Cross-country search for car in N.S. slaying

Police across the country are being urged to watch for a car at the centre of a homicide investigation in Halifax.

Halifax Regional Police have been looking for Trevor Brewster's black Honda Civic since his body was found near a lake last Wednesday.

Police said Monday that officerssaw the car shortly after Brewster was last seen alive,but didn't stop it.

Brewster, 45, from Cole Harbour, N.S.,was seen the night of May 7 driving away from his job at the Steak and Stein restaurant in Halifax.

Hours later, RCMP in Cole Harbour spotted his Honda Civic and recorded the licence plate for a minor traffic violation.

"They did check at the residence later that day to see if the vehicle had returned," RCMP Cpl. Joe Taplin told CBC News.

Brewster was reported missing that same day.

The next afternoon, a man collecting cans discovered Brewster's body under a boardwalk at the edge of Frenchman Lake in Dartmouth.

Taplin said there is no way to know whether Brewster was alive when police spotted the car, or whether his killer might have been driving the vehicle.

"They wouldn't have known until it came back the next couple of days about the vehicle," he said.

Taplin said investigators believe the black, two-door Honda Civic is no longer in Nova Scotia.

Police have notified police departments across the country to be on the lookout for the car licence plate DYS 031 which has a rainbow-striped teddy bear at the back above the tail light.

Brewster's death has been linked with the killing of Michael Knott,whose bodywas found in a wooded areanear Hubbards, N.S.,on May 5.

Like Brewster, Knott, 44, of Timberlea, was gay.

Investigators say there are similarities in the twodeaths, though they couldn't say whether the men's sexual orientation was a factor.

In a rare move Friday, Halifax police and the RCMP issued a public warningabout cruising areas, urgingmembers of the gay community to be careful.

Knott's car was recovered near the Halifax airport two days after his body was found.