Man arrested in U.S. in connection with Windsor homicide to be brought to Canada

A man arrested in the U.S. after being accused of raping and killing a Windsor, Ont., woman will soon be brought to Canada to face charges in her death.

Court documents show Jitesh Bhogal, 27, did not challenge a request for his extradition during a hearing in the U.S. last week.

Bhogal was taken into custody in Washington State in August, a little more than two months after 31-year-old Autumn Taggart was found dead in her bedroom.

Court documents allege Taggart died after someone broke into her apartment in the middle of the night on June 10. The documents allege someone told her nine-year-old son, who was in the next room, to go back to sleep, and that the boy later heard screams from his mother’s bedroom.

Bhogal, a Canadian citizen who lived and worked in Michigan, was arrested after weeks of investigation by authorities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

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Court documents show Bhogal will be returned to Canada to face three charges — first-degree murder, aggravated sexual assault and break and enter.

Windsor police have remained tight-lipped about their investigation into Taggart’s death, but documents filed by American attorneys in Washington state contain detailed allegations that have yet to be tested in court.

In an Aug. 16 complaint filed the day before Bhogal was arrested, State Attorney Annette Hayes mapped out a chronology that she attributed largely to the Windsor police.

According to that document, Taggart, who police said was also known as Maya Madolyn, was last seen alive on June 9 when she went shopping with her son and her son’s father.

After being dropped off at home with her child, Taggart continued to exchange text messages with her son’s father throughout the evening, the complaint said. There was no evidence to suggest she left her home later that day.

According to statements Taggart’s son provided to police, a stranger entered the apartment at some point before Sunday morning, entered the boy’s room and told him to go back to sleep, the complaint alleged.

When Taggart’s son eventually got up for the day, according to the complaint, he found his mother still in bed. He eventually texted his father on Sunday evening to say “mommy won’t wake up,” the complaint said.

The boy’s father came to the apartment and was among those who reported Taggart’s death to police, the complaint said.

The document also contains details of an interview conducted with Taggart’s neighbour days after her death. The neighbour told police that she and her boyfriend purchased and used cocaine with Bhogal in the early hours of June 10, the complaint alleged.

The phone number used during the drug transaction was later matched to one registered to Bhogal, the complaint alleged.

The neighbour also told police that Bhogal’s vehicle was parked outside Taggart’s building for at least a couple of hours and was gone by roughly 6:15 a.m., the complaint alleged.

Investigators performed an autopsy on Taggart and found evidence of blunt-force trauma, sexual assault and possible neck compression, the complaint said.  

At the request of Windsor police, according to the complaint, U.S. authorities eventually obtained a DNA sample from Bhogal after following him to a bar and retrieving it from a glass he’d used. That sample was later matched to DNA taken from Taggart’s body, the complaint alleged.

Documents confirming Bhogal’s pending extradition did not list a date by which he would return to Canada.

Michelle McQuigge , The Canadian Press