Residents in this small Quebec town were shocked to learn their neighbour is suspected of killing a 17-year-old Montreal girl who was friends with his children.

"He's a nice man. I mean he was taking care of three of his children. I can't believe it," said Nathalie Bussieres, who lives next door to the 44-year-old man arrested after Melissa Beaudin's body was found behind a house close to the small home he had been renting for several months.

According to police, the man is the father of Beaudin's boyfriend.

"I heard he might have had a problem with drugs. And one time when he had a party for one of his children he seemed to be very drunk. But he looked after three children and sometimes lived with a girlfriend," said Bussieres, who added the man was living on welfare after compensation he received for suffering a workplace accident recently ran out.

He is expected to appear Thursday at the courthouse in nearby Sorel to be charged with causing Beaudin's death.

The girl's body was found almost 12 hours after her mother, a Montreal resident, reported her missing after 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Sgt. Joyce Kemp, of the Surete du Quebec, said police located the suspect in Yamaska - 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal - an hour after Beaudin's mother had called the police.

He was held for questioning for hours but wasn't officially arrested until Beaudin's body was found less than three kilometres from the spot where he had been pulled over.

"What we can say right now is that it was a violent death," Kemp said. "We can't confirm how she was killed but we can say that neither a firearm nor (a knife) was used."

Kemp said Beaudin was last seen alive at around the same time her mother called police.

She also said Beaudin's boyfriend met with investigators while they were searching for her body. But she would not elaborate on how the police managed to find the suspect an hour later. She also would not say what investigators believe was the motive behind the slaying.

Other neighbours said they knew little of the man. Most were surprised to learn that he lived in the area for more than a year.