Читать книгу Death Dealer - Kate Clark Flora - Страница 13
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A police officer may wear many different hats in the course of a single shift. He or she may go from investigating a robbery to dealing compassionately with someone mentally challenged, from interviewing a reluctant witness to trying to resuscitate a baby who’s not breathing. All day, every day, police are making complicated mental and emotional adjustments. Individual officers’ reasons for choosing police work will vary, but many are drawn by a need to preserve social order, a desire to serve others, a passion for righting wrongs and the hope, however often it is disappointed, in the possibility of goodness and redemption.
Because of the constant emotional demands of the job, police officers, as part of their training, are taught to maintain an objective distance from both criminals and victims. To do otherwise would make the job, with its frequent exposure to the horrific things people do to one another, too emotionally draining. All officers have cases that get to them, the cases they will carry for their whole lives. After the many contacts the department had with the Tanasichuks—with all the time and energy that had gone into helping them through B.J.’s death, the constant worry about David’s potential explosion and the relationships that had resulted—Maria’s disappearance was going to be one of them.
In many departments, standard operating procedure is not to act until an adult has been gone for more than twenty-four or forty-eight hours, unless that person is elderly or somehow compromised. Certain departments have levels of concern, from the more serious “Missing Person” to the more casual “Compassion to Locate” for cases where the primary reason was not fear of a crime but concern for a worried family. But Maria Tanasichuk was known to be a homebody who, according to her husband’s report, had been gone for nearly two weeks. This, along with David’s possible relapse into serious drug use, stirred concern for both husband and wife in the minds of the detectives who knew them best.
Although it is common in cases where a husband reports his wife missing to take a close look at the family dynamics, the Tanasichuk matter was not immediately flagged as a possible domestic incident. The Tanasichuks were not a couple known for their domestic problems; quite the opposite, they were fiercely protective of one another and known to be extremely close. They were a couple whom others envied for their loving relationship and the way they seemed to enjoy doing so many things together. Friends and neighbors alike spoke of their closeness and their devotion, particularly of Maria’s devotion to her husband.
In an effort to explain the intensity of Maria’s loyalty to David, B.J.’s aunt, Maria’s former sister-in-law Cindy Richardson, described the following event: David had stolen some guns from a gun shop around the corner and hidden them in the apartment. When police searched and found the guns, David and Maria were both charged.
Cindy said, “…She ended up going to court. And the judge knew about Dave and his character. And of course, I didn’t know he was this bad character as he turned out to be, and so they told Maria if she would stay away from Dave, she could have no time at all, but she said no, I’m sticking by my man. First, she was getting three months, but when she said she was sticking by Dave, the judge said he was giving her six months to think about it, because he figured she could start her life over without Dave. But she was in love and she was going to stand by her man, and she ended up going to jail in Saint John. And so she calls me from the courthouse, crying her head off, can I come and get Billy Joe, she’s got no one to take care of him, her mum don’t want him. So what else am I going to say? I said of course, Maria, I’ll come get him. And she asks me to come get Billy Joe and get him in school and stuff, and of course I said I would, so in 1991, Billy Joe comes to live with me.”
When Maria got out of jail, she went back to living in the couple’s home, where David later joined her.
Detectives embarked on the investigation hoping that this would be a typical missing person case: that Maria, as David had said, had left to take some time off and visit with an old friend in Saint John. Officers who were fond of her genuinely hoped that she would soon reappear, puzzled that anyone had been alarmed, to rejoin her husband and return to her quiet domestic life.
Nevertheless, David’s rather odd behavior and his former sister-in-law’s comment about “something bad” having happened to Maria roused concern.
On the Monday following David’s call, the Miramichi police began talking to Maria’s friends to establish some of the basic facts pursued in any missing person situation: Maria’s recent state of mind, her current domestic situation as observed by those who knew her best, the likelihood that she would have gone away, where she might have gone—Saint John or elsewhere—and with whom she might be staying. They were looking for which friends or relatives she might have told about her plans and, given David’s conflicting statements about when she left, wanted to create a timeline of when she was last seen.
