Although the murder rate is less than one per year, some of Miramichi’s murderers have been particularly memorable and dramatic. In 1979, there was Robbie Cunningham, known as “The Miramichi Axe Murderer” for the brutal way he killed Nicholas Duguay. At the time, some people fought to clear Cunningham, claiming he was innocent. Despite the clamor, officials refused to release him before his time was served. About nine months after his release, he committed another murder.
The area still struggles to live down the nickname, MurderMichi, that it got back in 1989 when one of Canada’s worst serial killers, convicted murderer Allan Legere, known as “The Monster of the Miramichi,” escaped from prison guard custody during a hospital visit and terrorized the region for seven months. While he was on the lam, Legere sexually assaulted then brutally killed three elderly women and he also tortured and murdered a priest.
Residents still talk about that uncertain time, when children played soccer outside under the watchful eyes of parents but could suddenly be called inside as a carload of Mounties pulled up and headed out into the woods. Doors remained locked. People who lived by themselves moved in with others. Gun sales rose and weapons stayed close at hand. The year that Legere was on the loose, Halloween was canceled. Few people went out after dark and any sound in the night was a cause for panic.
Even with Legere convicted and housed in a maximum security prison, residents remained uneasy, their fears periodically flamed by reports that he might be moved to a less secure facility where he would have a greater opportunity for escape. Many believed that Legere kept a list of those on whom he wanted revenge.
Almost fifteen years later, as snow fell on the city, the fear of a killer lurking in their midst was about to return. A call came in to the quiet, semi-dark Miramichi Police Emergency Dispatch Center on January 26, 2003, a snowy Sunday afternoon. David Tanasichuk reported that his wife, Maria, was missing.
David told dispatcher Joanne Young that he and his wife had been having marital problems and they had decided to spend some time apart. To enable that, Maria had taken a bus to the city of Saint John, three hours away, to stay with a friend. He stated that Maria had been gone since January 14, and that since her departure, he had not heard from his wife and he’d become concerned.
It had been an unusually dry January, but on the 26th, as if Mother Nature was making up for lost time, snow was pelting down and weathermen were predicting eight to ten inches. While civilians were buttoning up and settling in and snowmobilers, cross-country skiers and snow-shoers were jumping for joy, the police were gearing up for a miserable day of fender-benders and slogging through the streets to answer calls. There is no such thing as a snow day for a police department.
At approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, dispatch sent Constable Cheryl Seeley to meet David Tanasichuk at his residence to take his statement. The apartment was only a short distance from the police station.
Upon entering the apartment, Constable Seeley said, “Hi, David, I understand that you haven’t seen your wife since January 12?”
Tanasichuk replied, “Yes.”
He went on to explain that his wife, Maria, was extremely possessive and clingy and wanted them to be together 24/7. He said that Maria cross-examined him about where he was going whenever he left the house and watched him through binoculars when he walked down the street. He said that he and Maria had been married since 1993 and he had tolerated the togetherness because she had waited for him during his time in jail and so he felt she deserved his attention. Lately, however, he had been feeling oppressed by her scrutiny. Maria watched him every minute. She repeatedly called when he was at friends’ houses to check on his whereabouts. She quizzed him when he returned.
As a result of Maria’s anxiety and his feelings of oppression, David told the constable that Sylvette Robichaud, the counselor they had been seeing at an addiction counseling service for help with David’s drug problem, had suggested they spend some time apart. Initially, he told Seeley, he had suggested to his wife that he would go to Moncton to stay with his brother, but Maria didn’t like his brother’s girlfriend and she thought there would be too many women around. Alternatively, he had suggested that he could go to Saint John and stay with his mother and another brother, but Maria had objected to that too, saying again that there would be too many females there. She suggested that he stay in Miramichi, where there would be fewer people to distract him and he would have time to think, and she would go to Saint John instead.
In trying to explain his wife’s state of mind at the time she left Miramichi, he said that her behavior had become so difficult that his mother, who usually came for three weeks at Christmas, had left after five days. In response to the constable’s questions, he told her that Maria was not angry when she left, but might have been a little upset. To illustrate his wife’s controlling nature, he described an incident four years earlier when Maria had threatened to slash her wrists while he was out with friends if he didn’t immediately return home. He told the constable that when he did return home, she had cuts on her wrists covered with bandages.
He also told Seeley that Maria had recently found out that she had Hepatitis C and believed that she had gotten it from him due to his drug use. She had been very angry when he tested negative and said, “Why would I have Hep C and you wouldn’t?”
David said that he didn’t know what time Maria had left, as he had been at a friend’s house working on his bike between 10:00 A.M. and 4 P.M. on the 12th and when he returned she was gone. As they had no car, he assumed that she had taken the bus. He was unable to describe what clothing and footwear Maria had taken with her, stating that she had clothing from one end of the house to the other. He said she would have had $800 with her that she had taken from their safe, money they had been saving up for their headstones.
He was unable to give Constable Seeley the full name, address or phone number of the friend in Saint John with whom Maria had gone to stay, saying only that it was someone named “Cathy.” He did give the constable the names of several friends and family members who might be able to help the police in locating Maria. Seeley said that she would contact them and advise him of what she learned. David said that he would also be contacting people. As Seeley was leaving the apartment, David Tanasichuk began to cry.
In her report, Seeley noted that during the interview, David appeared to be in an impaired state. Although his speech was not slurred and he was aware of his surroundings and able to provide the requested information, his eyes were shiny and dilated and he seemed to be in a daze.1
Large city police departments see a lot of missing person reports and usually have developed a standard operating procedure for handling them. Miramichi has a population of only around 19,000, and such reports are infrequent and generally handled more informally, often by a police officer who is already familiar with the person reporting and/or the one who has gone missing. It is generally true that in most small cities, the majority of persons reported missing eventually turn up, often with explanations for their disappearance involving alcohol, money, drugs, sex or mental health issues and often expressing surprise that anyone was concerned.
Therefore, the report of a missing person is typically not regarded as requiring immediate attention unless the missing person is a child or vulnerable adult or if the police have reason to believe the person might be at risk. In this case, there was cause for concern: Maria Tanasichuk had been gone for two weeks.
Seeley instructed David Tanasichuk to go to the police station the following day to give a formal statement, so that the police could gather as much detail as possible to aid them in searching for Maria. Then she gave David her business card and went back to headquarters.
Upon returning to the precinct and beginning to write up the report of her interview with David, Seeley realized that she had made a mistake in noting the date that Maria had left for Saint John. In his call to dispatch,