A killer and three-time escaped convict who was among the nation's most wanted criminals after more than a year on the lam has been deported to the United States from Canada.

Richard McNair, 48, was turned over to U.S. marshals at the border Thursday, said Jennifer Morrison, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency. She said she didn't know where he was taken.

Dave Carpenter, North Dakota's chief U.S. marshal, said McNair likely will be taken to Louisiana to face federal escape charges, but he could not release any timetable.

"More than likely what they did is meet him at the border somewhere by the East Coast, and then they brought him into our custody," Carpenter said.

"We don't want the movements of him known in case there's others out there that may assist him in his escape," the marshal said. "It's just better if we don't disclose him to the public."

McNair was among the nation's 15 most wanted fugitives when he was captured Oct. 25 in Campbellton, New Brunswick. McNair had smuggled himself out of federal prison in Louisiana in a pile of mailbags that were shrink-wrapped on a pallet April 5, 2006.

He was convicted of killing Jerome Theis, of Circle Pines, Minn., in 1987, during a burglary at a Minot grain elevator. Richard Kitzman, an elevator employee, was shot three times but survived.

The Louisiana escape was the third for McNair, a former military police officer and police informant. He was tackled and arrested last month by a rookie with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after an attempted traffic stop about 100 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border.