December 5, 2005

The final chapter of Reggie’s life began during a family dinner on December 4, 2005.

His behaviour had become increasingly alarming. He appeared extremely agitated and confused and was running repeatedly up and down the stairs. His appearance had also deteriorated. He was having problems with his teeth, acne had appeared on his cheeks, and his general condition concerned the family.

We believed that Reggie had been using crystal methamphetamine, although we could not know exactly what he had taken or what might have been contributing to his behaviour.

The Last Night at Home

Following dinner, the family confronted Reggie about his condition. My father said that Reggie was behaving oddly and was shaking and clearly impaired. Dad told Reggie that the following morning he was going to take him to the Addiction Services facility in Charlottetown.

Reggie did not want to go. He expressed concern about being locked up and ran downstairs to the basement. Approximately twenty to thirty minutes later, the family heard a car leaving and saw it being driven out of the yard.

When they called for Reggie and received no answer, they discovered that he had climbed out through the window of his basement bedroom. They saw his car driving out of the yard. Reggie was gone.

The First Hours

The family initially thought that he had probably gone somewhere to get away from the confrontation and would eventually return, as he had done before.

They began calling people who knew him and checking places where he might have gone.

Reggie had his cellphone with him. Records later showed that he made several calls shortly after leaving the house, including calls home. During the final call, his son Steven answered. Reggie asked:

“Where’s Mum? I’m looking for Mum.”

She wasn’t home. Those were among the last known contacts Reggie had with his family. The family later learned that the battery had been removed from his cellphone.

Where Had Reggie Gone?

As the days passed without any contact, possibilities multiplied. Had Reggie gone to Ontario? Alberta? Somewhere else in Canada? The RCMP spent many hours contacting government organizations and police detatchments to determine if he was receiving social assistance or there had been reports of his prescence.

Some of what the family subsequently found among his belongings made those possibilities seem plausible. There were books dealing with changing one’s identity, and Reggie’s own writings described how unhappy he had become living on Prince Edward Island and the shame he sometimes felt as a person struggling with addiction.

He had previously lived in western Canada and had written about the relative anonymity and independence he experienced there. For a time, the possibility that he had simply disappeared and started over somewhere else seemed entirely possible.

But there was no evidence that this was what he had actually done.

What Reggie Left Behind

As we searched through Reggie’s belongings, we began discovering another part of his life. There was evidence that his involvement with drugs had continued despite our hopes that he was leaving that world behind.

More significantly, we found an enormous amount of writing. Reggie had written about his childhood, drugs, addiction, treatment, jail, his family, his attempts to build a normal life and his frustration at trying to fit back into society while living with addiction and a criminal record.

Reggie was a relatively quiet person, but he was a prolific writer and had dreamed of becoming a writer. Since he was no longer in a position to achieve that dream, I took it upon myself to share his writings and his story by creating the original mereggie.com website and, eventually, this archive.

Another Problem Reggie Was Facing

Among the documents from this period was correspondence concerning Reggie’s benefits. The response shown below was written after Reggie had disappeared. He never saw it.

It nevertheless documents another issue that had been unresolved when he left and provides some context for the pressures he was facing during the final period of his life.