Miramichi serial killer Allan Legere has died at the age of 78.
Correctional Service Canada confirmed in a release that Legere died on Monday while serving a life sentence at the Edmonton Institution in Alberta.
The cause of his death has not been disclosed, but the Correctional Service of Canada said it will review the circumstances of the death and policy requires that police and the coroner be notified.
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.
While at large, he spent nearly seven months sneaking into 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 the 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.
In late 2025, 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.
