Almost 22 months after college student Kiran Dhesi was found murdered in Surrey, her former boyfriend has been charged in her death.

The 19-year-old victim's body was found in a burning SUV in the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2017. At the time, authorities described her killing as targeted, but not gang-related.

After a lengthy police investigation, court documents show one count of second-degree murder was recently approved against 21-year-old Harjot Singh Deo.

The deceased's uncle, Kulwant Dhesi, told CTV News the family was relieved to learn the case was moving forward, but said the young victim's parents remain deep in grief.

"They are still upset," he said. "They're very upset."

On Monday, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team confirmed Dhesi and Deo were in a "romantic relationship," but could not confirm how long they were together.

"I'm not able to speak to the specifics of that, but I can tell you that he became known to our investigators fairly early in the investigation," Supt. Donna Richardson told reporters at a news conference.

Dhesi's uncle told CTV News he had never seen Deo before.

The suspect was already known to police, but IHIT would not specify why he had previously been on authorities' radar.

Officers arrested the suspect on May 10 after he arrived at Vancouver International Airport on a domestic flight. Richardson said investigators had no reason to suspect he would have tried leaving the country.

"We had no indication that he was a flight risk," she said.

Even though a suspect has been charged, IHIT said its investigation into Dhesi's death is still ongoing, and the team asked anyone with information to come forward.

"We believe that we still have individuals in the community that have very intimate knowledge of what happened in this instance," Richardson said.

Dhesi's killing shocked the community. Police said she was never involved in gang activity, and friends and family said the young college student, whose full given name was Bhavkiran, wasn't known to cause any trouble.

Her sudden loss was especially tragic because she had just recovered from a kidney transplant earlier that year. Friends told CTV News she was excited to begin living her life to the fullest.

"Bhavkiran's death has been a terrible blow to all those who knew and loved her," RCMP Asst. Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Monday. "I hope that there can be some small comfort in knowing a suspect has been charged."

With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim