Lewisporte, NL - July 4, 1988 - Grappling With Canada

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi folks, Andy the Taxman here.

(00:03):
Before we get into today's program, please take a minute to rate, review and subscribe
to Grappling with Canada on any podcasting platform of your choice.
Just a quick note before we begin.
You are going to be hearing firsthand accounts containing disturbing descriptions of the
horrific events of July 4th, 1988.

(00:29):
This podcast is not intended for young audiences.
If you find that this story and these descriptions affect you, I implore you, please reach out
to a mental health professional for help.
Listener discretion is strongly advised.

(01:16):
The accident occurred around 9.30 last night near Lewisport, Newfoundland.
A van containing four professional wrestlers suddenly plunged into a shallow stream.
Dead is former WWF star adorable Adrian Adonis, seen here in the pink trunks.
His real name is Keith Frank from Los Angeles.
Also killed was Pat Kelly on the left.

(01:36):
His twin brother Mike on the right was the only survivor of the crash.
He's in serious but stable condition.
The Kelly twins are from Hamilton.
Perhaps their biggest claim to fame was this chocolate bar commercial shot with another
professional wrestler, Mad Dog Vachon.
The third to die in the crash was Dave McKigney of Aurora.
His fans knew him as Wildman.

(01:57):
His friends remember him differently.
The tiger with a heart of gold.
Kind of hearted man I've ever met.
I'll never forget the memories when I was a little girl, him picking me up, putting me
on a pony.
We'd go back in the woods, pick apples, bring the sacks of apples back.
For Carrie Ann Orser, the death of her stepfather completes an incredible cycle of tragedy.

(02:17):
It was ten years ago this past weekend that her mother was mauled to death by a bear.
Wildman, her husband, kept the bear around the house and often wrestled with him in the
ring.
Wildman's son, eight-year-old Dave Jr., was traveling just a few cars behind his father's
van when it crashed.
He believes it blew a tire.
Police in Newfoundland, however, are not so certain.

(02:38):
They say they're continuing their investigation.
I'm your host, Andy Dulevich.
This is Grappling with Canada.

(02:58):
In today's episode, we're going to be discussing the tragic and horrific events that occurred
outside of Lewisport, Newfoundland in July 4th, 1988.
Now for those who are unaware of the events of July 4th of 1988, I will give you a brief

(03:19):
overview before we get into today's program.
On July 4th of 1988, just outside of Lewisport, there were four wrestlers traveling in a van.
They were Dave McKigney, a wrestling promoter, Adrian Adonis, who was a wrestling superstar,
and twin brothers, Mike Kelly and Pat Kelly, who were from Hamilton, Ontario.

(03:46):
These individuals are traveling down the Trans-Canada Highway when tragedy struck.
Their van went off the road and unfortunately, three individuals, Dave McKigney, Adrian Adonis,
and Pat Kelly tragically lost their lives.

(04:07):
Today's episode is going to explore the events that transpired on that day, July 4th, 1988.
But more than that, today's episode is going to dive into what happened in Lewisport.
And what I mean by that is, what happened to the residents of Lewisport?

(04:29):
What did they deal with?
What was it like for them?
You see, it's been 35 years since this tragedy occurred.
And there have been many tellings and retellings and stretches of the truth and fabrications
and all kinds of misreporting about this incident throughout the years.

(04:53):
And unfortunately, as time has gone on, the story gets further and further away from the
truth.
But what also happens is that this story gets further and further away from including the
points of view of the residents of Lewisport who were there to help.

(05:14):
You see, in 35 years, nobody has gone back and actually talked to individuals who were
there.
Nobody has taken the time to ask these individuals what it was like for them.
Nobody has gone back and asked what happened with the community.

(05:36):
People talk about the July 4th, 1988 incident and the loss of life of three professional
wrestlers, one of which who was a megastar for many, many decades in various promotions,
including the WWF.
And that seems to be the focus.
Today we're going to put the focus on, in my opinion, and I truly mean this, the heroes

(06:00):
from Lewisport, the individuals who stepped up in a great time of need, individuals from
various walks of life who did the right thing.
They put themselves in danger to help their fellow human beings.

(06:24):
They did an incredible thing.
And yes, three individuals tragically lost their lives.
But to me, the bigger story is a group of people coming together to do the right thing.
A group of people who heroically tried to save individuals, people they had never met

(06:51):
before, people who they didn't even know who they were in some instances.
But at the same time, people who have been forgotten by history, whose story has never
been told, whose story they've never told, that changes today.

(07:13):
Today you're going to hear three different accounts of what happened on that fateful
day.
Not three different accounts in terms of, you know, they had three different stories
to tell.
They have three different ways that everything happened.
Where all three, all three of them are consistent.

