'Ridiculous': Murder victim's sister told to remove recent photo of killer from Facebook

There is still no sign of the man who murdered a Moncton teenager in the 1980s after he breached his parole and disappeared almost two weeks ago.

Now, the victim's sister says she has been told she can't post a recent photo of him on social media.

Laura Ann Davis was just 16 when she was shot and killed by Patrice Mailloux at her family’s store on George Street in Moncton on Nov. 14, 1987.

Mailloux was convicted in the teen’s death in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years. He was eventually granted day parole in Quebec in 2016.

However, the Correctional Service of Canada has confirmed that Mailloux breached the conditions of his day parole in Quebec on Sept. 1 and has been unlawfully at-large since.

The victim’s sister, Brenda Davis, says she posted a recent photo of Mailloux on Facebook last week, but was asked to take it down by the CSC.

Davis received an email from the CSC last week that said, in part:

"This information is classified as ‘protected’ and is shared with you for your personal use only as a registered victim, not for you to make available to the public by any means, including posting it on online via Facebook, Twitter, blogs, chat rooms, news groups, etc."

CTV News reached out to the CSC Tuesday and received a similar emailed response:

“Under the law, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, CSC is allowed to share information about offenders with victims when they meet the legal definition of victim. It is important to note that this information is classified as protected and is shared for personal use only with registered victims,” said the CSC in the email.

Davis thinks that's “ridiculous.”

"He is a violent criminal and there's nothing out there that shows that he's wanted on a Canada-wide warrant," said Davis. "So, if someone was to see him, how would they even know to call the police?"

Moncton lawyer and former politician Mike Murphy has known the Davis family for decades. He travelled to Montreal in 2009 when he was New Brunswick's attorney general to object Mailloux's first request for parole.

Murphy posted Mailloux's recent photo on his Twitter account over the weekend and says he has no intention of taking it down.

"Obviously, he's up to something because he's at large now. So, why in the name of God would the Correctional Services of Canada try to protect his privacy?” asked Murphy. "Really, it's ridiculous the position of corrections services, and they may ultimately be responsible if anything else happens out there, because, as I've said before, murderous psychopaths don't mellow with age.”

Wayne MacKay, professor emeritus at Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, says his reaction to the request to take down Mailloux's photo was “something must be wrong.”

"If the person has murdered and is out free and they are trying to find him, surely distributing the picture would assist that and to deny that to a sister of the victim seems very hard line," said MacKay.

"One would think if you're trying to track down a person who's presently at large you would definitely want the most recent photo and I think that it's important that be the case because I think there's been a fair lapse of time here and people change their appearance."

Brenda's late father, Ron, worked tirelessly to keep his daughter's killer from gaining his freedom, and she is now following in his footsteps, saying she won't stop until Mailloux is found.

"No, I'm not going to. Not until he's caught and put back behind bars where he belongs. Hopefully this time for good."