Their families never accepted the official account of their deaths. Now police are taking another look

Nicole Williams · CBC News

· Posted: May 20, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

"Nothing's the aforesaid arsenic it was before," says Jenni Wannamaker, not acold from the waters of the Bay of Quinte where she mislaid her member 10 years ago.

Wannamaker lives in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, astir 220 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.

For the past decade, the First Nation has been grappling with the abrupt deaths and consequent constabulary investigations of Wannamaker's brother, 26-year-old Matty Fairman, and Tyler Maracle, 21.

In the aboriginal hours of April 26, 2015, Fairman and Maracle acceptable retired connected the bay to bash immoderate spearfishing, but they never returned home.

There followed a community-wide hunt and an probe that was initially led by Tyendinaga Mohawk Police earlier being handed implicit to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

According to OPP records, fishers recovered the bodies of Maracle and Fairman nearly 2 weeks later, astir 15 metres apart. Their vessel was recovered astatine the bottommost of the bay the time after, connected to 274 metres of nett afloat of rotting fish.

At the time, investigators concluded the young men had chopped the net, which constabulary believed belonged to different subordinate of the community, and tried to haul the food into their boat, overloading the vas and causing it to descend — and the 2 men to drown.

The coroner's bureau classified their deaths arsenic accidental.

'They weren't thieves' 

But the families of Fairman and Maracle person agelong rejected the police theory astir the circumstances of their deaths.

"There was nary way," said Wannamaker. "Matty and Tyler were smart. They learned however to food a agelong clip ago."

She said the lone crushed they went retired that day was to amusement immoderate boys successful the neighbourhood however to decently cleanable fish.

"They wanted to bash thing good. They weren't thieves," she insisted.

For years, Maracle's mother Tammy protested extracurricular the constabulary station, calling for the lawsuit to beryllium reopened. She believes her lad and his person whitethorn person been victims of foul play.

"I conscionable kept warring and warring and fighting," she said.

That combat has yet paid off.

Case reopened aft APTN investigation

Last month, pursuing an probe by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), OPP reopened the case.

Investigators archetypal had to exhume the boat — APTN reported it had been buried according to a claimed Mohawk tradition — then load it with much than doubly the value of the food believed by constabulary to person been successful the nett erstwhile the men drowned, to spot however it fared successful assorted scenarios.

The vessel ne'er sank. A followup study ordered by the coroner confirmed the results.

"From the conditions outlined successful this study it tin beryllium harmless to presume that the vas was not overloaded astatine the clip of sinking," concludes a study from BYD Naval Architects.

The study besides noted the vessel was recovered with factual blocks and much sportfishing nett aboard, each intact.

"Equipment was recovered connected the benches and interior of the vas successful what seemed an undisturbed state, which seems to suggest that the descent to the water furniture was comparatively flat," the study concluded.

It offered respective different possibilities for what whitethorn person happened that morning, but dismissed them each arsenic improbable — but for one.

"The vas was affected by an outer unit and 1 oregon some gentlemen ended up successful the water," according to the report.

That outer unit — oregon possibly an effort by some men to clamber backmost aboard from the aforesaid broadside of the vessel — could person caused it to instrumentality connected water. However, according to the authors, "there is not capable grounds oregon signs of this occurring connected the vas astatine the clip of the survey."

Cause of deaths present 'undetermined'

Regardless, the findings prompted Ontario's main coroner to reclassify the deaths from accidental to undetermined.

"Which means we don't really cognize what happened," Dr. Dirk Huyer said. "We ever are unfastened to proceeding and considering caller accusation oregon accusation that mightiness beryllium antithetic than what we recovered during our earlier investigations."

OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique has ordered the lawsuit to beryllium reopened, this clip nether the pb of the Toronto Police Service (TPS).

"We respect the Toronto Police Service's process and await their results, pursuing which we volition place immoderate indispensable adjacent steps based connected their findings," Carrique said successful a connection to CBC.

The TPS confirmed it's conducting a reappraisal of the probe astatine the request of provincial police.

A achy 10 years

The families of Maracle and Fairman person present been fixed caller crushed to anticipation they whitethorn yet get answers astir what happened to their loved ones.

But their nonaccomplishment — and their content that constabulary mishandled the archetypal probe — has taken a tremendous toll.

"It's been a surviving hell. There's times erstwhile I didn't privation to beryllium here, and there's really times I tried not to beryllium here," said Fairman's mother Beverly Maracle.

"How bash you determination connected without your baby?"

Tammy Maracle said she and her husband Robin feel the aforesaid mode without their son.

"I would laic successful furniture conscionable thinking, like, 'Who bash I spell to? Who volition assistance me?'" she recalled.

On the cusp of a caller investigation, Maracle said she'll beryllium watching constabulary closely.

"I anticipation ... they get justness for us. But if they don't, I'll beryllium backmost retired determination again," she said.