(07:35):
All three of them tell the truth, most importantly.
And all three of them have a perspective that has never been shared by any media, as far
as I can tell.
This is a story of courage.
Today is a story of the human spirit.

(08:01):
I'm proud that I was able to talk to these individuals and I told all three of them in
no uncertain terms.
I am proud of them.
They inspire me.
And I hope that after you're done hearing this episode, you'll feel the same way.

(08:24):
In my opinion, these three individuals are heroes and the individuals who were involved
in the events of that night, they're heroes.
Regardless of the loss of life, they did something extraordinary.
Yes, they had a horrific experience.

(08:47):
And yes, they will live with this experience, these images, this feeling for the rest of
their lives.
However, they don't have to live it alone.
And we can all do our part to share in that and at least listen to their stories and share

(09:13):
our support for those in the Lewisport area.
Those who, like I said, still live there and those who have moved on, but the ones who
stepped up in an extraordinary situation, who put in an extraordinary effort.
So I think that's about enough out of me for this episode.

(09:35):
You're not going to hear a whole lot out of me.
Truth be told, this is not my story to tell.
But I will say a couple of things before we get into this episode.
We are going to talk about the true story of what happened in the Lewisport incident.
There has been quite a bit of misreporting and misrepresentation over the years.

(09:56):
And we're going to clear that up tonight.
In saying that, getting the truth out there, getting the word out there is up to you, the
listener.
So I would implore you, after you listen to this episode, please go out of your way to

(10:17):
share this episode with your friends, your family, individuals who may be interested
in this story, individuals who are interested in the human experience.
The reality is the only way that we are going to correct the history books and the only
way that we are going to set the record straight is with you, the listener.

(10:41):
So I hope that you will take that into consideration as you listen to today's episode.
Now the first conversation that you're going to hear today is from Raymond Daw.
Now Raymond was actually at a separate event that evening when he came across the scene and there's

(11:03):
an interesting tie in between his events that night and what he was going to do the next
day, which was all changed by the fatal incident.
So I'm going to go to my conversation with Raymond.
Now I will preface this by saying there is some sensitive subject matter.

(11:29):
So please take care while you listen to this portion of the program and my conversation
with Raymond Daw.
They're not pleasant.
It was a Monday night.
I think it was a Monday night.
We were getting ready to close down our summer festival in town.

(11:50):
So we were having a dance that night at one of the community halls and a few of us decided
to take a ride up to the Trans Canada just to see if anybody was catching any salmon
in the arm.
And as we went up and turned around by the other side of the pond, we came back down.

(12:13):
One of the girls looked up at me that was in the back seat.
She said, Ray, there's a man on the bridge there waving his arms, jumping up and down.
He must have caught a salmon.
And she said, you got a fire lit.
So we turned around and went back.
When we got back, there was three or four cars there then.
And the accident just happened.
Geez, you missed it by literally minutes then.
Yeah, we missed it.

(12:34):
We missed it by minutes.
Now a lady from here, a lady from somewhere around here, I'm not sure what community was
down into the brook because she was a nurse, right?
Somebody was calling for a nurse.
So she went down into the brook and a couple of minutes after that, the RCMP got there
and they called for volunteers to bring them up.

(12:56):
So I naturally, I was one of the ones that went down and they helped bring them up.
Jesus.
So you go from a festival to one of the most horrific, I'm sure one of the most horrific
scenes that you probably ever came across in your life.
The most I ever come across.
We at the time, when we brought them up, we didn't know it was a doorbell eight minute

(13:19):
at us because there was that much blood on his face and everything.
We just, well, we figured they were wrestlers.
We knew there was wrestling taking place in the stadium the next night and we thought
that they were wrestlers, but we wouldn't really sure who they were, right?
All we knew that there was lots and lots of blood.
Yes.
And I'm sure, you know, you're not used to obviously seeing a situation like that.

(13:45):
So you wouldn't even thought to probably put two and two together of who it would have
been.
It was just, at that point, you're kind of just hopping in the fray and helping out.
Yeah.
That's all we're doing is hopping in the fray and helping out.
That's all we did.
We got down to the brook.
We took the backboard with us, right?
Got down to the brook and somebody had hit me in the downers head, held up so he wouldn't

(14:06):
drown in the water, right?
And coming up, all he was saying was, me back, me back.
Muttering something about his back.
His back was bad.
And when we got up to the top of the, to where the bridge crossed the Trans-Canada up over
the hill there, that's when he started to gurgle.
And the doctor asked for a trach to be put in him.

(14:28):
So they put a trach in him and he died on the way to the Gander Hospital.
Yeah.
With the amount, with the extensive injuries that he suffered, it's incredible that he
made it as long as he did.
I know that he was in, you know, a horrendous shape, but boy, oh boy.
Yeah, he was in horrendous shape.

