At face value, Colonel Russell Williams had all the qualities to make it to the top. His unblemished track record included a stint as an elite pilot flying prime ministers and governor-generals on official business, he commanded one of Canada's busiest air force bases, and was considered well on his way to becoming a general.
But today Williams, 46, stands accused of being a murderer, charged with the killing of two women and the sexual assault and forcible confinement of two others.
News of the arrest of such a prominent military figure, once described as a "shining bright star" of the military, stunned the CFB Trenton air force base which Williams has commanded since July.
"This is a tough day for anyone in uniform," the chief of the defence staff, General Walter Natynczyk, told the Kingston Whig-Standard.
Canada's chief of air staff, Lieutenant-General André Deschamps, said that "although one is considered innocent until proven guilty" he had decided to relieve Williams of his duties given the seriousness of the charges.
Williams's fall from grace was triggered last Thursday when he was pulled over in his car at a police roadblock along Highway 37 south of Tweed, the small town of 6,500 people in Ontario where he and his wife, Elizabeth Harriman, live.
The officers who stopped him were investigating the disappearance on 29 January of Jessica Lloyd, 27, from her home in Belleville, a town further to the south. Police have not revealed why Williams attracted their attention, but there have been suggestions that distinctive tyre marks were crucial evidence.
Williams was arrested on Sunday and his house cordoned off and searched. Lloyd's body was found on a roadside just outside Tweed on Monday morning.
He has also been charged with the murder of Marie-France Comeau, 37, whose body was found by her boyfriend on 25 November in another small town in the region, Brighton. She was a corporal at CFB Trenton airbase.
Separately, the two sexual assaults relate to incidents last September, two weeks apart, in which houses were broken into at night and their female occupants stripped, sexually assaulted, tied to chairs and then photographed. Both houses were in Tweed, within walking distance of Williams's home.
Investigators have not indicated the evidence that links the two murders and the two sexual assaults. Chris Nicholas, an inspector with the Ontario provincial police, would only say that there was a "singularity" in all cases.
He confirmed however, that the investigation has been expanded to take in other locations where Williams had lived during his military career. "We are certainly tracking the movements of where this man has been over the past several years, and we're continuing on with our investigation," Nicholas said at a press conference.
One case that has already been reopened is that of Kathleen MacVicar, who was found murdered aged 19 on CFB Trenton base where she was staying in 2001.
As commander of CFB Trenton, Williams was responsible for a major logistics base for troops sent to Afghanistan; the coffins of those personnel who died in action always returned there.