Two residents of Edson walk down a street Tuesday night. Many people in the Alberta town are staying indoors while police hunt for the man who killed 14-year-old Emily Stauffer on Saturday. (CBC)Two residents of Edson walk down a street Tuesday night. Many people in the Alberta town are staying indoors while police hunt for the man who killed 14-year-old Emily Stauffer on Saturday. (CBC)

People in Edson, Alta., have altered their daily routines while police search for the man who killed a 14-year-old girl in broad daylight on the weekend.

Emily Stauffer was attacked by a man around 4:30 p.m. Saturday as she walked along a popular wooded trail in the northwest part of town.

Fears in the town heightened after a woman said she was attacked by a man on Tuesday afternoon.

"It's just the worst thing that could ever happen to a beautiful family, to a beautiful girl. And just our whole community … there's a tension, a fear in town," Edson resident Janet Murray said Wednesday.

The community's three schools are keeping doors locked all day, children have no outdoor recess, and staff at the schools are ensuring each student is getting picked up by a parent or a person who's been approved by the family.

Supervisors are also escorting children who arrive by bus into the school.

"My heart goes out to the citizens of Edson. They must feel like they are living in a town under siege."

—mythoughts2

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Murray said she isn't letting her children take the bus and is ferrying her children to and from school.

"You're watching them, you're vigilant," she said. "I don't want them walking down the driveway because we have a madman on the loose."

Children are also seeing their routines altered outside school hours. On Tuesday night, all hockey games and practices in the town were cancelled. The arena was open again on Wednesday, but parents were told children couldn't play hockey without being accompanied by an adult.

Carrie Langland, who lives across the street from the arena, said she didn't think this was an extreme measure.

"Absolutely not. I want people to know where I am too. They recommend that you carry a cellphone, and stuff like that," she said. "Who knows? Who knows when they'll find this guy. It's scary."

RCMP have stepped up their presence in Edson, with 40 officers in town, nearly triple the usual contingent of 15.

Many people are locking their doors and staying indoors, even during a week of sunshine and daytime temperatures in the 20s.

RCMP said Wednesday there were no new developments in the case, though investigators are getting tips from British Columbia and other parts of Alberta.