By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

An air force corporal allegedly killed by her military base commander was remembered Tuesday as a woman with a big, beautiful smile and a silly sense of humour.

Marie-France Comeau, with CFB Trenton's 437 squadron, was found dead in her eastern Ontario home in November, but it wasn't until Monday that anyone was charged in the 38 year old's death.

The revelation that Col. Russell Williams, the well-respected base commander of CFB Trenton and Comeau's superior, was charged with first-degree murder in her death left the community on the base and beyond reeling.

Williams was also charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jessica Lloyd, a 27-year-old resident of nearby Belleville, who disappeared about two weeks ago. Williams faces additional charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement in attacks on two other women in the region during home invasions last September.

Alain Plante, who was in a common-law relationship with Comeau for four years, lived with her and his two teenage sons in Bagotville, Que., then Cold Lake, Alta., then Trenton.

He will miss goofing around with Comeau, who had a good "joie de vivre," he said.

"She made me stay young," Plante said. "We were like two teenagers...(My kids) would come to us and say, 'That's enough. We're the children here. Act like adults.'

"I will miss that."

Plante, sounding wistful talking about the woman with whom he remained close friends, said she was a beautiful person, inside and out.

"She was always smiling, like a flower, like an angel," he said from his home in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.

"I could get lost in her eyes, her beautiful eyes."

Plante, who is also in the military, said Comeau loved her job as an air force flight attendant and that her personal connection to the Canadian Forces ran deep, as her father was also a member.

His son Etienne Plante called Comeau the "best stepmom in the world."

In a Facebook post Etienne Plante said he will remember her silliness, including "her Chewbacca face in the morning."

"Haha, my God we laughed during those times," he wrote. "It was just like her to fall over in a laughing fit, we laughed together for such stupid reasons! I will miss her so."

Melissa Sloan fondly remembers Comeau, her former babysitter, as a beautiful person. But as the daughter and wife of military men her overriding emotion is one of betrayal.

"All my life I associated a sense of security and comfort with regards to the military," she said.

"So when I heard that the CO, her superior, was charged in her death, I felt ill."

Sloan lived with her family in Germany in the late 1980s and early '90s and during that time Comeau, a "gentle and soft-spoken" young woman, was her babysitter.

"I also remember her awesome smile and her bright eyes," Sloan said.

"Being that I was around eight or nine years old, I was in awe of her beauty. She had that natural kind of beauty to her, with that beautiful curly hair.

"On a typical night of babysitting me, she'd rent a movie and make some popcorn. She always tried her best to make it fun and it was always a success."

Comeau's brother, Marc-Andre Comeau, wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to her thanking the police for their work.

"I don't know if the next months will be as difficult as the last," he wrote.

"I know however that you are smiling now. And this eases my anger."

The body of Lloyd, an administrator at a school bus company, was found early Monday in Tweed, about 30 minutes north of Trenton, 11 days after she was last heard from by her friends.

Lloyd's friends remembered the stunning young woman as quick-witted, with a big heart and a great sense of humour.

"The pictures obviously show the good-hearted person she was, but Jess was also hilarious - she would have you in stitches within just two or three minutes of sitting with her," said Terra Dafoe, who has known Lloyd since Grade 3 and now lives in Toronto.

"There's a really beautiful person that has been lost in all of this."

Meanwhile, police were looking into other unsolved cases for possible links to Williams, such as the death of 19-year-old Kathleen MacVicar, who was found sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on CFB Trenton in 2001.

Her mother, Colleen MacVicar, knows all too well the pain Comeau and Lloyd's families are going through and sends them her support.

"We are thinking about them and praying for them and hoping that they have the strength to get (through) what's ahead of them, but it's a really long and hard road."