When Cummings went to the Tanasichuks’ residence to follow up on David’s report, he planned, in the unlikely event that he found David Tanasichuk at home, to get David to come down to the station. There, a complete written statement could be obtained regarding the circumstances of Maria’s departure: what she was wearing, what she’d packed, what she’d said, the state of their relations, contact information for the person she’d gone to visit. Cummings also wanted to obtain the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who might have useful information about Maria’s whereabouts, both on the Miramichi and in Saint John.
He went to the apartment believing that he was on his way to see someone he knew well, someone he considered a friend, having visited the Tanasichuks frequently since B.J.’s death. What he saw when he entered the apartment shocked him. David Tanasichuk, a big, strong outdoorsman who, like Cummings, worked out with weights and prided himself on his physique, was thinner and haggard. While David didn’t appear stoned and was able to carry on a conversation, he had the look of a “pill-sick” junkie who was suffering from withdrawal, something with which Cummings, from his years of police work, was very familiar. It seemed obvious to the detective that David, who had flirted with drug use on and off for years despite Maria’s efforts to keep him straight, was back to using drugs. He was also edgy and appeared uncomfortable, lacking the easy familiarity usually present during their visits. While he was normally quite a talker, on that occasion he didn’t seem to want to talk to Cummings.
The apartment, which Maria always kept impeccably clean, was in serious disarray, a state that Cummings knew would have upset Maria. Despite the fug of cigarette smoke, as the two were constant smokers, Maria was a proud and meticulous housekeeper who rigorously enforced her “leave your shoes at the door or else” rule.
David readily admitted that Maria had been heavily on him for his drug use and that she had been hiding their money so he couldn’t get at it to buy drugs. When Cummings tried to gather information to aid them in searching for Maria, asking who Maria had gone to stay with and what clothing and other things she had taken with her, information that might help them gauge how long she planned to be away, David became vague. He reiterated that he thought she had gone to stay with a friend named “Cathy” in Saint John, but still couldn’t furnish a last name, an address or a phone number.
David said he wasn’t sure what she had taken but that her red and yellow kit bag was missing. Then David added that when Maria left, she had not taken her prescription pills with her.
Otherwise, despite his having expressed concerns serious enough to involve the police and ask for their help, David didn’t seem to want to talk about Maria, but only about himself. He admitted to having had a few “setbacks” with drugs and said he was seeing Sylvette Robichaud at the addiction counseling service to deal with the problem. He said that he felt like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and like he didn’t know what he was doing half the time.
After a few more unsuccessful attempts to obtain information about Maria’s departure, Cummings told David that he would need to come to the police station to give a formal statement so they could get details to help them locate Maria. David said that was not a problem and agreed that he would come to the station the following day, January 28, to give a statement.
Cummings left the apartment feeling dissatisfied with the interview and hoping that he would learn more on the following day when David came in to give his statement. Cummings didn’t know whether David’s vagueness and his apparent lack of anxiety about Maria’s whereabouts was the result of impairment due to drug use or a deliberate deception. He also left with very little to go on in terms of how to try and locate Maria.
What Cummings did know, though, from his time spent with the Tanasichuks, was that despite her rough edges and hard attitude toward authority, Maria Tanasichuk was a woman who made, and kept, deep friendships. If David didn’t have useful information to offer, some of her close friends probably did.
Later that same morning, Cummings went to see Maria’s sister, Sharon Carroll. Sharon confirmed to him that Maria had been increasingly voicing her concerns about David’s drug use. Sharon said that during her last conversation with Maria, around the 10th to 13th of January, Maria had told her that she was tired of fighting with David. Sharon also said that Maria had never left before without telling anyone she was leaving and that such behavior would be very much out of character.
In contrast to David’s assertion that he had volunteered to leave but Maria had insisted on going instead, it was Sharon’s belief that Maria was extremely unlikely to leave the apartment for any length of time. It was the place where Maria had lived so long with her son, B.J. Sharon told him that Maria had a strong sentimental attachment to her son’s possessions that were stored there. Stored, Cummings knew, was hardly the operative word. B.J.’s bedroom had remained essentially unchanged from when he had last slept there, except that Maria had turned the room into a shrine for her lost child by adding items including candles, flowers and a memorial Bible given to the couple at B.J.’s funeral.
Sharon also shared another reason why she doubted that Maria would be likely to go away without telling anyone. She said Maria was very excited because Sharon’s daughter, Angela, was expecting twins and Maria was going to be the godmother. Sharon said that Maria’s close attachment to Angela—although Maria was Angela’s aunt, after B.J.’s death the two of them had become more like sisters—and Maria’s concern about Angela’s difficult pregnancy meant that Maria would be unlikely to leave without telling someone or to stay out of touch for any length of time. Sharon also reported that David and Maria had stood up with Angela at her wedding down in Fredericton, and upon their return, Maria had said that she didn’t like being away from home and she was done with traveling.
Following their conversation on the morning of the 27th, Detective Cummings called David again that afternoon to see if there had been any word from Maria. He couldn’t reach David, so he left a message confirming that they would meet the following day for an interview. While he waited to interview David, he continued to speak with many people who knew the couple. The nature of the information coming in, and David’s unavailability, created an increasing sense of urgency.
After his visit to Sharon Carroll, Cummings went to speak with Maria’s best friend, Darlene Gertley. Darlene and Maria had been close friends since becoming neighbors in 1998. They called each other “girlfriend” and normally either saw each other or spoke on the phone daily. There was even a chair in Dave and Maria’s living room nicknamed “girlfriend’s chair” which was where Darlene sat when she was visiting.
In the Fall of 1997, Darlene had moved to Miramichi from Prince Edward Island with her husband, who was a chef. Her husband worked long hours. She was pregnant and isolated, living in a new province and desperately lonely. Darlene and her husband rented an apartment next door to Maria.
“I used to look over, when I put my dog out, and I’d see this brown-haired lady tossing a bone to my dog,” Darlene said. “And I was lonely and I used to think, ‘Gosh, I wish you’d toss me a bone someday.’ Then, after I gave birth to my son, when he was about six weeks old, I decided to take a walk down to the store on the corner, and I took my son in the stroller, and I walked down and I walked past their house and she said hi and I said hi and I looked down and didn’t say anything more ’cause I’m really quite shy, and I was pushing the stroller up onto the porch and I dropped the baby’s blanket and didn’t notice that I’d done it, and I was unlocking the door and there she was with the blanket.
“From that day on, we became friends—would you like to go for coffee, let’s go for a walk, you know. She was beautiful. She was thoughtful. She had a large heart. She loved her husband. She loved her son. She loved me as a friend. At that point, I had lost my twin brother. I’d lost him in a car accident, and Maria knew I needed friendship and someone to talk to. I’d moved to a French place, and I spoke only English. I was shy and housebound. Maria was the only real