The first time Isabella saw him, it was a late January evening. She was in her room when something flickered outside. At first she thought it was just the wind. Then it flickered again.
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A man stood on the balcony of her downtown Montreal sorority house — two floors up, accessible only by the fire escape. He wore a black beanie, a hood and glasses. But he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring through the window next door, watching her friend get changed.
“I freaked out,” Isabella said.
She ran to get her housemate, who pounded on the window.
“He ran away so fast we didn’t get a good look at him,” said Sophia, another resident.
The women, whose names have been changed because they are concerned for their safety, live in a sorority house in an area near McGill University dubbed ‘the McGill Ghetto,’ where many students rent apartments.
For the nearly 50 women in their sorority — one of five sororities at McGill, alongside seven fraternities — their house had been a place of comfort. But the women say this incident has shaken them.
‘A man who keeps coming back’
About a week after the sighting, footprints appeared in the snow on the fire escape. This was an area none of them ever walked through, the women said, but it was a spot that offered a clear view inside.
Then on the evening of Feb. 11 around 8:15 p.m., they say they saw the same man again. This time he was lurking in the alley near their basement.
Terrified, they immediately called 911 as the man fled.
At first they said they felt reassured by the police. A female officer took their report over the phone and seemed to take them seriously, the women said.
But then a male officer followed up. They said his advice was: “Add more lights” and make the alleyway “less enticing.”
“Less enticing?” said Sophia. “Like it’s our job to make ourselves unappealing to some stalker.”
No police officers came to the house that night, nor was a formal statement taken, the women said. However, the women said they saw a police car circle the block. The police also told them to install cameras.
“We felt very undermined,” Isabella said. “We already have motion-sensor lights, but they’re not deterring him. This isn’t just a random passerby. This is a man who keeps coming back.”
Since the first sighting, the women say their daily routines have been disrupted. Most stopped sleeping at the sorority house, instead crashing on friends’ couches. If they did stay over, they barricaded their doors with furniture and some even kept kitchen knives under their pillows.
“We’re exhausted. We’re terrified,” Isabella said. “We’re missing classes. We can’t focus on midterms.”
On Feb. 23, they finally caught him on camera. He was peering into their house from the second-floor balcony again.
“I got a notification on my phone that something moved,” Isabella said. “I asked if someone had adjusted the camera. No one had. We had just been talking about noises on the fire escape. So I checked.”
There he was.
Isabella rushed home and called the police, telling anyone in the house to lock themselves in the basement. By the time officers arrived, he was gone.
“The police told us, ‘Next time you get footage of his face, call us ASAP.’ And we did call them ASAP,” Isabella said. “And they still couldn’t do anything.”
When officers — two women — arrived, they seemed unconcerned, Isabella said. They looked around and left.
“They just told us to call back if it happened again,” Sophia said.
Taking matters into their own hands
The night the women caught the man on camera, they also reached out to McGill’s security services. University officials eventually came to check on them, they said. But McGill’s authority is limited as sororities operate independently from the university.
In a statement, McGill University said: “Incidents like the one in question need to be reported to the Montreal police, with whom we regularly collaborate.”
It added: “Where McGill is best placed to help is in offering services to support those who may be experiencing distress. Students can contact a case manager at the Office of the Dean of Students for assistance.”
Meanwhile, Montreal police on Monday said officers had been to the area multiple times in recent weeks.
“As an investigation is ongoing, we cannot provide further details. However, we can confirm that particular attention is being paid to this sector,” the police statement said.
Frustrated, the women shared the man’s image around the student community and put up flyers with a picture they captured of him.
“Call 911 if you see this man, McGill Ghetto Stalker tried to break in and has been looking into girls’ windows,” the flyer reads.
Other students, the women explained, said they had seen him, too. Some had even watched him climbing up different balconies.
“We’re the ones who bought the cameras,” Isabella said. “We’re the ones reinforcing doors and warning others.”
On Wednesday morning, Feb. 26, the women went to the police station on their own accord to give a formal statement.
They also told police about a man who had been prosecuted for similar behaviour a few years ago in another case. They said the man in their footage resembled that individual.
Montreal police did not comment on this development to The Gazette on Wednesday afternoon, citing concerns about interfering with the investigation.
Now the women say they just hope to be taken seriously and for the man to be caught.
For them, their sorority is central to their university experience. The women meet most days, party together and act as each other’s support network.
“University can be a lot. But you know you have your girls,” Sophia said.
“This house is supposed to be our safe space,” Isabella added.