Searching for Reg

December 4 - Helen and I jumped in the car and thought we could head him off over in Souris West and we drove out to past Rollo Bay West and we did not see him.  We came back and told Art, and we believed he hid some place until the heat came off him.  From that point on my gut feeling was he wasn’t in shape to drive any further than 20 minutes because of the shape he was in.  Over the years, we had put pressure on him and he left but always he came back or contacted us in some way, but we know now that this time was different.

We started checking around and driving different areas.  He had an odd colored car, a purple Pontiac and it should stick out like a sore thumb, but to our regrets now we know that wasn’t to be.  The weather was good, cold -10 Celsius, but no snow.  By Tuesday afternoon, December 6, there was no word so we reported him missing to the RCMP in Souris.

A young constable, Marc Potvin, was assigned to the case and he was wonderful and as time progressed, he got very interested in finding Reggie.  A great deal of his work on the case was on his own time, and he is a credit to the force and was a tremendous help to us.  There was an All Points Bulletin on Reggie from Coast to Coast.  Marc did a terrible lot of inquiring.  Reggie had a cell phone on him and he made 5 calls about 20 minutes after he left home.  1 call home to his mother, 1 call to his friend, [xxxx] one to [xxxx] boss, one to a number in Nova Scotia, we think he pushed the wrong number, and the last one was home.

His son, Steven answered it and Reggie said, “Where’s Mum”.  I’m looking for mom and she was not home and Steven didn’t know that he was gone.

We discovered after that he had removed the battery, that way the phone can’t be traced.  Art and I nearly wore out all our trucks on all the poor wood roads, people were contacting us to volunteer to search for Reggie, but we didn’t know were to search.

By the time we thought about checking the Confederation Bridge, their camera tapes had been erased.  There was still no snow and Art mentioned that we should get a plane and search. They told us to fly under 1000 feet  and we needed permission from the RCMP. We contacted Souris RCMP and it seemed we would have problems in getting permission.

 Then I decided to go the political route- Time was of the essence as snow was close at hand  (it began snowing two days later).

Political Help for the Search

The first call was to  Federal Members office in Montague around 4:30 pm.  Later I found out that the Provincial Gov’t was responsible for the RCMP   Early , the next morning, I called  our Provincial MLA and by luck he picked up the phone and I told him that I had a serious problem and wanted to talk to the Attorney General  asap.  He informed that he was heading to Charlottetown immediately and was meeting with  the Attorney General at 10 am.  He assumed that he would have news at 10 am and would call me.

Lady luck was on our side.  Shortly before 10 am a member of the Souris RCMP called me to say the RCMP helicopter was in Moncton preparing to come here  There was then a beep on the phone.  It was Andy Mooney informing me that there was an RCMP helicopter on its way and they would contact me before it arrived in Souris. He told me that he would contact me later.

The helicopter arrived at the barracks shortly after 11 am and the weather was sunny and clear.  The pilot was a very nice young man.  One of the first things that he asked me was Reggie smart.  I said yes, “Very”, he commented that they are the worst kind to find.

I told him Reg spent quite a bit of time in the Glen and there was a chance, I figured, that he was growing pot.  I figured the shape he was in when he left he could not be more than 20 minutes from here by car, if he was still on PEI.  I asked him if he would take my son Art with him, he said there was only room for one and he was taking constable Wood who he said was familiar with the area?  He said he also wanted to carry extra fuel for more airtime.  I told him about my wood lot where Reggie was cutting hemlock that was no more than a mile from where he was later found. We also had people ready to search for Reggie, if anything was spotted.

In the early afternoon, Andy Mooney called from Attorney generals office and the RCMP Superintendent was also there.  They wondered how many days we wanted the helicopter to search.  We were very happy to have it for the day and thanked them very much.  About 4 pm, the helicopter arrived back.  He told me that they went from East Point to Blooming Point (Tracadie) and across to Wood Islands, they made 2 passes, north to south, east to west.  The weather was good and they had seen nothing.  The pilot assured me that if anything turns up, he would come back.  He also told me he would contact other pilots in the region to keep an eye out for his car.  They told me they had seen six different outfits cutting wood in the Glen area, at that moment I figured Reggie had somehow gotten off the Island and was in Western Canada, either Alberta or BC.

