Karla Homolka, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the deaths of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in 1993 and was sentenced to 12 years in jail, had until recently been living undetected in a community southwest of Montreal.
Here's a look at some other high-profile cases in which individuals were ultimately released from custody:
Colin Thatcher
The former Saskatchewan Tory cabinet minister was convicted in November 1984 of first-degree murder in the death of his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson. She was found beaten and shot to death in the garage of her Regina home on January 1983, amid a bitter child custody battle. Thatcher was paroled in 2006 and went on to remarry and write a book in 2009 professing his innocence.
Gordon Stuckless
The man at the heart of the Maple Leaf Gardens sex abuse scandal is set to learn on June 9 how much prison time he'll get for sexually abusing 18 boys over several decades -- crimes that came to light after he was paroled in 2001 for sexually assaulting 24 boys between 1969 and 1988. Court heard Stuckless has been voluntary undergoing chemical castration treatment since 1997.
Graham James
The disgraced former junior hockey coach was given a seven-year sentence for sexually assaulting players he coached in the late 1980s and early '90s. He was granted day parole in January and was allowed to live in a halfway house. He had been seeking full parole. James is forbidden from interacting with or supervising anyone under 18 and is prohibited from having direct or indirect contact with his victims.
Vince Li
The man who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba was granted the right earlier this year to eventually move out of his group home, where he's been living since last year. Li, who has changed his name to Will Baker, killed Tim McLean during a bus trip along the TransCanada Highway near Portage la Prairie in July 2008. He was found to be not criminally responsible for the murder due to a mental illness.
