TORONTO -- The case of a Toronto neurosurgeon charged in the death of his wife has been put over to January.
Dr. Mohammed Shamji has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Dr. Elana Fric-Shamji.
The 40-year-old woman's strangled and beaten body was found in a suitcase on the side of a road in the Toronto area earlier this month.
Shamji's lawyer says his client's case will next be in court on Jan. 5.
Shamji worked at Toronto Western Hospital and was a faculty member at the University of Toronto.
His wife worked at the Scarborough Hospital as a family physician and was last seen on the evening of Nov. 30. Her mother contacted police the following day to report her missing.
Fric-Shamji grew up in Tecumseh and attended the University of Windsor before moving to Toronto, where she worked and raised her family.
The couple lived with their three children, who are now being looked after by their grandmother, in a home in the city's north end.
The funeral service for Toronto doctor Elana Fric-Shamji got underway Saturday morning, December 17, 2016, in Windsor.
Hundreds of people gathered at St. Francis of Assisi Croatian Church on Turner Road. Among the mourners were dozens of doctors who arrived by bus to set up an honour guard to remember the popular family physician.
Police have said the couple, who were married for 12 years, had problems in their marriage.
Shamji was arrested at a coffee shop on Dec. 2, a day after officers were alerted to human remains found on the roadside just north of the city.
(With Files from CTV Windsor)
