Toronto neurosurgeon charged with killing wife to stand trial next year

TORONTO – A Toronto neurosurgeon accused of killing his physician wife will stand trial next year, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Dr. Mohammed Shamji is charged with first-degree murder and committing an indignity to human remains in the death of Dr. Elana Fric-Shamji, the mother of his three children.

Shamji appeared in a Toronto court briefly Wednesday morning, where judge John McMahon said the man’s trial would begin April 1, 2019, and be heard by a jury.

Shamji is scheduled to return to court May 30, when procedural motions related to his case will be discussed.

Fric-Shamji, a family doctor at Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, was last seen Nov. 30, 2016.

Her beaten body was found in a suitcase by the side of a road north of Toronto the following day. Shamji, her husband of 12 years, was arrested a day later.

An investigation revealed Fric-Shamji, a family doctor at Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, died of strangulation and blunt force trauma, police have said.

Prior to his arrest, Shamji worked at Toronto Western Hospital and was a faculty member at the University of Toronto.

He and his wife both had advanced degrees in addition to their medical qualifications.

Fric-Shamji had a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University, according to a biography in research she published. Shamji has a PhD in biomedical engineering, also from Duke.