A Canadian man serving a life sentence for strangling a 16-year-old girl to death in 2001 escaped from a minimum security unit at Mission Institution on Friday.

Correctional Service Canada (CSC) announced that Robert Raymond Dezwaan, 53, was missing following a Friday afternoon head count. The CSC and Mission Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are now searching for the convicted killer, the Vancouver Sun reported.

According to CBC News, Dezwaan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the 2001 death of Cherish Billy Oppenheim, 16. The Kelowna man choked the life out of the teen before discarding her body in the woods. Dezwaan was out on bail for attacking another woman in Kelowna when he murdered Oppenheim.

In 2003, the 53-year-old was sentenced to a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 15 years for the 16-year-old’s murder.

The missing prisoner’s son, Kruse Wellwood, was convicted of raping and murdering a teen girl in 2010. At his trial,  Wellwood claimed he hasn’t had contact with his father since 2001, according to the Times Colonist.

Dezwaan is 6-foot-1, 186 pounds, has green eyes, a bald head, and a fair complexion.

Anyone with information about the 53-year-old’s whereabouts is instructed to call local police.  They are urged to not approach him as he is considered dangerous.

This isn’t the first time an inmate has escaped from Mission Institution. News 1130 reported that Shawn Merrick, who was also in minimum security, was found to be missing during an April 2015 prison count. Federal inmate Norman Gilbert Riel also fled from the Institution in August 2014.

[Featured Image: Correctional Service Canada]