Natasha Cournoyer's body was found near a St. Lawrence River boat launch in Montreal's east-end Pointe-aux-Trembles district in early October. (Laval Police/Canadian Press)

A 48-year-old carpenter pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder Friday in the death of corrections worker Natasha Cournoyer, whose body was found in early October in east-end Montreal.

Crown prosecutor Éliane Perrault said Claude Larouche was charged after DNA evidence was uncovered.

The victim did not know the suspect and there was no link between the crime and Cournoyer's work as a communications officer for the Correctional Service of Canada, said Montreal police.

"I think that with the arrest of this suspect ... the citizens could feel more safe on the street," said Montreal police Insp. Daniel Rousseau.

Montreal police investigators working with Laval officers arrested Larouche in Montreal around 11:15 p.m. Thursday night. Larouche, who wore a leather jacket in court, showed no emotion as the charge was read.

The investigation continues as police are still looking for personal effects belonging to Cournoyer, said Perrault. Rousseau said officers were executing three raids in relation to the case Friday afternoon.Claude Larouche pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder Friday at the Montreal courthouse. (Montreal Police / CBC)

Larouche's neighbours in the city's Ahuntisc district were shocked by the arrest. They described him as friendly and polite.

Cournoyer's body was found near the edge of the St. Lawrence River. She had vanished on Oct. 1 from her workplace in Laval.

Authorities spent nearly five days searching for Cournoyer after police were alerted about her disappearance. Her on-again, off-again boyfriend Michel Trottier took and passed a polygraph test.

Cournoyer's co-workers said the arrest was a relief. Several of the women working in the Place Laval office building said they had been afraid since Cournoyer's disappearance.

The arrest would provide Cournoyer's family with a certain amount of relief, said Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, president of Quebec's Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association. But there would also be a "sort of anger that will inhabit them for weeks," Boisvenu said.

Boisvenu's own daughter Julie was kidnapped, raped and murdered in June 2002. A sexual predator on probation was later convicted of the crime.

Larouche will be back in court Dec. 8.

With files from The Canadian Press