In a large, anonymous city, where people live isolated lives and frequently don’t bother to know their neighbors, finding people with useful information can be difficult. But Miramichi is a small and old-fashioned place with an old-fashioned sense of community. Weddings, baby showers and wakes are community events. The Miramichi is still a place where kids run in and out of neighbors’ kitchens, call home for permission to stay at a friend’s for dinner and play outside in groups until dark falls and parents call them in. It’s a place of homemade pickles and canned moose meat and salmon on the grill, a place where friends drop in on each other, share meals or go for coffee, regularly check in with each other by phone and keep up with each other’s lives and news.
Maria Tanasichuk might live a humble life without even an automobile for transportation, but in one respect she was very rich in her abundance of close and caring friends. Friends who were regularly in touch. Friends who, even though it had been more than two years since B.J.’s death, understood her pain and were still attentive to her grief.
David had given two conflicting dates—January 14, as he’d stated in his initial phone call to the police, and January 12, which he agreed with Constable Seeley was the correct date on which his wife had left for Saint John on the bus. On the 26th, after reporting his wife missing, he told Seeley that he was traveling to Saint John, about three hours away, to look for her, getting his brother to drive him because he didn’t have a car.
On the following morning, though, when Detective Cummings stopped by, David Tanasichuk was at his apartment. He said that he’d started for Saint John, his brother had had car trouble and he’d decided that, in any case, he needed to be on the Miramichi in case Maria returned or there was news of her.
When Cummings went to the Tanasichuks’ residence to follow up on David’s report, he planned, in the unlikely event that he found David Tanasichuk at home, to get David to come down to the station. There, a complete written statement could be obtained regarding the circumstances of Maria’s departure: what she was wearing, what she’d packed, what she’d said, the state of their relations, contact information for the person she’d gone to visit. Cummings also wanted to obtain the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who might have useful information about Maria’s whereabouts, both on the Miramichi and in Saint John.
He went to the apartment believing that he was on his way to see someone he knew well, someone he considered a friend, having visited the Tanasichuks frequently since B.J.’s death. What he saw when he entered the apartment shocked him. David Tanasichuk, a big, strong outdoorsman who, like Cummings, worked out with weights and prided himself on his physique, was thinner and haggard. While David didn’t appear stoned and was able to carry on a conversation, he had the look of a “pill-sick” junkie who was suffering from withdrawal, something with which Cummings, from his years of police work, was very familiar. It seemed obvious to the detective that David, who had flirted with drug use on and off for years despite Maria’s efforts to keep him straight, was back to using drugs. He was also edgy and appeared uncomfortable, lacking the easy familiarity usually present during their visits. While he was normally quite a talker, on that occasion he didn’t seem to want to talk to Cummings.
The apartment, which Maria always kept impeccably clean, was in serious disarray, a state that Cummings knew would have upset Maria. Despite the fug of cigarette smoke, as the two were constant smokers, Maria was a proud and meticulous housekeeper who rigorously enforced her “leave your shoes at the door or else” rule.
David readily admitted that Maria had been heavily on him for his drug use and that she had been hiding their money so he couldn’t get at it to buy drugs. When Cummings tried to gather information to aid them in searching for Maria, asking who Maria had gone to stay with and what clothing and other things she had taken with her, information that might help them gauge how long she planned to be away, David became vague. He reiterated that he thought she had gone to stay with a friend named “Cathy” in Saint John, but still couldn’t furnish a last name, an address or a phone number.
David said he wasn’t sure what she had taken but that her red and yellow kit bag was missing. Then David added that when Maria left, she had not taken her prescription pills with her.
Otherwise, despite his having expressed concerns serious enough to involve the police and ask for their help, David didn’t seem to want to talk about Maria, but only about himself. He admitted to having had a few “setbacks” with drugs and said he was seeing Sylvette Robichaud at the addiction counseling service to deal with the problem. He said that he felt like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and like he didn’t know what he was doing half the time.
After a few more unsuccessful attempts to obtain information about Maria’s departure, Cummings told David that he would need to come to the police station to give a formal statement so they could get details to help them locate Maria. David said that was not a problem and agreed that he would come to the station the following day, January 28, to give a statement.
