No Foul Play : Death in Thunder Bay - The Case of Stacy DeBungee - the fifth estate

I'm Jillian Finley the Fifth Estate starts now he said he rolled into the water but there's no sign of the reeds beat traveled down it started with a hunch I think somebody done him wrong a police investigation that didn't seem to add up this should have been classified as a suspicious death until it was proven to be different in Thunder Bay a city with a long history of racial mistrust their thing of just a drunk Indian with so many questions we went looking for answers and found some you were one of the last people that was with Stacey so what happened to him what does it say that your officers haven't spoken to them what does that say about the investigation from the beginning water has been the lifeblood of the Northern Ontario city of Thunder Bay but what water has brought this community it has also taken away in the last decade and a half more than a dozen people have been found dead in Thunder Bay's rivers most of them indigenous five of them just teenagers in each of those cases Thunder bass police quickly determine the deaths not crimes but accidents no foul play but today a similar conclusion in a similar drowning is stirring old tensions it started last October had a strange look on her face and she says I got bad news she said they found Stacy in the river Stacy de Bunge was 41 from the small First Nations community of Rainy River he'd lived in Thunder Bay for more than a decade on a disability pension he was a comedian he was a happy-go-lucky guy like and he was talking it make you laugh and just by his by his stories that he tell he was last seen alive the evening of October 18th he'd made a purchase at the liquor store and walked a few hundred meters to the banks of the MacIntyre River at 9:30 the next morning his body was discovered in the weeds facedown Brad de Bunge is Stacy's older brother what did you think when you when she told you they'd found him in the river I was in shock because he said he never a hung around that area so that made me wonder how did he end up there Brian only got the news the next day when he tried getting answers from Thunder Bay's police about what had happened at the river he says he got the runaround they were like brushing me off like they wouldn't really give me no answers to anything I said so what kind of investigation you've got going okay so it's still open that's it we're just looking into it that's what the police told him but publicly the Thunder Bay Police Service was making it sound like the investigation was all but over barely three hours after finding the body before Stacey had even been identified police issued a press release the death did not appear suspicious a day later before there'd even been an autopsy there was another release police had deemed a bungees death non-criminal but based on what when Brad couldn't get answers at the police station he went to check the riverbanks himself and who showed up but one of the detectives Benny said it was over here in the water right over here what did the police tell you their theory was then that he was passed out here and how do they figure he got to the water they said he rolled into the water but there's no sign up that reads being trampled down Brad suspicions only grew when he saw his brothers body at the funeral parlor this is what kind of made me suspicious like it's not a really a drowning because his nose is off-center and his cheek is puffed out and there's a bruise underneath his eye this shows that that isn't always it bent from a different angle it looks like there was something else done to him it wasn't just the de Bunge family the whole First Nations community was asking questions Rainy River Chief Jim Leonard and the more I talked to them the more concern I began to have and to a point where it entered me just the way the family was treated the more they showed and the more they talked the more concerned I began to have so chief Leonard decided to hire his own investigator for 27 years Dave Perry was a detective with Toronto's Police Service decorated for his work in homicides and major crimes I found it quite shocking shocking because of how quickly Thunder Bay's police had concluded the buggy's death was not a crime if you were to take the checklist which is quite an extensive one on what you have to do for a death investigation before you can make a determination if you will like they did 24 hours later in the newspaper that no foul play is suspected the work is tremendous it can take weeks it can take months it can take a year it's a tremendous amount of work so Perry went to work himself traveling to Thunder Bay talking to anyone who remembered seeing Stacy retracing his last movements you know I went and I visited the scene where mr. Dee buggies body was recovered and this was a very calm peaceful part of the river he was very shallow at the riverbank so it's not like depth was a an extreme issue and we all know that people can drown in a couple of inches of water and if they're incapacitated by anything they can drown very easily but it's it's such an easy explanation rather than to put the the kind of effort that you're supposed to in a sudden death investigation to assure families that they actually have answers to what happened to their loved one and and again simply wasn't done here the one piece of information police had shared with the D Bunge family was that Stacey was not alone that night there was evidence at least one other man had been on the riverbank - they said they found his ID scattered in that area and they