Arrest made after Moncton woman found

The RCMP have arrested a 62-year-old man in connection with Donna O'Rielly's month-long disappearance after leaving a Moncton, N.B., shopping mall.

O'Rielly, 54, was found alive Wednesday during the lunch hour by a person driving in the area of St. George Boulevard in Moncton.

A man was arrested without incident at around 2 p.m., the RCMP said. He is expected to appear in Moncton provincial court on Thursday.

Const. Chantal Farrah said the man arrested is known to police but she wouldn't say why.

"Well, obviously, that's what investigators are working to discover. So as you can imagine she was just found over the lunch hour, it's about 4 p.m. right now, so things are unfolding very quickly and investigators are working with Mrs. O'Rielly to find out exactly what happened," Farrah said.

Police believe O'Rielly was held captive in a basement.

She is in a Moncton hospital for what police are calling precautionary reasons.

Family members learned Wednesday afternoon that their sister, the subject of a national appeal for help, had been found.

O'Rielly's brother, Austin Lawrence, who is in Newfoundland and Labrador, said he got the news earlier Wednesday that she was found and is in good health.

"She got away on her own when the guy went out for some reason. She got out of the house, went out on the road and flagged down a Purolator truck. And from there the guy took her right to the cop station, from there cops took it over," Lawrence said.

O'Rielly's family has believed for the last month that she had been abducted.

Security video released by the RCMP showed her leaving the Highfield Square Mall on Feb. 26 after she finished work at an H&R Block office.

Her car was left behind in the mall's parking lot.

O'Rielly grew up in Isle aux Morts, in southwestern Newfoundland. She and her family moved from the central Newfoundland town of Gander to Moncton in 2004.