VI.

Though Richey's body had been found, there was no explanation for what happened to her. Police did not initially suspect foul play, but the homicide unit eventually took over the case after an autopsy revealed she had died of neck compression.

During a press conference on Dec. 10, Toronto police released photos pulled from video surveillance of the man last seen with Richey in an effort to identify him.

At around nine that night, Schlatter called 11 Division. "I'm the guy in the photo," he said.

Toronto police circulated these images in an effort to find the man who was last seen with Richey. (Court exhibit)

Toronto police circulated these images in an effort to find the man who was last seen with Richey. (Court exhibit)

Officers went to Schlatter’s home and placed him under "investigative detention." Schlatter, his parents and one of his lawyers went to 51 Division where he briefly spoke with homicide detectives but declined to provide a statement.

Schlatter’s parents brought along some food and a bottle of water for their son. In doing so, they ended up handing police some key evidence.

While still at the police station, Schlatter threw his empty water bottle into a recycling bin. Police promptly seized it and sent it off for testing at the Centre of Forensic Sciences, where a DNA sample was extracted. It was found to be a match for the semen stain found on Richey’s pants — "to a statistical certainty."

Police were actually planning an undercover operation in which they would monitor Schlatter over the course of several weeks, but “public safety concerns took precedence” once that DNA evidence came back, Richards said.

Schlatter was watching the Super Bowl when he was arrested in February 2018. (Facebook)

Schlatter was watching the Super Bowl when he was arrested in February 2018. (Facebook)

Schlatter was arrested just before 11 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2018, after watching the Super Bowl with his family at the Cineplex Cinemas Queensway in Etobicoke. He was taken to 13 Division and placed in a holding cell at 3:19 a.m. on Feb. 5.

Two other men were locked in holding cells on either side of him. Schlatter had no idea both were undercover cops, and that he was about to give them an abundance of evidence.

Those officers, whose identities can’t be revealed because of a publication ban, learned that Schlatter loves to talk.

The three men sat in separate, nondescript holding cells with a combination toilet and sink as well as a bed. Schlatter was locked in a cell between the two cops, with all three men facing the same wall. None of them could see each other, but that didn’t stop them from talking for hours.

Schlatter was placed in a jail cell in between two undercover cops. (Court exhibit)

Schlatter was placed in a jail cell in between two undercover cops. (Court exhibit)

Schlatter maintained one of the cops started the conversation, but one of the undercover officers said it was Schlatter who posed the first question, asking him if he had watched the Super Bowl.

The officer responded that he hadn’t seen the ending, and asked him who won. (It was the Philadelphia Eagles, the first Super Bowl victory in franchise history.) Schlatter called the game “epic,” and their conversation blossomed from there.

Over the course of the next few hours, Schlatter spoke at length about board and card games — specifically Magic: The Gathering — but also spent time boasting about his ability to pick up women.

"He says he's slept with over 40 women, and he's only 21 years of age," the officer said in court. "He says that he can tell us his secrets. That's when Mr. Schlatter starts speaking about having foursomes, and sex with more than one woman at a time on college campuses, and with random girls, and that girls beg him to sleep with them."

"I was trying to impress them and hide the fact of my bisexuality," Schlatter said.

In court, Schlatter did admit to telling the undercover officers that he had slept with more than 40 women, but said he had inflated that number.

"I was trying to impress them and hide the fact of my bisexuality," Schlatter said, a sort of puffing-up of his chest to explain why he was linked to a crime that started out at a gay bar.

Schlatter also told the undercover cops that he meets women working as a nude model.

"He says he doesn't mind being naked, because he is big, and doesn't feel shy," the officer said. A York University spokesperson confirmed that Schlatter worked as a life model for art classes at York for a few hours in early 2018.

The officer told the jury that at one point during the conversation, Schlatter said, "Sometimes you have to push the boundaries with women to see where it goes,"

Schlatter contested that during his own testimony, saying that he told the officers they "shouldn't push the boundaries when trying to hook up with women, because it only makes things worse."

Schlatter also told the officers about Richey, and why he had been arrested.

"Mr. Schlatter said that when he left [Richey], she was alive, so maybe she took her own life, but he doesn't know," the officer testified. "Mr. Schlatter said he was drunk and something could have happened but he doesn't remember, and he doesn't think he's capable of doing it."

Schlatter not only spilled his guts to two undercover cops, he allegedly confided key details to a cellmate when they were locked up together at a Toronto detention centre for roughly two months in 2018.

The man, who can only be referred to as E.S. because of a publication ban, has a criminal record spanning decades, including several break-and-enters and a domestic assault. The informant said he initially felt sorry for Schlatter, as he was a young man in jail for the first time, so E.S. invited him to share his cell while the two were in protective custody.

But over time, E.S. soured on his new cellmate. Schlatter would cry himself to sleep at night because he didn't want to do time and because he missed his "mommy" — yet he showed no remorse about Richey's death, E.S. said.

E.S. said Schlatter told him "he was sexually aroused, he wanted to keep going, [Richey] wanted to stop."

E.S. said he was initially reluctant to tell police what he knew about the case. "I'm a criminal. I don't like being a rat," he said in court. But E.S. also said his knowledge of what happened to Richey drove him "nuts."

He said Schlatter told him that he and Richey met at Crews and Tangos, before they ended up in the stairwell at 582 Church St. He also said Schlatter told him he made out with Richey, but lost control when she said she didn't want to go any further.

"He was sexually aroused, he wanted to keep going, she wanted to stop," E.S. said Schlatter told him. "He tied a scarf around her neck. She was on the ground and it excited him. He was past the point of no control. He ejaculated on her."

The informant testified Schlatter said that Richey was dead when he removed the scarf. E.S. also said Schlatter ran several potential stories and alibis by him, including the possibility he had left Richey alive but suicidal and that her family had covered up her hanging.

In another version Schlatter suggested, someone else came along to kill Richey after he left, E.S. said.

In court, Schlatter flatly denied that those conversations took place. His lawyer called E.S. "a manipulative, pathological liar."