said they haven't really looked for him because he says he doesn't want to be found cuz he's got warrants out for him so they weren't even bothering to look for him that's what they told you yeah they should have been looking for that man says Dave Perry the ID was clearly an important clue especially given what else he was learning I started to hear things about other people being there at the time I started hearing things about a potential conflict and perhaps even a fight between Stacey D Bunge and another gentleman in fact detective Perry would learn there were at least four people drinking with Stacey that night four potential witnesses maybe even people who were involved it didn't take him long to figure out who those people were and then he discovered something disturbing the debit-card Stacey had used earlier in the day was missing even more disturbing he found out that that card had been used again six more times after Stacey the bunkies body had been found there were three withdrawals at ATMs and purchases at the liquor store at a Canadian Tire and with a taxi company when I found that out some alarm bells went off because potentially there's a motive here for a crime we could have a robbery and that robbery could have led to the death of Stacy de Bunge and I'm not saying that that's a fact but these are questions that all have to be answered and they have to be excluded if they're not true all these leads that you were able to determine how quickly did you put those together work time about 48 hours you got figured all this out in 48 hours yes and the police they hadn't figured any of that out you know to the best of my knowledge they hadn't and that's what causes me a lot of concern so in an act of professional courtesy and with brad the Bunge in tow Perry went to Thunder Bay's police headquarters to share what he knew asked him to have the officers in charge of the case to give me a call that I may be able to share some information with them and shed some light on a few things and I never got a call or response whatsoever so they know who you were they knew what your experience they knew who I was and and you were telling them that you had information that you thought they as investigators should know right and they never called you back I felt like I just interrupted this gentleman's day it he didn't take me seriously he certainly didn't treat brad de Bunge the way I think a surviving victim should be treated why do you think that didn't happen well I think that there there may be a component of sort of a racist approach to the investigation and when I say that another intoxicated indigenous person found in the river therefore we know what's happened this is just simply a drowning and that's that's the dead wrong approach and it's completely improper it's also troublesome because as we would find out there was still lots to be discovered about what happened to Stacy debunking that night and questions about how hard police had even tried this is your town your investigators and you say you didn't hear about any of it until you read his report that's correct him Stasi the Bunge was not the first indigenous person to be found dead in Thunder Bay rivers last year a long-delayed inquest was finally held into the deaths of seven teenagers dating back more than a decade while the largest inquest in this provinces history gets underway this morning in Thunder Bay it will look into the circumstances around the local waterways to were found dead in their rooms in the city where they faced racism loneliness and lack of support in each case police had quickly labeled the death non criminal the same words used over and over again no foul play suspected did you accept that you know I didn't Dora Morris testified at the inquest her nephew Jethro Anderson was one of those pulled from the river her frustration with police started with her first call to report him missing tell me that he's out there partying like any other native kid it was kind of comments he's out there partying any other native in mm-hm so therefore don't worry is that what there was a I'm not sign of it like they could seem to me that they didn't really care what was going on like he was only hit just turned 15 I was hoping that they would just jump right away to start searching that's what she did scouring the streets day and night but as she would learn at the inquest it was six days before police even opened an investigation into Jethro's disappearance thirteen days before they agreed to drag the river I don't know what they would have done if it's not a First Nation kid but when something happens to a First Nation he put in more more like they just swept it under the rug a coroner's jury in Thunder Bay delivered its findings today and made 145 master nine months of testimony from nearly 150 witnesses technically how police had handled the investigations wasn't part of the inquest mandate but there was no escaping scrutiny the jury ruled three of the drownings including Jethro Anderson's could not be labelled accidents for sure undetermined was the conclusion which leaves open the possibility there might indeed have been foul play then came Stacy de Bunge found dead even as the inquest was sitting and yet once again the quick rush to declare no crime what shocks me is that all of this happened or to be put properly didn't happen in the middle of an inquest where the Thunder Bay police were under a microscope being reviewed for the exact same issue that we're sitting here talking about today to me I can't believe that this would happen and I can't believe that the leadership