Dave, the judge said he was giving her six months to think about it, because he figured she could start her life over without Dave. But she was in love and she was going to stand by her man, and she ended up going to jail in Saint John. And so she calls me from the courthouse, crying her head off, can I come and get Billy Joe, she’s got no one to take care of him, her mum don’t want him. So what else am I going to say? I said of course, Maria, I’ll come get him. And she asks me to come get Billy Joe and get him in school and stuff, and of course I said I would, so in 1991, Billy Joe comes to live with me.”
When Maria got out of jail, she went back to living in the couple’s home, where David later joined her.
Detectives embarked on the investigation hoping that this would be a typical missing person case: that Maria, as David had said, had left to take some time off and visit with an old friend in Saint John. Officers who were fond of her genuinely hoped that she would soon reappear, puzzled that anyone had been alarmed, to rejoin her husband and return to her quiet domestic life.
Nevertheless, David’s rather odd behavior and his former sister-in-law’s comment about “something bad” having happened to Maria roused concern.
On the Monday following David’s call, the Miramichi police began talking to Maria’s friends to establish some of the basic facts pursued in any missing person situation: Maria’s recent state of mind, her current domestic situation as observed by those who knew her best, the likelihood that she would have gone away, where she might have gone—Saint John or elsewhere—and with whom she might be staying. They were looking for which friends or relatives she might have told about her plans and, given David’s conflicting statements about when she left, wanted to create a timeline of when she was last seen.
In a large, anonymous city, where people live isolated lives and frequently don’t bother to know their neighbors, finding people with useful information can be difficult. But Miramichi is a small and old-fashioned place with an old-fashioned sense of community. Weddings, baby showers and wakes are community events. The Miramichi is still a place where kids run in and out of neighbors’ kitchens, call home for permission to stay at a friend’s for dinner and play outside in groups until dark falls and parents call them in. It’s a place of homemade pickles and canned moose meat and salmon on the grill, a place where friends drop in on each other, share meals or go for coffee, regularly check in with each other by phone and keep up with each other’s lives and news.
Maria Tanasichuk might live a humble life without even an automobile for transportation, but in one respect she was very rich in her abundance of close and caring friends. Friends who were regularly in touch. Friends who, even though it had been more than two years since B.J.’s death, understood her pain and were still attentive to her grief.
David had given two conflicting dates—January 14, as he’d stated in his initial phone call to the police, and January 12, which he agreed with Constable Seeley was the correct date on which his wife had left for Saint John on the bus. On the 26th, after reporting his wife missing, he told Seeley that he was traveling to Saint John, about three hours away, to look for her, getting his brother to drive him because he didn’t have a car.
On the following morning, though, when Detective Cummings stopped by, David Tanasichuk was at his apartment. He said that he’d started for Saint John, his brother had had car trouble and he’d decided that, in any case, he needed to be on the Miramichi in case Maria returned or there was news of her.
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.
