2 P.E.I. residents charged in connection with Summer Kneebone disappearance

Warning: this contains details some may find disturbing.

Two people from southeastern P.E.I. have been arrested and charged in connection with the disappearance of Summer Kneebone, according to Charlottetown police.

In a news release Thursday, police said Donald Roy Holmes, 44, and Samantha Jemima Parlee-Buell, 32, are both from Pembroke, just north of Murray Harbour in southeastern P.E.I.

They were arrested in New Glasgow, N.S.

Police said they were arrested under Section 182(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada on charges of interfering with a dead body or human remains.

Police said Kneebone has still not been found, but their investigation leads them to believe she has died.

"What our investigation has provided us [with] is the probability that that has occurred," Charlottetown Police Chief Brad MacConnell said.

"It is difficult to hear and to think about, but based on what we've learned through our investigation, that is what we believe at this point.

"Again, we haven't located Summer so there is no certainty in that, and we're hoping through this arrest and continued investigation, we can get those answers and get a clear picture of what happened here."

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Police say the investigation continues and they're urging anyone who had contact with Holmes and Parlee-Buell since Aug. 5 to contact Charlottetown police.

"Our thoughts, as a police agency, are with the family and friends of Summer at this time as they hear this difficult news as this situation develops," MacConnell said.

"Hopefully this step will help get them closer to some closure, if that's ever possible in a circumstance like this."

Missing since Aug. 7

Kneebone, 27, has been missing since Aug. 7. Police, family, friends and volunteers have been searching for her since she was reported missing a week later.

Kneebone's phone and bank cards have not been used since the night she vanished. Video footage showed her walking on Charlottetown's University Avenue that evening, before she was detected riding as a passenger in two different vehicles.

A man driving the second vehicle was interviewed last week as a "person of interest" and this week police interviewed a second person of interest, a woman well-known to the driver.

Police did not say whether the two people interviewed earlier are the same two who've been charged.