would let this happen if I was a chief of that Police Service I'd be personally down at that crime scene to make sure that we didn't miss a single thing like I'm Jillian Finlay pleasure to meet you JP Levesque has been Thunder Bay's police chief for five years I started our conversation by asking him to explain those early press releases three hours after mr. de bungees body was found the Thunder Bay Police issued a press release saying that the initial investigation does not indicate suspicious death within a day another press release saying that the police had deemed the death non criminal how did you know that yeah I think the wording of the the press release could have been better I think it should have been something more along the lines of based on the evidence we have at hand to date there does not appear to be any foul play we didn't add that and certainly it was a learning lesson for us what was the investigation that was done within those first 24 hours it would lead you to any kind of conclusion the scene the condition of the body all those types of things it said based on the evidence we had at that time so it was a mistake on our part there's no question about it we then asked him about that missing man the ID cards that officers had found on the riverbank surely an important clue what efforts were made to find the man to whom that ID belonged from what I recall of the investigation efforts were made to locate him mail was put off her location I believe we attended his last known residence left information that we needed to speak with this individual and could he please contact us and did you hear from him later on in the investigation I believe we spoke to him because the family says they were told that this was somebody who did not want to be found by police and had simply disappeared I you know what I can't comment on that I really don't have any knowledge of that in his investigation retired Toronto police detective Dave Perry identified four people who were with Stacy that night two of who disappeared from Thunder Bay in the days have followed to him there was plenty to investigate and he still can't figure out why it wasn't especially since his report was handed to Thunder Bay police this summer including his very different conclusion this should have been classified as a suspicious death until if and until it was proven to be different and the only way you can prove it to be different is to do an extremely thorough investigation you can't rely on biases I mean mr. Perry is a respected investigator he was able to access information my understanding was able to access information that we wouldn't have been able to access without a warrant so why didn't you go get a warrant we likely wouldn't been able to get a warrant and there was no reason for us to think that we had to get a warrant mr. Perry spends 48 hours in Thunder Bay and in that time he finds four people who were the last people to be with and to have seen mr. de Bunge that night did you find those four people I know we spoke to witnesses he also finds that mr. de buggies debit card he is missing and he further finds that that debit card was used after his death did you know about that debit card I don't believe the family shared that with us no this is your town your investigators and you say you didn't hear about any of it until you've read his report that's correct you what does that say to you is the man responsible for investigations in Thunder Bay I think that there's a certain level of cooperation that mr. Perry maybe was able to get that we weren't have you not gone back to those investigators and said did you ever ask about the debit card did you ever interview these people I try not to micromanage I'll let the investigators do the job but they didn't do the job in this case yeah would you agree was that they didn't do the job no I wouldn't agree with that like I don't know that they had the grounds to obtain the information that mr. Perry was able to obtain but Perry says it wasn't grounds they needed it was initiative there are key people that need to be found and need to be interviewed and figure out you know did that debit card have something to do with Stacy de bunkies death or did it not that's a that's a question that's gonna be gnawing at me until somebody steps up and actually does an investigation and figures this out so we decided to see what we could find out armed with Dave Perry's report we went looking for people we knew had information to share it didn't take us long to find someone important Kathleen Kwan Dobbins was Stacy the Bunge stepdaughter she didn't want to be interviewed on camera but she did confirm what she had told Dave Perry that she knew the people Stacy had been with that night that she'd seen them the next day in possession of his debit card and that she was suspicious she also confirmed that in the year since Stacy the Bunge died Thunder Bay police have never sought her out to ask about any of it from Kathleen we got more names including the woman she said had that debit card Ethel wobbles and so we started looking for her too and one day on a street corner we found her you were one of the last people that was with Stacy right that night so what happened to him how did he she didn't want to talk to us at first but then she reconsidered and led us to her boyfriend Cory Linkletter he'd been at the river that night too if anyone could shed light on what happened to Stacy it should be these two we want to talk to you because we're we're trying to get some answers about Stacy the Bunge okay and you I think were the last people