Ottawa resident originally from Nigeria and Fevrier’s former romantic partner, trapped inside the vehicle with serious injuries that did not align with the damage from the car crash. Nwude was later pronounced dead at the crash site.
It took Ottawa police until Monday to formally confirm Nwude’s identity and his connection to Fevrier’s killing. An official autopsy to confirm the cause and manner of Fevrier’s death is scheduled to take place later this week.
News of Fevrier’s violent death has prompted an outpouring of grief across both the Saint Lucian and Canadian communities, with community groups, local organizations, and close friends sharing heartfelt condolences and tributes celebrating her life and impact.