Accused killer of Patricia Ferguson could return to seniors' housing co-op

Residents of a seniors' housing cooperative in Quebec were shocked to learn that the accused killer in a prolific cold case has lived alongside them for years.

Serge Audette, 69, was charged this summer with the manslaughter of Patricia Ferguson, a Montreal mother who vanished in 1996 when she was just 23 years old.

Audette also has at least three armed sexual assaults on his record, court documents show, and is classified as a "dangerous offender."

He settled in the seniors' community in 2018 after his release from prison -- but residents say there was no indication of his troubled past.

"He lives next to me, and I didn't even know," one female resident told Noovo Info in an exclusive report, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Audette is currently behind bars awaiting trial, but he's scheduled to request his release on Wednesday.

Over 100 members of the seniors' cooperative -- a tight-knit community comprised mainly of women -- have signed a petition with the Parole Board of Canada voicing their concerns.

"I came to a residence for seniors, that's 55 years old and up. I ask myself, 'When will I have peace?'" said another anonymous resident.

"Living in fear is not living," said another. "You're free, but you're not living."

A DRINK WITH THE NEIGHBOUR 

Audette's charge in the Patricia Ferguson case followed a lengthy investigation by a private investigator and Noovo Info journalist Marie-Christine Bergeron, chronicled in the 2022 documentary series L'appartement 5.

The series prompted Montreal police to reopen the nearly 30-year-old case, and Audette was arrested in June.

Ferguson, mother to an 11-month-old girl, was staying at a friend's house with her baby on the night of June 6, 1996. She went for a drink with the neighbour -- identified in the documentary as Serge Audette -- but never returned.

Audette has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Ferguson, whose body has never been found.

With files from Noovo Info's Marie-Christine Bergeron and Alex Sauro.