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The family of homicide victim Louisa Scott knew the sex offender who fatally strangled her in 1980 would be released from his latest prison stint eventually.

They didn't expect it would happen this soon.

Edward F. Boyle Jr., 59, was granted special parole Friday following a hearing before a three-member panel of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Beverly Canfield, the victim's sister, said family members watched the hearing, which was conducted via video feed from the Brooklyn Correctional Institution, at the parole board office in Waterbury.

Boyle is expected to be released Feb. 18 from the Brooklyn Correctional Institution and the victim's family said they were told he would likely be placed initially at the January Center in Montville, a locked residential treatment facility for sex offenders adjacent to the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center. He will be on special parole, a strict form of supervised release, until November 2024.

Given the parole board approval, his case now will be reviewed by the Department of Corrections Parole and Community Services Division, which will set up appropriate placement, including housing and treatment options, according to Karen Martucci, director of external affairs for the state Department of Correction.

Scott's relatives have attended all of Boyle's parole hearings, writing letters of opposition to his release and holding up pictures of Louisa, a pretty, 20-year-old brunette he killed during a rape attempt in Coventry on May 31, 1980. Because Friday's review was conducted via video feed, Timothy Scott, brother of the victim, included the photographs of Louisa in a letter he sent to the board.

The family wants the public to remember Scott and to be aware that her killer will be returning to the community. In 2017, they told the story on an "Investigation Discovery" television special, with Paul Zahn, called "River of Tears."

"When we went last year, the (parole) chairwoman alluded to the fact that it would be in the best interest to put him in a halfway house and try to acclimate him to the community," Canfield said. "The parole board did say he would have woman counselors. They want to see him interacting with woman counselors and they expect to see the same level of respect, and nothing out of line."

Boyle served 19 years in prison for killing Scott and raping five other women in Manchester in the 1970s and 1980. Released in 1999, he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in Groton and sentenced to five years in prison. Upon his release, he is prohibited from contact with her.

Released again in November 2009 under strict supervision, he was charged within 15 months with going out of the range of his GPS tracking device and missing a sexual offender treatment center appointment.

During his 2011 parole hearing, the board had received information that Boyle was corresponding with a 14-year-old girl from his prison cell. Boyle went before the board again in 2016 and was denied parole after failing to explain why he had continued to prey on women.

On Friday, Canfield said Boyle told the parole board he had "reinvented himself" and had received his GED in prison and tutored other inmates. No one attended the panel on his behalf.

Once Boyle is released, Canfield said she would be checking the sex offender registry to keep up with his whereabouts and make sure he is not reoffending.

"I'm not going to back off," she said. "And if he's arrested again, we'll go back to the media and say it doesn't work."

k.florin@theday.com