A prisoner who was serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of his father has escaped from a Montreal-area correctional institution.
Jean-Yves Roy, a spokesman for Correctional Service Canada, said Friday that Neil Stewart, 34, got away by climbing over a fence at a minimum-security federal training centre.
"We noticed he had disappeared yesterday (Thursday) at 5 p.m.," Mr. Roy said in an interview. "There were some steps in the snow and we presume he climbed the fence."
Mr. Stewart had been serving the life sentence since 2000 after a jury convicted him of shooting his father Lindsay to death at their farm northwest of Ottawa in March 1999.
Mr. Roy said Mr. Stewart was in the minimum-security facility in Laval, north of Montreal, after being evaluated as representing a low risk to the public.
"I cannot presume of his actions today, of course, but he represented a low risk."
Mr. Stewart's brother, Brent, was acquitted in the trial, which tore their family apart as the brothers' closest relatives testified against them.
There were no witnesses to the killing.
The conviction relied on forensic evidence that pinpointed when Lindsay Stewart was killed, as well as the testimony of the brothers' mother, cousin and younger brother, who described how Neil and Brent behaved before and after their father was killed.
The Crown's theory was that Lindsay Stewart was killed because he was going to sell his farm to help settle his divorce, pushing the three sons who lived with him out to make it on their own.
After Mr. Stewart was killed in the bedroom of the house, his body was buried in a pile of snow on the farm.
His sister later reported him missing, while Neil and Brent told police he had told them he was going on a vacation, quitting his job to hitchhike across Canada.
Mr. Stewart's frozen body was found soon after and the brothers were charged in May 1999.
James Morton
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