Second degree murder charges against Dana Michael Fash were dropped in court Wednesday.
Fash was charged with the death of Jeanette Marie Cardinal, a mother of five found inside an apartment suite in north Edmonton in 2011.
Police said Fash was on their radar from the beginning but didn’t have evidence to lay charges until 2016.
The Crown determined that this case no longer met the prosecution standard of “reasonable likelihood of conviction,” based on changes in the evidence, and accordingly the Crown entered a stay of proceedings on Feb. 13, 2019.
Fash was released from the remand centre and is now living in the Edmonton area.
His release prompted a warning from Edmonton police.
In a news release EPS said “Fash has a history of breaking and entering residences or other public buildings and sexually assaulting known or unknown adult females.”
“Fash’s risk for violence and sexual violence increases with the consumption of drugs and alcohol,” the news release continued.
Fash was known as the “Mill Woods Rapist” in the 1990s.
He was convicted in a vicious sex assault on a 65-year-old woman in November 1994. A month later, he committed a violent sexual assault after hiding in a school washroom where a 44-year-old female custodian was cleaning.
He spent 12 years behind bars for those offences.
Edmonton police said it has reasonable grounds to believe he will commit another violent offence while in the community.
