The niece of a woman who was sexually assaulted and murdered by a man who escaped from a B.C. prison on Thursday says she’s worried about the safety of women with him on the loose.
“I feel concerned for the public,” Jade Frost, whose aunt, Kimberly Clark, was killed by Roderick Muchikekwanape and left under Winnipeg’s Redwood Bridge in 1998, told Global News.
Authorities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border continued their search for Roderick Muchikekwanape on Saturday, after Bellingham police reported potential Washington state sightings in Sumas and Bellingham.
On Friday, Mission RCMP sought to allay fears about Muchikekwanape, who had been housed in a minimum-security wing of the prison and was approaching eligibility for full parole in 2023.
“We are aware of his history, but at this point, in speaking with Corrections Canada and our preliminary information, we don’t have anything to suggest he’s a threat to the general public,” Cpl. Nathan Berze said.
But Frost told Global News she disagreed with that assessment.
“Oh definitely, I think he’s still a threat,” she said.
“When we went to court, we learned that he had previous charges that were dropped, and he left another woman for dead in B.C., and then with the circumstances of my auntie Kim’s case, it was just very disturbing.
“The police weren’t at the court hearing that day.”
Muchikekwanape was last seen around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, and officials realized he was missing during a 10 p.m. headcount.
The Correctional Service of Canada is investigating how he escaped.
Muchikekwanape is described as six-feet-tall and 217 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.
Anyone who sees him is asked not to approach him and to call police immediately.
With files from Nadia Stewart