By Josh Howald

Christine Harron was 15 went she disappeared.

Twenty years later – and for a second time – police have arrested Anthony Ringel, of Chesley, and charged him with first degree murder.

The South-Bruce OPP, under direction of Detective Chris Gilpin of the OPP Criminal Investigation Unit, announced the arrest to media at a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Walkerton Courthouse.

The OPP Criminal Investigation became involved in 1999 after the South-Bruce Grey Police Service, formerly Hanover Police Services, requested assistance in the case. Ringel was arrested in 2004 and charged with first degree murder. However, the charges were stayed in 2006 by the Crown, allegedly due to countless procedural errors by police, many of which were brought to light in a documentary produced by CBC last May. Gilpin did say there was new evidence, but wouldn’t expand.

“I can’t discuss the evidence we have discovered simply because it is before the courts, and I don’t want to cause any problems with the court process,” said Gilpin, who took on the case in 2009.

Harron was last seen on May 18, 1993, when she left home around noon. She said she was headed for John Diefenbaker Secondary School, where she was a student. She never appeared at school, and didn’t return home. To this day, her body has not been recovered. Gilpin said there would be another search for the remains, but wouldn’t say when, or where, that would take place.

Ringel appeared in court shortly after the OPP met with the media, and was denied bail by the Ontario Court of Justice.