I first read the Wayne Millard obit just after Dellen was charged with murder and before any reports on his death. Here's what I noticed:
- The stilted, bad writing of someone trying and failing to appear erudite
- Weird comments about fearing racists without any context as to meaning
- Reading and writing five languages is exceedingly rare. Unlikely to be true
- No cause of death, which often means suicide
- No reference to anyone else in family except Dellen, the writer. Narcissism warning
- Reception/memorial happening day of publication of obit, discourages anyone from coming
- Mother wrote to Dellen in guestbook. Who communicates that way?
- Aunt wrote in guestbook no one had told her about Wayne's death. Extremely bad form.
- The EG fund didn't exist. Why solicit donations? And why mention her name and no family members?
- The picture of the baby seal, which seems especially sinister in light of the current charges
Strange things that jumped out about EG obit:
- Appears two years after her death
- All the references to family imply closeness yet writer communicates through a newspaper obit
- The animal welfare fund, which doesn't exist and is tied to the strange obit of Wayne Millard
- No other references to EG anywhere
- Weird style. Could it have been written by Dellen Millard? (Forensic linguist says very unlikely)
It is my experience that people go out of their way to immediately inform others of a death and funeral -- even estranged family members and friends. It's peculiar that in both cases, the convention of notifying people clearly wasn't followed.
Funny how perceptions can so completely differ from one person to the next, isn't it? For instance, in my view
1. Writing style is that of a young man neither capable nor comfortable with expressing emotions on paper.
2. The reference to racism? Who knows? Something personal, I suppose. See my # 1.
3. What is unlikely about being able to speak and write several languages? Most well travelled people are very capable in a number of languages, especially if they're all in the same linguistic group - ie. If you understand Spanish, then Italian is a snap, etc.
4. It's quite unusual to see a cause of death listed in an obit unless it was a newsworthy event - the result of drowning or a horrible vehicular accident, etc. Generally, if you're trying to figure out how somebody died you look to the donations recommendations - ie Gifts to the Multiple Sclerosis Society or to the Thank Yous - Thanks to the Dr X, Dr Y, and the wonderful nursing staff at the Cancer agency. Aids, suicide, hospital maltreatment, diabetes, cervical cancer, rickets, effects of obesity, industrial accidents (like, say, falling off an airplane wing) are among the thousands of fatal events that are rarely, if ever, noted in obituaries, probably out of respect to the dear departed.
5. Apparently there was no other immediate family, except his mother, who already knew of WM's demise and had divorced the guy years earlier.
6. Not to split hairs but wasn't the Memorial scheduled for the day after the obit? Who did he expect to attend anyway? The Obit seems more to me like an effort to inform any interested person that the death had taken place. That it was late is no surprise to me. Anybody who has ever been the sole person in charge of putting a family member to rest is well aware of the boggling number of details involved.
7. Mothers communicate with the adult children in lots of ways. Maybe I don't understand. Maybe you don't. But we're not members of that family or part of its troubled traditions.
8. Who is this Aunt? Wayne Millard had no sisters. Could this person be related to MB? But, at least until the death of WM, it appears that DM and his mother were quite estranged. (Her neighbor mentioned he rarely visited, etc.)
Maybe a great aunt? Did he know her? Did he know where she lived?
http://woodstock.news.halinet.on.ca/954956/data
9. As already mentioned, the EG fund did and does exist.
10. The baby seal picture, I presumed, was an homage to his father's concerns about the seal hunt.
Well, no point in going on with this further except to say I see nothing about this Obituary, or either Obituary, that suggests it was written by a murderer or, in fact, implies that any murder had taken place. Perhaps, at trial, this document can be dissected more thoroughly and thereby underscore your reactions to it, rather than mine. MOO. IMHO. etc.
