Man Out On Bail Charged In Slaying

SURREY, B.C.

A man out on bail for attempted murder has been charged in the slaying of a young woman who was working as a waitress to pay her way through college.

David Walter Schlender, 39, of this Vancouver suburb, has been charged in the death of Sian Simmonds, who was killed Wednesday, one day before her 20th birthday.

Schlender already had been charged with attempted murder in connection with a shooting in an underground parking lot last June. He was released on bail and was due for trial in B.C. Supreme Court on Sept. 13.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Simmonds had been shot twice with a small-caliber gun and hit over the head with a blunt object during the attack in her basement apartment. Police said that minor damage to Simmonds' vehicle, parked at the rear of her home, may have been used as a ploy by the killer to make her acquaintance.

Simmonds' friends and coworkers described her as a popular young woman who was devoted to her family.