Also, he was an avid bow hunter.
Provincial records show that at one point in May 1989, during a period when he and one of his brothers had escaped from prison and were on the run, his path crossed that of the Miramichi region’s most notorious serial killer, Allan Legere. He was even briefly considered as a possible suspect in one of Legere’s murders, that of Annie Flam, but authorities quickly decided the Tanasichuk brothers were too disorganized. According to prison lore reported by the corrections department’s internal information system, he was fascinated by Legere, although he considered himself smarter, and therefore superior, to Legere, whom he criticized for having killed only women and old men. Some who knew him suspected him of having provided food and support to Legere during the months Legere was terrorizing the region.
David was tall and had a physique that showed his fondness for working out with weights. He had eyes described by one investigator as “shark’s eyes”—cold, gray and expressionless. His torso was covered in tattoos, primarily guns and anti-police slogans. At the base of his throat, he had tattooed the words “
The story was that the Tanasichuks had met when Maria was visiting her fiancé at the Springhill correctional facility. Once she met David, that engagement was off and ever after, David Tanasichuk was the only man in the world to her. It was, by all reports, a very strong attachment. Friends and relatives who spent time with David and Maria together said it was like a match made in heaven. The two of them shared a passion for outdoor activities, for hunting, fishing and riding through the woods on their three-wheelers. Sometimes they would be seen walking around Miramichi, holding hands. They did everything together. When they fought, friends reported, they cried, kissed and made up. Afterward they were closer than ever.
David nurtured a deep hatred for the police and this was something the Tanasichuks shared. Maria had escaped from a harsh family life in her early teens and had become involved with drinking and drugs, stealing and men who liked young girls. That behavior had gotten her sent to a reform school for girls as a teen. Her early experiences soured her on the criminal justice system and left her as hard-edged and suspicious as her husband when it came to dealing with the police. She rarely talked about her time in custody, even with close friends or family, except to tell her sister on the occasional home visit that it was an experience no one would want to have. She was adamant that she was never going to be incarcerated again, a resolution her relationship with David would ultimately cause her to break.
Maria’s sister, Sharon, describes a childhood in a poor family with eight children that was largely devoid of love and affection. Many homes in Miramichi in that era still had dirt floors. Catholic families had many children, the economy was poor and the financial and emotional costs of alcohol abuse were common problems for families trying to get by with too little. Maria’s family life was harsh and spare, in a home where her father, though kindly, had nerves damaged from the war and her mother was frustrated by poverty and overwhelmed by so many children. Care and attention came only when a child was sick and even that was meager at best. Pleasure was rare and presents even rarer.
According to Sharon, they usually got nothing for Christmas and they had learned not to expect anything. But one magical Christmas, when they were around eight and nine, both girls got their first dolls. During that long winter, they spent countless hours loving them and playing with them. To mark the specialness of these rare gifts, Sharon and Maria not only named their dolls, they also gave each other new names to use as they became loving mothers whose babies laughed and cried.
By her mid-teens, like many other young girls in the province, the strong-willed Maria had little supervision or correction. After a stint in reform school beginning around the time Maria was fifteen, she didn’t return to Miramichi but moved to the larger city of Saint John to stay with her brother. There she became romantically involved. At fifteen, she was hardly more than a child herself when she had her son, B.J., and she spent seven years in a common-law relationship with B.J.’s father.
The relationship was reportedly abusive, due in part to the father’s temper and in part to Maria’s sometimes careless mothering. As a very young mother without the support of her family, Maria struggled with the challenges of rearing a child while desiring the partying, drinking and drugs available to unencumbered friends her age.
During those years, she became close to B.J.’s father’s family. Her former sister-in-law, Cindy Richardson, remained a good friend to her over the years and was devoted to B.J. Cindy described Maria as always lively and fun—people describing Maria often used the word “bubbly”—but said that because of Maria’s drinking, drugs and partying, the family became concerned about B.J. when he was tiny and asked social services to become involved.
Eventually, Maria left the relationship and Saint John and moved back to Miramichi to raise her son away from the larger city’s temptations and be nearer to her family and her closest-in-age sister, Sharon. She had had enough of city life and looked forward to quieter times in Miramichi. By then, she had met David Tanasichuk and, wanting to become a better mother to B.J. and knowing she needed to be clean and drug-free to be allowed to visit David in prison, she weaned herself off drugs through sheer willpower. Living on public assistance was a severe, barebones existence, but Maria saw that her son was always well dressed and well fed, even if it meant that she had little money for her own needs. Like a lot of people on the Miramichi, they didn’t have much, but despite their tough circumstances Maria and her sister, Sharon, shared food when they could.
With Maria’s return to Miramichi, the two sisters were able to resume the friendship they had had as children, a comfort to Maria during the lonely years when David was incarcerated. Sharon’s daughter and B.J., who were close in age, became good friends.
Maria was an attractive woman, medium tall, with lovely long brown hair, large brown eyes and carefully shaped brows. Until despair over her son’s death rendered her depressed and couch-bound, Maria had been slim. She wasn’t a fashion plate; even if she could have afforded fancy clothes, she was far too outdoorsy for that. Even as a child, she’d been a tomboy and preferred fishing and climbing trees to more girly activities. She favored the comfort of jeans or tracksuits and sweatshirts, but she was very particular about her appearance and was absolutely passionate about her jewelry. Maria had a large collection of gold chains, necklaces and rings that had been gifts from David. She regularly wore a lot of her jewelry, and she took great pleasure in showing her friends each new piece. Even in casual pictures, she can be seen wearing a lot of gold. It was always gold for Maria, not silver. She loved to look good when she went out.
The Tanasichuks lived mostly on public assistance and the profits from drug sales. David only occasionally held down a job and Maria never worked. Some friends speculated that this was because the Tanasichuks’ reputation in the community was such that Maria thought it would be useless to even bother to try and find a job, as no one would hire her. Although they—and Maria in particular—had close relationships with friends, family and neighbors, in the wider Miramichi community they had a reputation. Maria’s best friend, Darlene Gertley, illustrated that reputation with the story of an encounter shortly after she moved to Miramichi and had her first child: “One time, I went down to the [gas station] and the lady asked how I was getting along and did you make any friends. And I said, yes, Maria and Dave Tanasichuk, and the woman said, ‘Oh, stay away from them.’ And I asked why. And she said, ‘They’re bad news. They’ve been in jail more than church.’”
At the time that David Tanasichuk reported his wife missing in January 2003, the long-standing