A 24-year-old Gambian woman was found dead on Monday inside her apartment in Ottawa, Canada. 

Marie Gabriel, a mother of two, was allegedly beaten to death by a man in the city’s south end Monday morning, local media reports.

Police said Thursday that the man identified as Jean Fenelon, 40, has been charged with second-degree murder. He is due to appear in court later on Thursday.

Police would not say whether the victim and the accused were known to each other.

Marie was born in Kololi to a Gambian mother and a British father.

Neighbours have expressed shocked and sadness at her killing. 

They said Marie was reserved and kind. And that she had two young children, one still a baby and another a toddler, and a male partner. The family had moved in just a few months earlier.

“It’s really, really sad. There’s no words,” Addis Amavi told Ottawa News.