Canadian police seek more proof Nurse’s hit-run case ‘on right track’

EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick – An investigation into a hit-and-run accident that took the life of a Portland nurse Aug. 3 continues, but no one has yet been charged.

The 2-month-old investigation into the death of Connie Bellefleur, a 23-year-old native of Madawaska, Maine, is moving forward, according to the inspector heading the effort. He didn’t know Monday, however, whether charges would be made within days or weeks.

A source close to the investigation said it is a case of having two suspects, and neither one is cooperating with police.

Within 24 hours of the incident last August, New Brunswick police had seized a vehicle they believed was the one involved in Bellefleur’s death.

The woman, a first-year nurse at Maine Medical Center, died after she was struck at about 2 a.m. while walking in a crosswalk on St. Francis Street in Edmundston, just a few hundred feet from the international port of entry to Madawaska.

The young woman was in town to celebrate her parents’ wedding anniversary and was attending Friday night activities at a festival at Edmundston.

“It is a situation of a lack of evidence,” Inspector Prime Boucher said recently, speaking in French. “We just don’t have enough proof, yet, to make charges.

“We are seeking more evidence, and there is no way of telling how long it will take,” the head of the investigating unit said. “It could happen quickly, or it could take more time.

“One thing is for sure, we are on the right track,” he said. “We are just not at the point where charges can be laid against someone.”

In Madawaska, Bellefleur’s parents, Robert and Nicole Bellefleur, wait patiently, undisturbed by the passing of time in the investigation.

“I am satisfied with the progress in the investigation,” Robert Bellefleur said last week. “The Edmundston police have been great, talking with us, and keeping us filled in on what’s happening.”

Bellefleur, a Madawaska attorney, said he knows investigations can take time.

The vehicle seized by police was found at Saint John, 375 miles from where the incident took place. The 1999 Pontiac Sunbird was taken from a residence.

The only eyewitnesses the police have are a sister of the dead woman, Kristy Bellefleur, and her boyfriend.

Connie Bellefleur was walking ahead of friends, including her sister, when she was struck by the car. According to the police report, the vehicle did not stop; instead, it accelerated away from the scene, west on St. Francis Street.

Bellefleur was pronounced dead Saturday afternoon at Edmundston Regional Hospital. She later was taken to a Quebec City hospital for organ donation.

The incident happened at the height of an annual four-day festival in Edmundston. The “party du parking,” an evening of dancing with live music in a multilevel parking garage, was the main activity of the Foire Brayonne festival. The party usually is attended by thousands of people.