Cummings left the apartment feeling dissatisfied with the interview and hoping that he would learn more on the following day when David came in to give his statement. Cummings didn’t know whether David’s vagueness and his apparent lack of anxiety about Maria’s whereabouts was the result of impairment due to drug use or a deliberate deception. He also left with very little to go on in terms of how to try and locate Maria.
What Cummings did know, though, from his time spent with the Tanasichuks, was that despite her rough edges and hard attitude toward authority, Maria Tanasichuk was a woman who made, and kept, deep friendships. If David didn’t have useful information to offer, some of her close friends probably did.
Later that same morning, Cummings went to see Maria’s sister, Sharon Carroll. Sharon confirmed to him that Maria had been increasingly voicing her concerns about David’s drug use. Sharon said that during her last conversation with Maria, around the 10th to 13th of January, Maria had told her that she was tired of fighting with David. Sharon also said that Maria had never left before without telling anyone she was leaving and that such behavior would be very much out of character.
In contrast to David’s assertion that he had volunteered to leave but Maria had insisted on going instead, it was Sharon’s belief that Maria was extremely unlikely to leave the apartment for any length of time. It was the place where Maria had lived so long with her son, B.J. Sharon told him that Maria had a strong sentimental attachment to her son’s possessions that were stored there. Stored, Cummings knew, was hardly the operative word. B.J.’s bedroom had remained essentially unchanged from when he had last slept there, except that Maria had turned the room into a shrine for her lost child by adding items including candles, flowers and a memorial Bible given to the couple at B.J.’s funeral.
Sharon also shared another reason why she doubted that Maria would be likely to go away without telling anyone. She said Maria was very excited because Sharon’s daughter, Angela, was expecting twins and Maria was going to be the godmother. Sharon said that Maria’s close attachment to Angela—although Maria was Angela’s aunt, after B.J.’s death the two of them had become more like sisters—and Maria’s concern about Angela’s difficult pregnancy meant that Maria would be unlikely to leave without telling someone or to stay out of touch for any length of time. Sharon also reported that David and Maria had stood up with Angela at her wedding down in Fredericton, and upon their return, Maria had said that she didn’t like being away from home and she was done with traveling.
Following their conversation on the morning of the 27th, Detective Cummings called David again that afternoon to see if there had been any word from Maria. He couldn’t reach David, so he left a message confirming that they would meet the following day for an interview. While he waited to interview David, he continued to speak with many people who knew the couple. The nature of the information coming in, and David’s unavailability, created an increasing sense of urgency.
After his visit to Sharon Carroll, Cummings went to speak with Maria’s best friend, Darlene Gertley. Darlene and Maria had been close friends since becoming neighbors in 1998. They called each other “girlfriend” and normally either saw each other or spoke on the phone daily. There was even a chair in Dave and Maria’s living room nicknamed “girlfriend’s chair” which was where Darlene sat when she was visiting.
In the Fall of 1997, Darlene had moved to Miramichi from Prince Edward Island with her husband, who was a chef. Her husband worked long hours. She was pregnant and isolated, living in a new province and desperately lonely. Darlene and her husband rented an apartment next door to Maria.
“I used to look over, when I put my dog out, and I’d see this brown-haired lady tossing a bone to my dog,” Darlene said. “And I was lonely and I used to think, ‘Gosh, I wish you’d toss me a bone someday.’ Then, after I gave birth to my son, when he was about six weeks old, I decided to take a walk down to the store on the corner, and I took my son in the stroller, and I walked down and I walked past their house and she said hi and I said hi and I looked down and didn’t say anything more ’cause I’m really quite shy, and I was pushing the stroller up onto the porch and I dropped the baby’s blanket and didn’t notice that I’d done it, and I was unlocking the door and there she was with the blanket.
“From that day on, we became friends—would you like to go for coffee, let’s go for a walk, you know. She was beautiful. She was thoughtful. She had a large heart. She loved her husband. She loved her son. She loved me as a friend. At that point, I had lost my twin brother. I’d lost him in a car accident, and Maria knew I needed friendship and someone to talk to. I’d moved to a French place, and I spoke only English. I was shy and housebound. Maria was the only real friend I had, and she was constant.”
