A 48-year-old woman murdered in her Val Caron home last week was a teacher’s aid at École secondaire catholique L’Horizon, who worked with special needs students.

Anne Julien-Guerin was rushed to Sudbury Regional Hospital Sept. 2 after Greater Sudbury Police and EMS staff responded to a 9-1-1 call around 2 a.m. She died of apparent stab wounds at the hospital, according to Insp. Al Asunmaa of the Greater Sudbury Police. This marks the city’s first murder of 2010.

Julien-Guerin’s husband, 48-year-old Denis Guerin, has been charged with second-degree murder in his wife’s death. He was found a short time after police arrived, near the family’s Henry Court home.

Lyse-Anne Papineau, director of education for Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario (CSCNO), said the school board has deployed intervention teams to the school to help staff deal with the sudden death of their colleague.

The team will be on hand this week to help students come to terms with the loss of a respected educator, she said.

“Everyone is quite saddened by her death,” Papineau said. “We weren’t expecting something like that at the beginning of the year. She was appreciated by everybody — students, parents and colleagues. It’s definitely a tragedy, everybody was in shock.”

Julien-Guerin has worked at l’Horizon since 2005, but began her career with CSCNO in 1985. Julien-Guerin’s daughter graduated from l’Horizon last year, and her son is entering Grade 10 at the school. “Our main concern at this point is the school — the staff and the students, and the son that is a student at the school — (and) giving them support.”

The secondary school is holding a memorial for Julien-Guerin today, Sept. 7.

Police are asking anyone with information about this incident to contact them at 705-675-9171, or Sudbury Rainbow Crime Stoppers at 705-222-8477(TIPS), online at www.sudburycrimestoppers.com, or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), beginning with the word TIPSUD.