Notorious Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere dead at 78
CBC
Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere, who terrorized the Miramichi area for seven months in 1989, has died at the age of 78.
Legere died on Monday while serving a life sentence at the Edmonton Institution in Alberta, Correctional Service Canada confirmed in a release.
The cause of his death has not been disclosed. The Correctional Service said it will review the circumstances of the death, and policy requires that police and the coroner be notified.
Legere has been called the "Monster of the Miramichi” for the crimes he committed in the area in the late 20th century, including rape, arson and murder.
Legere's 201 days as a fugitive began in May 1989, when he escaped from prison guards escorting him to a medical appointment in Moncton, about 120 kilometres south of the Miramichi region.
He had been in prison for the murder of shopkeeper John Glendenning and the beating of Glendenning's wife, Mary.
While at large, he sneaked in and out of communities along the Miramichi River, brutally murdering four more people in three separate attacks.
Chatham storeowner Annie Flam, 75, was killed in her home 25 days after Legere's escape.
Five months later, sisters Donna and Linda Daughney, 45 and 41, were murdered in their Newcastle home. Five weeks after that, Catholic priest Father James Smith, 69, was killed in his Chatham Head rectory.
Legere spent hours torturing the four before their deaths, according to an account of the crimes by New Brunswick Court of Appeal Justice Lewis Ayles.
Nine days after Smith's murder, Legere was captured on Route 118.
He was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder in November 1991 and subsequently declared a dangerous offender, a designation that allows for permanent incarceration.
Late last year, Legere, then 77, was denied a request for full parole. The decision by the Parole Board of Canada said Legere still presented an “undue risk to society” if released.
Andre Veniot was a journalist at the time and covered the Legere story while working for CBC News in Moncton.
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