 Guy Turcotte. (Handout photo)
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MONTREAL — Residents of a small town northeast of Montreal are patrolling streets and frantically exchanging phone calls after killer ex-doctor Guy Turcotte was allegedly spotted in the community.
Social networks, including Facebook, were buzzing with reports of sightings in l'Epiphanie, Que., a town of 5,000 people.
Town hall was deluged with calls a week after the 40-year-old former cardiologist was released after spending 18 months at a Montreal mental hospital.
Turcotte fatally stabbed his young son Olivier, 5, and daughter Anne-Sophie, 3, at a rented home north of Montreal in February 2009.
A jury ruled last year that Turcotte wasn't criminally responsible for the killings because his crumbling marriage left him depressed and suicidal and he blacked out when he stabbed his children 46 times.
A mental-health review board released him on Dec. 12.
A man, who turned out not to be Turcotte, got angry stares Wednesday evening when he turned up at a restaurant in l'Epiphanie.
A woman whose last name is Turcotte caused a stir, and drew media attention, but turned out not to be related to the controversial killer.
A police constable continued to walk the streets of l'Epiphanie on Friday to try to maintain calm.
Turcotte's ex-wife Isabelle Gaston, who's also a doctor, earlier called on people to avoid vigilante justice.
L'Epiphanie Mayor Benoit Verstraete echoed that sentiment.
"He was tried and was found not criminally responsible," the mayor said. "I can't stop him from living here. He's a citizen like anyone else."
