Police are keeping close watch on 'Black Widow,' Crown lawyer says

Melissa Ann Shepard, known as the Internet Black Widow, arrives at court in Dartmouth, N.S. on Tuesday, March 15, 2016. (Andrew Vaughan/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

HALIFAX -- An 80-year-old known as the "Black Widow" for killing and poisoning men who were her intimate partners has been under police surveillance since being released from a Nova Scotia prison last month, a Crown lawyer confirmed Monday.

"We're keeping very close eyes on her," James Giacomantonio said outside provincial court in Dartmouth after a hearing.

He also confirmed that Melissa Ann Shepard must continue to adhere to conditions in a peace bond she agreed to upon her release.

"There's nothing more we can do to someone who hasn't committed a criminal offence," the lawyer said. "The most we can do is find out where she lives and then put these protections in place so that .. she has at least some barriers to meeting a new potential victim."

When she left the women's prison in Truro, N.S., on March 18, police issued a warning to the public, saying Shepard is considered a high risk to reoffend.

Under the terms of the peace bond, Shepard is required to report to police any potential relationship with a man, keep authorities aware of where she is living and inform police of changes to her appearance.

"She has to report all of her romantic relationships to the police," Giacomantonio said. "And the person who's involved in that relationship will be given the opportunity to speak to the police."

Shepard did not appear in court Monday when lawyers set a date for a hearing that will deal with her objections to some of the conditions in the peace bond.

That hearing will take place Oct 18. Giacomantonio said he plans to present Shepard's psychiatric reports and prison records as evidence.

An earlier report from the parole board concluded that Shepard had a tendency to fabricate and deny events to correctional staff, and is unable to link consequences to actions.

Meanwhile, Shepard could face more jail time if she breaches any of the 22 conditions, which also include restrictions on her use of the Internet.

Shepard served a full sentence -- just under three years -- for spiking her newlywed husband's coffee with tranquilizers in 2012. She pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance and failing to provide the necessities of life after Fred Weeks, 75, became ill during a brief trip to Newfoundland.

She was denied parole last fall.

Police say she has a history of offences dating back to the early 1990s, and court documents indicate Shepard has had multiple names over the years.

Born in Burnt Church, N.B., Shepard has also been known by the last name of former husband Robert Edmund Friedrich, who died in 2002, and by the last name of her second husband Gordon Stewart.

In 1992, she was convicted of manslaughter in Stewart's death, who she drugged and ran over twice with a car.

In 2005, Shepard was sentenced to five years in prison on seven counts of theft from a man in Florida who she had met online. Alex Strategos, now 81, said she stole $20,000 from him over the month that they lived together.

An agreed statement of facts presented before Shepard's most recent conviction said she was Weeks's neighbour in a quiet retirement community in Nova Scotia when she knocked on his door and told him she was lonely.

Soon afterwards, a civil union ceremony was performed in Weeks's living room, but the marriage was never certified by the province.

During a trip to Newfoundland after the ceremony, Shepard dissolved a cocktail of sedatives into her new partner's coffee.

The couple returned to North Sydney, N.S., and stayed at a bed and breakfast, where Weeks tumbled out of bed and was hospitalized. Tests later showed he had tranquilizers in his blood.