For more than 50 years, Annie Flam’s grocery store was the heart of its Chatham, New Brunswick, neighborhood. Annie, a proud, tough, and kind woman, was a pillar of the small community, known for her dedication and warmth. She was 75 years old, a career-minded woman who had never married, instead pouring her life into the family store she inherited from her mother. She worked seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., never taking a holiday, and was known for mothering the neighborhood children. A devout member of the local Jewish community, she maintained a kosher household even as the community dwindled over time.
The sense of safety in the quiet, close-knit town was shattered in the spring of 1989. On May 3, a convicted murderer named Allan Joseph Legere escaped from custody during a hospital visit in Moncton.
Legere, who was serving a life sentence for the 1986 beating death of a shopkeeper named John Glendenning, managed to pick the locks on his handcuffs and leg irons in a bathroom and vanish. For weeks, a cloud of fear hung over the Miramichi region as the public knew a violent killer was at large. That fear became a horrific reality on Sunday, May 28, 1989.
That night, Legere broke into the apartment above the shop where Annie Flam lived with her sister-in-law, Nina Flam. He bound the two women and subjected them to a brutal, prolonged assault. Nina was beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled so severely that she survived only by pretending to be dead. Legere then turned his savagery on Annie, beating and sexually assaulting the elderly woman. Before fleeing, he set fire to the apartment to cover his crimes. A neighbor spotted the flames late that night, and firefighters rushed to the scene. They found Nina badly burned but alive near a back door. Annie Flam was already gone.
The brutal murder of the well-known and beloved shopkeeper rocked the community to its core. The attack on the Flam women was the first confirmation that Legere was not only free but was actively preying on the citizens of the Miramichi area, plunging the region into a seven-month reign of terror. People who had never locked their doors were now installing extra bolts, and a siege mentality took hold. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched one of the largest manhunts in their history to find the man now known as the "Monster of the Miramichi."
Legere’s rampage continued with the murders of sisters Donna and Linda Daughney in October and Father James Smith in November. He was finally captured on November 24, 1989, after a carjacking and hostage-taking. His subsequent trial in 1991 was a landmark case in Canadian legal history, as it was one of the first to use DNA profiling to secure a conviction. With no witnesses to the murders, the DNA evidence found at the crime scenes was crucial in linking Legere to the killings.
Allan Joseph Legere was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, including that of Annie Flam, as well as arson, rape, and sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. He was denied parole on multiple occasions and remained incarcerated until his death in custody on March 9, 2026, at the age of 78. For the community of Miramichi, the death of Annie Flam was a deep and lasting wound, a tragic loss of a woman who was so much more than a victim; she was the kind-hearted soul at the center of their neighborhood.