to be with him before he died so what can you tell us about how he died I don't know he said he was gonna be okay right so what happened that's all Stacy was drunk they said they all were but when they left they had no reason to think he was in danger did you harm him a guy came me nothing did you steal his debit card from him no no no he gave it to you did you use it at the Canadian Tire store did you use it at the LCBO yep you did did you use it with the taxi company no no why did why did you have the debit card no because I went in to help you and me they forgot to give it back many of their answers raised even more questions things beyond our ability to check out but one thing Ethel and Corey two made clear in the last year no one from Thunder Bay Police has bothered to find and interview them within 48 hours of us being in Thunder Bay we were able to find two people including the woman who acknowledges that she had Stacy to bunkies debit card and used it the next day okay are you willing to be interviewed by our investigators I don't think you need to interview me she and her partner have not they Sabo say that they have not been questioned by the Thunder Bay police nobody has come to talk to them about any of these issues that we've raised here today I will pass on the information I wasn't aware of that what does that say about the investigation you say is going on they're willing to make themselves available to you well we didn't they didn't walk in the door we went and we went and found them but it wasn't hard as the point I made it's an ongoing investigation I and I don't know what steps recently the investigators have taken I have been briefed on in a while I'll have to look into it it didn't surprise me at all how much lack of investigation now the police did rainy river First Nations Chief Jim Leonard it's just that built up from over the years and the lack of response the lack of investigation the lack of satisfaction that we as native people have been getting in the treatment we've been getting from the from the police it's a decades-old complaint in this city and it's getting worse so today when you walk down the street in this city do you fear the police yes I do yep yes no one ever said policing is easy in a place like Thunder Bay a few years ago the city had the highest per capita murder rate in the country and the tensions are real 82 off 25% of the population here is indigenous and yet according to some estimates they account for nearly 80% of arrests okay you okay wait wait drinking tonight this man just needs a place to sober up all right check this here detox has a male bud and we're trying to see if you can go to detox for the night know that so far no options available for you right now you're gonna but the shelters are full and so he ends up cuffed and taken to jail to police it's a last resort well first see sober up the legal but to Thunder Bay the indigenous community it looks and feels like racism take what happened in front of the same bar last August there was an argument that spilled out onto the street and in the middle of it a man named Gary Moore well I left but outside some people followed me and they kept on arguing with me and all of a sudden I got tackled from behind so what did you do just try to get the person off me he says he assumed the person on top of him was one of those he'd been arguing with I was getting punched around and all I know I was fighting fighting back and that's all I can say it soon he was on his back straddled by his attacker it was only then he says he realized with whom he'd been fighting when they said pulling out the cuffs that is it if you don't stop now we're gonna use the Taser and pepper Perez pepper spray so that's when I kind of relaxed these are cops Gary was arrested taken to the hospital and then to the police station where he claims he was beaten again so what were your injuries then as a result of this I had this I think like six seven seven stitches my left eye here was all shut I couldn't see out of it I had like maybe 420 bruises on my head my hand will just look like a balloon stories like Gary's are often hard to verify but unbeknownst to him and to the police there was a bystander with a phone that night a short video was posted to Facebook the next day the quality is poor and shot from a distance but if you look carefully you can make it out a man on his back another straddling him the flash of a punch the video has since disappeared from social media but the Fifth Estate has verified this easy indeed part of the incident Gary described the man on top is indeed a Thunder Bay police officer are you familiar with this video I'm talking about no I'm sorry I'm not aware of it you're not aware of this at all chief Levesque had not seen the video when we spoke with him but he agreed that if the incident was as described it was cause for concern is there protocol in this police department that would explain or allow for the fact that a police officer punched a man he was trying to arrest our officers all received the same training and use of force without knowing the you know what was transpiring at the time I'm not prepared to comment on that I mean obviously there's no protocol as you call it to punch a defenseless man gary says police later told him they were called to the bar after a report that he was drunk and had hit a woman he denies both things in the end he was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting the officer even though he was the one who got injured everywhere we went in Thunder Bay we heard stories from First Nations people about