The Recovery - Jim's Account

Early Friday I went to Southampton to see if they had any better maps of the Bull Creek area.  They were very cordial and helped me a great deal.  I arrived home at 11:30 am, there was an RCMP officer in the kitchen, he was Corporal of the Souris detachment who turned out to be very friendly and helpful.  I had some new aerial maps on the kitchen counter and a marker pen.  I made one circle on the map and I put a dot inside of it and I said to the corporal Reid, "You are looking in the wrong place.  My son Reggie is there".

The next morning after they started searching (they started at 830 am) to redirect the search area, it was to be where he would be found the time was 2:15 by Art and Mike (according to the Ouija Board). Reggie was found very close to where I had put the dot on the map, he was approximately 75 yards in the woods.  I also drove to the sight and told one of the searchers and showed him the map that I had drawn up. I had to come home before they started searching.  Art was out fishing and never got clear to about 12:15.  He was on his way up to go searching with Cindy, Mike and me when in front of him, up came the water through the pavement.  A water line on the wharf had broken and he had to make arrangements to get it fixed, Art figured he would be free about 2 pm, so we decided Mike and Cindy would go out now with my truck and start searching.  I would stay and go out with Art at 2 pm, shortly after 1 pm, the RCMP found enough of Reggie to make a positive ID.

I drove to the site fairly fast with the car and pulled up on the side of the searchers that I had been talking to in the morning; he lives near Dundas and I started to carry on a conversation with him and it wasn’t about finding Reggie – he was never mentioned, it lasted I guess about three to five minutes.  I remember saying to him I guess I will go down to the trailer ad see if there is any new developments.  He never commented.  I noticed there wasn’t much activity around the field, but I never twigged.  There were six or eight people combined when I walked in.  I am not sure if anyone said anything.  I walked over and started looking at the plotter screen when I looked up there were two RCMP standing between me and the door, the rest of the people were gone. I don’t think either of them spoke and all of a sudden I looked at the trailer door and Mike and Art were standing there.  I remember I spoke first and said, “you found him”.  I don’t know what happened after that. 

I know it was a long ride home; all our worries and efforts over the years had climaxed in a swamp out in the middle of the woods.  It was a hard blow to accept, but we live in an area where people are friendly and caring and they came to our aid, family, friends, clergy, relatives, AA members and complete strangers – they all helped in their own separate way to cushion the blow, that down deep we knew we would sooner or later have to face with Reggie.