UPDATE: RCMP say Steven Bugden has been found and is back in custody.
A convicted murderer has escaped from a minimum security section of Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick.
According to the Correctional Service Canada (CSC), staff members at the multi-level security federal institution were doing a head count at 10 p.m. AT on Wednesday, when they realized Steven Bugden was unaccounted for.
The 45-year-old man was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in the 1997 stabbing death of Angela Tong, a 22-year-old university student in Ottawa.
READ: 2 correctional officers charged in 2015 death of N.B. inmate
Émile Belliveau, the assistant warden at the penitentiary, says the previous inmate count was conducted six hours earlier at 4 p.m. There are four “formal counts” during the day.
Belliveau says the minimum security sector consists of housing units with a shared living area for four to six inmates and that “if an inmate wants to walk out, they can. There aren’t any actual walls or structure.”
“This is the last step before setting into society, the community,” he said. “When this individual was placed here, the risk was low for public safety.”
The CSC immediately called the RCMP after discovering Bugden was missing.
Correctional officers searched the facility while RCMP officers, along with a police dog, scoured the surrounding area but could not find Bugden.
He is described as five feet, five inches tall, 188 pounds with a fair complexion, blue eyes and blond hair.
READ MORE: Dorchester jail death raises issues of use of force, health care: investigator
Anyone who sees Bugden is asked not to approach him, but to contact police immediately at 506-364-5023 or 911.
CSC says they will be investigating the circumstances of this incident.
“The RCMP was called and we’re working with them to try and locate this individual,” said Belliveau. “We do take these escapes very seriously.”
Denied day parole in 2009
According to a document from the National Parole Board, Bugden was denied day parole and unescorted temporary passes in April 2009 after a review.
The board details how Bugden was “infatuated” with the victim and had lured her to a hotel room under the guise that she would be attending a Bible class. When the victim reiterated she only wanted to be friends with Bugden, he stabbed her 18 or 19 times. He had brought a hunting knife with him to the hotel.
Tong’s body was found in a sports bag beside a dumpster on the hotel property. Bugden surrendered to police the next day.
In reaching their decision to deny day parole, the board said they heavily weighed his emotional and mental health concerns, which included anger. The board found that his risk to re-offend had not been mitigated at that point.