Suicide victim given a face, but still no name
A 10- YEAR MYSTERY
- National Post (Latest Edition)
- 9 Dec 2005
- BY HEATHER POLISCHUK
Police sketched a face of John Doe based on autopsy photos.
On a July day in 1995, a young man laid down on a Regina railway track, facing an oncoming train. He was killed instantly, the train unable to stop in time.
Ten years later, police and the coroner are still trying to solve the mystery that suicide created: Who was he?
“ This investigation indeed is incomplete, despite the fact that there have been endless hours spent on trying to identify this young man,” said Saskatchewan’s chief coroner, Kent Stewart, who spoke at a news conference at Regina Police Service headquarters yesterday.
“Even more disturbing is the thought that after these many years, there still may be a family out there that is wondering what became of their loved one.”
A forensic artist with the Toronto Police Service recently provided a face for John Doe, based on autopsy photos.
The computer image shows a clean-shaven young Caucasian man between 20 and 30 years of age with short medium-brown hair and blue eyes. He is shown in the clothes he was found in, a black denim button-down shirt with a gold “crown” logo and a white Boca Authentic T-shirt.
The man, weighing about 140 to 160 pounds and about 5-foot-9, was also wearing faded blue jeans and a pair of size 121⁄ 2 blue and white Reebok runners when he took own life on July 28, 1995.
A search of his clothing and knapsack revealed no personal identification and did not help to determine his identity. The most personal item located was a silver brooch, shaped like a rose — sometimes referred to as the Christmas Rose — found in his pocket.
Fingerprints turned up nothing, except that whoever he was, the man did not have a criminal record. He had no surgical scars or tattoos. A search of missing persons files found no matches.
The Regina Police Service received its first and only glimpse into who the man may have been when a transient man, Randy Wakelin, came forward with information about the person known to him only as Dave.
The two had spent a few days travelling together, hitchhiking on July 22 from Strathmore, Alta., to Swift Current, then to Regina on July 24.
Mr. Wakelin revealed that the unknown man was not any regular transient.
“ You grow up around street people and you see these different things,” Mr. Wakelin told police in 1996. “ You know where people come from very wealthy families that their manners are a little bit different. He had the manners of being very well to do.”
Sgt. Rod Buckingham, with the city police’s cold case unit, spoke further about Mr. Wakelin’s observations yesterday.
“He certainly wasn’t used to the street because he did things that no one else does,” said Sgt. Buckingham. “ When he ate, he would use a napkin, he’d lay out a napkin. He was very well-mannered all the time — Randy will tell you that he taught him certain things about where to sleep and where to [find] shelter.”
Mr. Wakelin described a man who was well-educated and knew nothing about drugs. “He didn’t know what a joint was, he didn’t know what a hit was,” he said.
The unknown traveller talked about coming from a world of wealth — though he refused to talk about his family. “ Anything to do with family was a no- no ... I assume he had a big fight with his family.”
He also mentioned a painful break-up with a woman named Kathy.
“She burned him, dumped him, like really did a number on him,” Mr. Wakelin told police, adding he was “pretty sure” the silver brooch the young man constantly toyed with belonged to his ex-lover. “ All he could say was she deserves what she got and he can keep her, which I assumed [meant] that he was going out with her and she took off with another guy.”
As well, he talked about coming from “back east.”
“He knew a lot about the ocean,” Mr. Wakelin told police. “ A lot about that ocean. Which is why I still think he was from somewhere on the East Coast. What really baffles me is that you would figure that somebody would be missing him by now.”