how they are treated by police late last month we hosted a meeting invited people to share their stories many told us they were worried about retaliation for some it was the first time they talked publicly about their experiences so I wondered if I could just start by asking you how many people here have had some kind of interaction with the police in this city and what you felt that racism played a role I got hit by a car while on my bike there was supposed to be an investigation but he never called me back like he said he would the next day and nothing became of this incident this woman described how she ended up being arrested after witnessing officers harassing of First Nations man like they were picking on a bullying him and I took notice of that and I made a verbal comment to them like he's not doing anything leave alone it instinctively turned on me and when I defended myself or spoke back or I was being hauled in I was arrested right there put in handcuffs you know throwing up against the back of the car and taken in there was racial slurs the whole the whole ride right like you should have stayed on the res squad you're not gonna finish school you're not gonna amount to anything so today when you walk down the street in this city do you fear the police like you yes I do yep yes this woman does to her account of her arrest was brutal there's about four or five of them they came in they took me against a wall and my head hit the wall and made it dent stories were familiar to ban counselor Darius Farris the stories that we hear today he says he's been hearing them for years we hear out there it's it is systemic systemic racism and stereotype you know and for some reason we first Neeson's stand out I think this needs to be exposed more because a cop is supposed to uphold a law protecting a serve right but how can you trust these individuals that are only abusing their authority I want to show you some videotape you asked about the meeting we had last night take a listen there was supposed to be an investigation but he never called me back like he said he went the next day do you fear the police yes I do yeah yes it is systemic systemic racism and for some reason we First Nations stagnant so that's just a little bit of what we heard last night what do you think when you listen to that I'm wondering if you heard anything positive we heard people say we don't say every police officer is racist we accept that there are some who are good but our experience leads us to this conclusion systemic racism this is what happens to us as indigenous people in this community well I think that if these kinds of claims come forward they'll be properly investigated do I want to know about these things absolutely we asked everybody who had an allegation last night we said to them did you go to the police to complain and that it really boils down to they don't trust the police force here they don't trust you to serve and protect their interests do you acknowledge that you have a problem yes yeah our relationship with in the indigenous community is not good yes I acknowledge that I know though that we are working very hard to try and change that we have some people who make some poor choices and there's no question about that and are they helpful for them when it comes to our attention how do I do anything if these kinds of stories that you just showed me are brought to my attention of course there is one story that has been brought to the police's attention by the family by an outside investigator and now by us the story of Stacy de Bunge having initially declared his death non criminal the police now say their investigation is ongoing those Stacy's brother is skeptical a year later brad is more convinced than ever that what happened here was no accident so what did you think like somebody placed him there I did it threw him in the water not yet I think somebody done him wrong today the Thunder Bay Police Service is under investigation itself the Ontario agency that oversees complaints against police is reviewing how Thunder Bay handled the de bunky case as well as allegations that racial discrimination is systemic it was Dave Perry's report that launched that review but he takes no satisfaction the sad thing about Stacy de Bunge is that this was an opportunity and it's a missed opportunity for the Thunder Bay Police Service to start mending fences building some trust had they done a thorough investigation and been completely transparent this could have been a huge win but that's an opportunity that's lost I think no matter what they do now it's too late there's a de bunky family are they owed an apology at this point for the fact that one year later they still have no answers from your police force I think once we see the outcomes of the investigations will basically go from there and and decide if that's something that we need to do for our investigation was problematic and we could have done a better job yes but for bread the Bunge an apology isn't the point what he still wants a year later is to no no nothing's gonna bring him back so why don't you just let it go closure I need closure family needs closure to really know what happened to him if he really did drown I'll accept it but my suspicion and what I feel is not right

Channel: The Fifth Estate

Views: 1,245,233

Keywords: Stacy DeBungee, Thunder Bay Police, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, Indigenous, Rainy River First Nations, the fifth estate, CBC, CBC News, Gillian Findlay

Id: SbWEuF99vZg

Length: 36min 0sec (2160 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2016