By the time she spoke with the detective, Darlene had become deeply concerned about Maria’s well-being and had become convinced by David’s behavior and his responses to her inquiries about Maria’s whereabouts that something awful had happened to her dear friend. She had already shared those concerns in phone calls to Maria’s sister, Sharon, and to Maria’s ex-sister-in-law, Cindy Richardson, neither of whom initially shared her anxiety. Now, relieved that she finally had someone to share her concerns about Maria’s absence with, she spoke very frankly with Cummings. She told the detective that she was deeply worried about her friend and had been for many days. As the days progressed, she had been making increasingly anxious phone calls to David and to Maria’s friends about Maria’s long absence. Then she shared the chronology of her last contacts with Maria.
She had been in Prince Edward Island (PEI) from January 10th to the 13th, visiting her terminally-ill mother, and she had borrowed money from Maria for a rental car to make the trip. She said Maria’s relationship with David had been deteriorating recently because of David’s increasing drug use. Because Maria was so very depressed and constantly anxious about her failing marital situation, Darlene had urged Maria to come on the trip with her and get a change of scenery. Maria had declined, saying she didn’t want to leave her house or David, because she was concerned about David’s drug use and thought she ought to be there in case he needed her.
On the day Darlene returned, January 13, she had stopped by Maria’s at around 6:30 in the evening. David and Maria were both home and Maria was in her pajamas. On the 14th, Darlene had been next door visiting Maria’s neighbors, and decided to drop in to see Maria. Maria was fine, but David was on the couch with one of his migraine headaches. There was tension in the air and it appeared that the couple was not getting along, so Darlene left.
Darlene told the detective that Maria had been quite depressed for about a month, because she felt that her relationship with David was worsening. David had been getting more deeply into drugs, they had been fighting about his absences and the money he was spending and Maria was doing everything in her power to stop him. Darlene explained that Maria had long believed that because she’d been able to kick her own drug habit through willpower, David could do the same with her help. Her lack of success was sapping her energy and she rarely left the apartment.
Darlene said that she had returned the following day, January 15, for coffee with Maria, at which time the two of them made plans for a shopping trip on the 17th to return some unwanted Christmas gifts. That evening, Maria was complaining about a sore thumb, the result of a scuffle she’d had with David over money the night before. On leaving, Darlene gave her a kiss and hug and promised to repay the money she owed when they got together on the 17th.
The following day, January 16, when Darlene stopped by to visit Maria, David answered the door. He told her Maria wasn’t home and that she’d gone to a christening with Pauline and Sandy. David’s statement puzzled Darlene. Maria had not mentioned attending any christening when they were together the previous day, though it was something Maria would normally have shared, and Darlene thought she knew Maria’s friends and didn’t know of anyone named Pauline or Sandy. At his request, she gave David a ride to his friend Donnie Trevors’s house.
On the 17th, when they were scheduled to go shopping together, Darlene called Maria several times to make arrangements but got no answer. She left messages and when they weren’t returned she went to the house but found there was no one home. She continued to telephone her friend or visit Maria’s house daily, but Darlene’s calls weren’t answered and she never found Maria at home.
The interviews by Constable Seeley and Detectives Cummings and Dewey Gillespie in the days after David reported Maria missing produced numerous other dates and stories about Maria’s schedule and the time of her departure. They also produced some disturbing revelations about David’s behavior regarding Maria’s property in the two-week interval between the date Maria allegedly left for Saint John and the date when her husband reported her missing. The Miramichi detectives hoped that the information they would learn from David’s interview would explain the discrepancies and finally give them a set of hard facts to go on in their search for Maria Tanasichuk.
To improve their chances of locating Maria, at the same time that they were interviewing witnesses and trying to obtain a detailed statement from David, the Miramichi police sent Maria’s description and what details they had about her disappearance to news media and police departments in Canada via CPIC, the Canadian Police Information Center. Her mysterious disappearance and recognition of the Tanasichuk name from prior cases involving David as well as the story of B.J.’s death quickly grabbed media attention. Stories about Maria’s disappearance began to appear in newspapers and the Miramichi community grew more and more concerned.