It started to snow the next day and continued for one week and I figured that everything would be covered over.  Art and I continued to go different places with our 4x4’s and shortly after Christmas, Art went in the Bull Creek road and in the lane of the field where Reggie’s car was later found.  He got to about 6 feet from seeing the length of the field and there was a snow bank.  We were so close and we never knew.

Marc Potvin and the RCMP members never gave up searching for Reggie. He checked all over Canada, but all the leads turned out to be false.

RCMP ask for help in finding missing man (Dec. 17, 2005)

Saturday, December 17, 2005, p. A3

Souris - Reginald MacDonald is missing from Souris and the RCMP is asking the public for help in finding him.

The 39-year-old man was last seen in the community two weeks ago, on Dec. 4. He has what the RCMP describes as "personal and medical issues" and has missed taking medications and appointments with his doctor.

He was last seen driving west across the Souris causeway in his 1995 purple, four-door Pontiac Grand Am which has an Ontario licence plate AWEF528.

If anyone knows about his whereabouts or well-being, they are asked to contact the RCMP or CrimeStoppers.

Nation-wide Search

The following is an email that the RCMP sent out nationwide, in the search for Reggie:

To aid in the search, Reggie’s nephew Alexander draws a picture of Reggie.

Hope Runs Thin, May 26, 2006

Nancy Willis - Hope runs thin for family searching for son who vanished six months ago.  Reggie MacDonald, 39, slipped out of his parents' Souris home Dec. 4 without warm clothes or money and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

SOURIS - It's been six months since 39-year-old Reggie MacDonald slipped out a window of his parents' home in Souris and disappeared.
Jim and Helen MacDonald were in the process of taking their son to the Mount Herbert drug rehabilitation facility on December 4 when he vanished, with no warm clothes, no money or anything else.

Today is his 12-year-old daughter Victoria's birthday. And always before, he has come to her on that day.   "We feel this will really be our last hope if he doesn't contact us on Friday," said his father Jim MacDonald.   "Until now we've felt there was a 50/50 chance that he is still alive. But if he doesn't come or call today then the odds will change big time."

The MacDonalds are completely mystified by the total and absolute disappearance of their son. Within 20 minutes of slipping out the window, his cellphone had been deactivated. The last call he made was to his mother saying: "Where's Mom, I'm looking for Mom," but both she and his father were already out looking for him and missed the call.

Reggie had been a drug addict in Ontario for 20 years. He came home to P.E.I. last summer and was on a methadone maintenance program and was doing well.
Somehow, in the first days of December, he again came in contact with drugs, but after talking to his parents he agreed to go into the detoxification program.
While getting ready, he climbed out the window and into his old purple car and was gone.

"We don't even know if he had any shoes on when he left," Jim MacDonald said.  "He was able somehow to disappear. We feel he is alive, but it is six months now."   Jim describes his boy as a nice person and a prolific reader, but very quiet, and very, very smart. Too smart for his own good, he said.

"The last thing he said to me was 'no one is going to lock me up in a cement basement again'."   During that 20 minutes after he left, he made three other calls to friends, but none of them were home either.

Since then the RCMP have sent the information across Canada and his picture is in every police station, hospital and detox centre in the country.  There have been helicopter searches and extensive surveys of all friends, acquaintances and former landlords, but nothing, said his mom Helen.  The old car he was driving hasn't turned up either. "The last payment was made on it in December, and that was it."

Jim says they have had good help from the RCMP, but there is nowhere to turn. Now, when they see a call display read "long distance caller," they look at each other not knowing who will pick up the receiver.  "The bottom line is, you are powerless over people, when drugs are involved, absolutely powerless," said Jim.