the need seemed great, he might stay and eat with them.
The relationship was close enough, in his mind, that Cummings even briefly considered inviting them to his wedding, until he realized that the presence of a convicted felon would mean friends of his in the justice system would then be unable to attend.
At some point in the process, David Tanasichuk took a surprising step to demonstrate his good faith and his willingness to rely on the judicial process to secure justice for his stepson. He wrote a letter to the local paper, The Miramichi Leader, affirming that he would abide by the law and not seek revenge on B.J.’s killer, as many expected him to do.
In a letter that appeared in the September 12, 2000, edition of The Miramichi Leader, he began:
“As me and Maria mourn the loss of our son, B.J., I feel compelled to write this letter to express some of our thoughts.”
David went on to assert that although his son did not lead a life of privilege and had limited career options, “…Let me tell you, Mr. Cadogan, B.J. may not have come from your upper class rich family, but we did provide him with everything within our means, and anyone who knew B.J. could tell you, we did without so he would not. Do you really judge a person’s worth by the amount they or their families have, or by the love they give or receive?”
David continued, “The next issue I want to bring forward is the fact that Billy-Joe’s murderer has been given bail. Our son is dead, and he walks free waiting for trial. I’ll quote the judge in this case, ‘The accused has a right to an education.’ That makes me want to vomit. What about B.J.’s rights? I just wonder if this is a prime example of the justice we will get in this case. If this is true, then may God have mercy on us all.”
He then confronted a widespread assumption head-on: “…For the hundreds of people out there who are spreading this rumor that I may take the law in my own hands, I say to you all, ‘give it a rest.’ I truly believe that this is not what B.J. would have wanted me to do. B.J. would have wanted justice to run its course. So that is what I shall do.
“I just pray that there is justice for B.J. Because if there isn’t, may Satan have mercy on our souls [Tanasichuk considered himself to be a satanist]. Because that is where we’ll all be, in Hell. I’ll be waiting at the gates.”5
Another example of how changed the relationship had become between an angry felon who hated cops and sold drugs out his back door and the local police detectives concerned B.J.’s burial plot. B.J. Breau was buried in St. Michael’s Cathedral graveyard, within walking distance of the Tanasichuks’ house. Maria went there regularly in the harsh winter weather to shovel a path to her son’s grave. Then she knelt and tenderly cleared the clinging ice and snow from the letters on his headstone.
B.J. had been buried in one of the plots the church provided for those who could not pay. After B.J.’s burial, Maria went to the cemetery and tried to get the adjacent plot reserved so she could be buried next to him. There she learned that it was church policy to assign these burial plots in the order in which people died. When her attempts to secure the plot failed, the strong-willed Maria told her husband that if the only way she could be buried next to her son would be to be the next to die, then that’s what she was prepared to do.
In a move that would have been inconceivable before B.J.’s death, David Tanasichuk went to the police station and approached Detective Cummings and Detective Sergeant Fiander, explaining that he needed to ask a particular favor. He told the detectives about Maria’s ultimatum. Was there anything they could do, he wondered, to ensure that that plot could be reserved for Maria? In despair over the possibility of losing both his wife and his stepson, David cried when he asked the detectives if there was any way they could do this for him.
To David’s great relief, the detectives were able to intercede on Maria’s behalf and secure a promise that the adjacent plot would be saved for her. When David and Maria saw that they were going to get what they wanted, a thankful David returned to the police station to speak with Detective Cummings. He told the detective that if he and Maria were ever successful in becoming parents, they wanted Cummings to be the godfather.
That was the situation and the state of the relationship when Cummings went to the apartment to talk to David about his missing person report.
A police officer may wear many different hats in the course of a single shift. He or she may go from investigating a robbery to dealing compassionately with someone mentally challenged, from interviewing a reluctant witness to trying to resuscitate a baby who’s not breathing. All day, every day, police are making complicated mental and emotional adjustments. Individual officers’ reasons for choosing police work will vary, but many are drawn by a need to preserve social order, a desire to serve others, a passion for righting wrongs and the hope, however often it is disappointed, in the possibility of goodness and redemption.
Because of the constant emotional demands of the job, police officers, as part of their training, are taught to maintain an objective distance from both criminals and victims. To do otherwise would make the job, with its frequent exposure to the horrific things people do to one another, too emotionally draining. All officers have cases that get to them, the cases they will carry for their whole lives. After the many contacts the department had with the Tanasichuks—with all the time and energy that had gone into helping them through B.J.’s death, the constant worry about David’s potential explosion and the relationships that had resulted—Maria’s disappearance was going to be one of them.
In many departments, standard operating procedure is not to act until an adult has been gone for more than twenty-four or forty-eight hours, unless that person is elderly or somehow compromised. Certain departments have levels of concern, from the more serious “Missing Person” to the more casual “Compassion to Locate” for cases where the primary reason was not fear of a crime but concern for a worried family. But Maria Tanasichuk was known to be a homebody who, according to her husband’s report, had been gone for nearly two weeks. This, along with David’s possible relapse into serious drug use, stirred concern for both husband and wife in the minds of the detectives who knew them best.
Although it is common in cases where a husband reports his wife missing to take a close look at the family dynamics, the Tanasichuk matter was not immediately flagged as a possible domestic incident. The Tanasichuks were not a couple known for their domestic problems; quite the opposite, they were fiercely protective of one another and known to be extremely close. They were a couple whom others envied for their loving relationship and the way they seemed to enjoy doing so many things together. Friends and neighbors alike spoke of their closeness and their devotion, particularly of Maria’s devotion to her husband.
In an effort to explain the intensity of Maria’s loyalty to David, B.J.’s aunt, Maria’s former sister-in-law Cindy Richardson, described the following event: David had stolen some guns from a gun shop around the corner and hidden them in the apartment. When police searched and found the guns, David and Maria were both charged.
Cindy said, “…She ended up going to court. And the judge knew about Dave and his character. And of course, I didn’t know he was this bad character as he turned out to be, and so they told Maria if she would stay away from Dave, she could have no time at all,
