Skull, clothing found near abandoned car

Nancy Willis, The Guardian

Souris - Investigation continues into the disappearance of 39-year-old Reggie MacDonald of Souris as police try to determine whether a skull found Saturday in Bayfield near MacDonald's abandoned car is in fact that of the missing man.  MacDonald disappeared out the back window of his parents' home in Souris last December, just moments before being taken to a drug rehabilitation centre for treatment.  Last week, his car was discovered in a field east of Souris and a subsequent search turned up human bone fragments and pieces of clothing. Over the weekend, police dogs found a skull and additional clothing items.

Sgt Don MacGregor of the RCMP said his identification member is meeting with a pathologist to determine if the remains are those of MacDonald. But, as of Monday, he said nothing has been uncovered that suggests foul play.  People in the community are finding it odd that the police have ruled out foul play, when they have not yet been able to discover the actual cause of death. However, Moira MacLaughlan, forensic pathologist for the Atlantic region, said when police rule out foul play, they are taking the whole scene into consideration.
She said typically it is a bit surprising that they are ruling it out at this stage, but if they are doing so, she feels they must have good reason.

"The RCMP are not likely to rule out foul play unless they have very strong information that says that is the case."  MacLaughlan said although deciphering the cause of death comes mainly from the body, there are many ways to die that are not going to show up on a skeleton. Taphonomy, (the period of time between events and processes between the moment of death and discovery), can include anything from human intervention and animal scavenging to the environment.   "A person can succumb to hypothermia and this would not be detected on bones," said the pathologist.  MacGregor said right now police are focusing on positive identification.  "At least we will know for sure who it is, because, obviously if it is not him (MacDonald) we have a lot more work to do."

 

Recovery Map of Car and Remains

BullCreek Aerial

My father obtained aerial maps of the Bull Creek area from the Provincial Government and the RCMP GPS information to aid in their search. In the image below, the key sites in the recovery are noted.  Based upon where Reggie's skull was found, we believe that he awoke in a hypothermic condition, and as his car battery was dead, he tried to walk out of the woods.He would not have attempted to walk through the woods, as it was very thick brush and full of swamp areas, so we believe that he followed the road above and to the right of his car and started to walk out.

The weather was very cold during this time of year. One of the unusual things about the car was that we found his winter jackets in the car, which is counter-intuitive if you have to walk out of the woods on a cold day, but we learned that when people experience hypothermia, , they tend to become very hot and strip off a lot of clothes. Reggie could not have made it very far with adequate clothing.

Although Reggie's bones were scattered all over the place by coyotes, we don't believe that they played any role in his death. With hypothermia, people simply lie down and fall asleep and die peacefully. We are comforted in this fact and know that Reggie is now at peace and smiling down on his family.