Four people from three separate communities were arrested this week in connection with a homicide, RCMP said, several months after a group of hunters found the victim’s body in northwestern Alberta.

Police charged one of the suspects, a 32-year-old man, with second-degree murder. Three other people were charged after the incident with accessory to murder and indignity to a corpse, according to a news release published Saturday evening.

Fairview RCMP received a call in late May after four bear hunters found a body dumped in a “remote area,” the statement said. An RCMP spokesman could not provide an approximate location of where the body was found, but said it was within the boundaries of the area. Fairview detachment jurisdiction.

The RCMP serious crimes unit took over the investigation with assistance from the Fairview detachment, the statement said.

The statement stated that an autopsy within a few days revealed the manner of death to be homicide, and that the victim was a 54-year-old man from the town of Manning, Alta., about 460 kilometers northwest of Edmonton.

Eventually, the investigation was shifted to the Peace River area. The local detachment began assisting the major crimes unit, the statement said.

Then this week, RCMP made four arrests in connection with the murder, exactly five months after the investigation began, according to the statement. An RCMP spokesman said none of the hunters who found the victim’s body were among those accused.

The statement stated that the four suspects came from three different communities. One is from Manning, where the victim lived. Another lived in Fairview, about 90 miles southwest of Manning, and two resided in Berwyn, Alta., about 60 miles south of Manning.

The 32-year-old man accused of second-degree murder lives in Berwyn, the statement said.

According to the Criminal Code of Canada, second-degree murder is a premeditated murder that is generally not premeditated. However, there are situations in which someone can be charged with first-degree murder even when a murder was not premeditated, including when an on-duty police officer is killed or the murder is committed during a terrorist attack or sexual assault.

In the statement, it was stated that 4 suspects were arrested after their procedures at the police station.

They are scheduled to appear virtually at the Alberta Court of Justice in Peace River, Alta., on Monday, the statement said.