A federal offender who has been wanted by the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement Squad since August 2021 after fleeing his halfway house in Kingston, was arrested in Toronto in connection to a death investigation on Sunday.
The ROPE squad started looking for Rejean Hermel Perron, 52, in August 2021 after he failed to return to his halfway house in Kingston. At the time, he was serving a three-year sentence for forcible confinement, sexual assault with a weapon and use of an imitation firearm during the commission of an indictable offence.
During Perron’s sentencing hearing in March 2018, the agreed statement of facts revealed that he had planned for months to kidnap a woman, force her to marry him and keep her forever as his own. The victim was a 27-year-old woman, who after being bound and assaulted by Perron, was proposed marriage with a Barbie ring. After the ceremony, he cut her hair, painted her nails and called her “Barbie.”
He was sentenced to three years in prison by Ontario Superior Court Justice Harriet Sachs for the crimes. He is also bounded by a 10-year long-term supervision order. When asking for the supervision order prior to sentencing, assistant Crown attorney Monica Gharabaway told Sachs a psychiatrist had assessed Perron at a “high risk to re-offend.”
A Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest.
On May 27, 2024, the Toronto Police Service started a death investigation after finding a person deceased in an apartment. Police said an autopsy showed the person died of natural causes, but investigators claimed Perron was aware the person was dead and failed to call emergency services.
Further investigation resulted in Toronto Police wanting Perron for sexual assault, assault, uttering threats, and forcible confinement.
Toronto Police arrested Perron on Sunday and charged him with obstructing police, improper/indecent interference with a dead body, assault, sexual assault, forcible confinement, and uttering threats.