{"id":561713,"date":"2026-03-26T09:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561713\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T09:01:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:01:43","slug":"two-edmonton-men-charged-in-death-of-woman-discovered-in-st-albert-house-fire-rcmp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561713\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Edmonton men charged in death of woman discovered in St. Albert house fire: RCMP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta RCMP<\/a> have arrested and charged two men in connection to the death of a 59-year-old woman in a house fire in St. Albert last month<\/p>\n

Just before 12:20 p.m. on Feb. 19, officers were dispatched to assist the St. Albert Fire Services with a residential fire on Keystone Crescent in St. Albert, said police in a press release.<\/p>\n

While fire crews were able to extinguish the fire without losing the home, investigators later discovered a body inside the residence.<\/p>\n

Police deemed the death to be suspicious and believed the death to be targeted. The major crimes unit took over the investigation.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, police identified the victim as 59-year-old Mai Diab.<\/p>\n

On March 9, the major crimes unit along with St. Albert RCMP arrested Mouhamad Fadi Orfahly, 44, of Edmonton and charged him with first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

On March 12, Alberta RCMP<\/a> officers arrested a second suspect, Mahmoud Ali Abdallah Mansour, 43, in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Mansour was charged with indignity to human remains and accessory after the fact to murder.<\/p>\n

Police said Orfahly remains in custody and is awaiting future court dates, while Mansour was remanded and transported back to Alberta, where he is held in custody awaiting future court dates.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe that the victim was specifically targeted by these two men for financial gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can confirm that the motivation behind this was for financial gain, and that one of the accused and the victim were known to one another. Nothing romantic or anything in that regard, but they knew one another,\u201d said Alberta RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff in an interview with Postmedia on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Savinkoff was quick to praise the public with their help with the investigation, and said they played an \u201cimportant role\u201d with helping this case move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of helpful evidence that we got from residents who were scouring their (home) surveillance, and working with police in that neighbourhood,\u201d said Savinkoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to quickly obtain significant evidence that ultimately led to a series of investigative steps that led to this arrest. This was a very successful investigation by St. Albert RCMP and major crimes unit, but a big part of that was the co-operation that we got from area residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

This incident marks the second major crime to rock the city of St. Albert<\/a> in recent months. In February, Christopher William Beasley, 33, was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of indignity to a body in the death of Ayla Egotik-Learn, and the disappearance of her nine-month-old daughter, Braylee Beasley.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Albert is a quiet community, and this is the second major tragedy that\u2019s hit this city in a short amount of time,\u201d said Savinkoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something you\u2019d expect. It\u2019s a very tragic and shocking incident and in light of this tragedy, we got some solace that we were able to get this investigation and charge one of these individuals with first-degree murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

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You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta RCMP have arrested and charged two men in connection to the death of a 59-year-old woman in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[901,49,48,23752,216927,28461,216925,216926,216929,216928,920,182930],"class_list":["post-561713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-fire-crews","tag-investigation","tag-mahmoud-ali-abdallah-mansour","tag-major-crimes","tag-major-crimes-unit","tag-mouhamad-fadi-orfahly","tag-rcmp","tag-st-albert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}