'Burn in hell,' Miramichi's top police officers say of Allan Legere’s death

The top two officers in the Miramichi Police Force did not mince their words when reacting Tuesday to the death of infamous serial killer Allan Legere.

“Burn in hell,” said Deputy Chief Randy Hansen.

“I’ll echo that,” added Chief Brian Cummings. “This individual touched a lot of lives in an unfortunate way, and the Miramichi had to live through this period of time. It’s been a long time coming, but they can rest easy now.”

Both men began their policing careers as cadets within weeks of Legere’s time on the run — Hansen with the Chatham Police Force and Cummings in Sussex.

Hansen said the normal routine for new officers to be paired with a coach officer was essentially thrown out the door, with the department wanting as many patrol cars on the roads as possible to hunt for Legere.

“My on-job training was kind of trial by fire," Hansen said. "We were flat-out busy, very little time with coach officers."

The death of the 78-year-old Monday at the Edmonton Institution in Alberta, where he was serving a life sentence, feels like closure, he said, but Legere has left a permanent mark on the community.

“It was always a community where people never really locked their doors. They trusted people. But that all changed," Hansen said.

“That chapter’s always been open as long as he was alive. He escaped once before and who’s to say he couldn’t have done it again."

Cummings said his thoughts were with the families of the victims and all those who were involved in the investigation.

“Even though the Miramichi was terrified, the entire province was terrified in 1989,” Cummings said.

“I’d be shocked if there wasn’t one or two glasses raised in the Miramichi last night with that news.”

Francine Ward grew up in the Miramichi area and was a child when Legere escaped.

“I remember a whole town was pretty terrified,” Ward said.