Photo: Contributed

File photo shows William Schneider with Natsumi Kogawa last year.

A trial date on a sexual assault charge has been set for a former Vernon resident who is also charged in the death of a woman in the Lower Mainland.

William Victor Schneider was expected to plead guilty in Vernon provincial court in the sex assault case which stems from a September 2016 incident.

However, records show Schneider is now scheduled for a provincial court trial on Sept. 21.

The former student of Clarence Fulton Secondary is also charged with second-degree murder and indignity to a human body in the death of Natsumi Kogawa last year.

Kogawa's body was found on the grounds of a vacant Vancouver mansion after she was reported missing last September.

Police later found and arrested Schneider who was hiding out in Vernon's Polson Park.

While there are few details on what happened to the victim, Schneider is the only suspect in the case and has been identified as the man seen on surveillance footage walking with Kogawa in Vancouver on the day she disappeared.