EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick (AP) – A Canadian man was charged Thursday in a fatal hit-and-run accident last summer that killed a 23-year-old pediatric nurse from Maine.

Connie Bellefleur died after being struck by a vehicle at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 3, 2002, while attending a festival in Edmundston.

She was a nurse at Maine Medical Center in Portland and was visiting her parents in Madawaska for their wedding anniversary that weekend.

Adam Fraser, 28, of Saint John, New Brunswick, was charged in Edmundston Provincial Court with failure to stop at the scene of an accident that caused death or injury to a person, said Edmundston police Sgt. Percy Picard.

He said the charge is similar to vehicular manslaughter in Maine and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Bellefleur was walking in a crosswalk just ahead of her sister and her sister’s boyfriend when she was struck by a car that then sped away. She died at an Edmundston hospital.

Edmundston police believed they had tracked down the car within 18 hours of the accident, but were unable to determine who was driving it. Police previously said the car was located in Saint John, but the owners refused to talk to police.

Police last week made the unusual move of offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. At the same time, Bellefleur’s father, Robert Bellefleur, made an impassioned public plea for someone to step forward with new information.

Picard said Fraser’s bail was set at $3,000, which Fraser’s wife was expected to post. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 16.

Bellefleur had been a pediatric nurse at Maine Medical Center in Portland since July 2001.

She graduated from Madawaska High School in 1997 and from a registered nursing program at St. Joseph’s College in 2001.

AP-ES-07-03-03 1448EDT

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