A 34-year-old man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of an 84-year-old woman in a Toronto house fire last month, police say.

Around 11 p.m. on Nov. 15, emergency responders were called to a fire at a residence near Avenue Road and Boswell Avenue, where they found an 84-year-old woman inside, Toronto police said in a news release Friday. The woman, later identified as Giovanna Balestrieri, was taken to hospital where she died from injuries sustained in the fire.

Based on a preliminary investigation by police and the Ontario's Fire Marshal, police soon determined that the fire was an "arson with a criminal component to it," investigators said last month. They immediately began investigating the incident as a homicide.

Woman's death in Annex

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