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Surrey man charged 30 years after Saskatchewan murder

Dennis Henry Hahn faces first-degree murder in woman's 1985 death.
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A 65-year-old Surrey man has been charged in connection to the murder of a woman in Saskatchewan 30 years ago.

It was Dec. 14, 1985 when two masked men entered the home of Frances Wendland in the small town of Rosthern, east of Saskatoon.

RCMP say three children were in the home at the time and were locked in a bathroom. Two of the girls were Wendland's daughters and one was a friend having a sleepover. When they escaped, they discovered Wendland, 43, dead.

Dennis Henry Hahn now faces first-degree murder and unlawful confinement charges.

Another man, Donald Marlow, was arrested in 1990 and a jury convicted him of first-degree murder for being an accessory to the homicide. During that trial, the court heard that Wendland's estranged husband had hired two men to kill her. The ex-husband, Larry Wendland, committed suicide in 1989.

The case was re-opened in 2011, leading to Hahn's arrest.

Police say Hahn, who was 36 at the time of the alleged offences, was arrested July 10 outside a business in Surrey and appeared in Saskatoon Provincial Court last week. His next appearance is scheduled for July 27.

- with files from CBC