(14:50):
It was real bad.
When you leave Indian Arm, you're going towards Gander, where the nearest hospital is.
The first brook really you come to is Lake O'Brien.
And that's apparently, that's where he died on the way up.
I'm just topping the hill there by Lake O'Brien on the way to Gander.

(15:12):
So obviously your, your festival, was your festival over that day or was there a second
day?
Our festival was over that day and wrestling was the next night at stadium.
Okay.
I couldn't wait.
I was going in to see Hadrian Adonis.
Oh my God.
Yeah, I'm a big wrestling fan, right?

(15:32):
And I just, just when I found out that night that it floored me that it was Hadrian Adonis
that got killed, right?
And the other guy that lost his leg, he was screaming, screaming blue murder as we were
bringing him up, right?
He was just crazy in pain too.
Yeah, that was one of the Kelly brothers.

(15:56):
The one that survived.
Yes.
Now, it looked like to me when we, as we were going down to, to pick up Hadrian Adonis,
there was a body on the trail.
One of the guys come in and flew out of the van and was on the trail.
And he went to work and we didn't, we didn't know if he was dead or alive.

(16:23):
Somebody from the bottom down, somebody down in the water shouted out to us to come on
down.
He was dead, right?
When we got back, when we come up with Hadrian Adonis' body, there was nobody there then.
The body was moved to one side of the trail, right?
So we walked, we managed to get up and soon as we got up to the top, they asked us to

(16:45):
come back again with another board for Kelly, one of the Kelly brothers.
Yeah, the one on the trail, that would have been the promoter, Dave McKigney, unfortunately.
Yeah, I didn't know who it was, but I knew there was somebody.
And there was one guy in the van, like it was almost like he was cutting to his hands

(17:06):
and everything was just dangling down.
And he was in the van.
That was the two, that was the two that treated died and kept one of the Kelly brothers lived,
right?
Yes.
Yeah, one of the Kelly brothers was the survivor from the crash.
Yeah.
So you were actually going to go to the show the next night?
I was going to the show the next night.

(17:28):
It was like a big wrestling fan and to see a WWE wrestling legend there, I mean, it's
great to see you right in your small community.
And didn't get to go to certainly never had no wrestling.
The tour was canceled.
So what happened after this incident, both in terms of, cause I would like to get your

(17:53):
sense of what this had as an impact on the community.
And what did it do to the wrestling scene there?
Was it done after that?
Or maybe if you don't mind, if you could explain that a little bit.
No, it wouldn't.
The wrestling, once I thought you had a speaker phone now.
Go ahead.
No, the wrestling, the wrestling community didn't stop.

(18:16):
We had, we had wrestling events after that for, and we still do have wrestling events.
I mean the local lions club in town and we've hosted them a few years when they were redoing
the stadium wrestling events.
And I remember going in one night to sell tickets outdoor for the lions club and the
wrestlers were there.
One of the wrestlers that was there was Donk the clown that was in the WWE at the time.

(18:41):
Right.
He was their big name there that night.
And he mentioned to me, he said, would you be able to tell me sir, where they, where
the wrestlers got killed?
He said, I know they got killed somewhere near your community.
So I explained to him then about the story.
Right.
And when the, when the wrestling was over, they asked me to stay back and tell them what
happened.

(19:02):
Right.
So I was telling them what happened.
Now I had to relive it, but it's something, it's something I'm glad I was there to help.
Too bad they died, but you know, what can you do?
And yes, like I said, we did have wrestling in numerous times after that.
Right.
And what was the effect on, on the community overall?
Like, what, what was the feeling in the community after it happened?

(19:24):
Because this is not something that happens every day.
Very clearly.
It was sadness.
A lot of sadness, especially knowing that they were coming to, coming to Loseport, right,
for the wrestling the next night.
And to me it was a big, it was a, it was a, just an accident.
I mean, the stories at the time was a moose crossed the highway.

(19:48):
Right.
But I can't say if a moose crossed the highway or not.
I wouldn't be able to tell you that.
All I know is that they were coming down and they jumped the brook and landed on the other
side and people came out of the vehicle.
I guess where, up on impact, people come out of the vehicle.
One of the more probably salient moments in your life, I'm certain.

(20:10):
Oh, it was, it was really, really bad.
I had a pair of white sneakers on and when I came up, when I came up from the trail,
one of the girls that was there with us, I forget her name now, she said, Ray, your sneakers
are full of blood.
And I looked at sneakers and I said, I said, well, they're going.
And I had a pair, I had a pair of coveralls in the trunk of the car and a pair of boots

(20:37):
that I had there for fishing, long rubber boots.
And I got her to get me rubber boots out of the car.
And I took my sneakers off and socks, throw it in the woods because I just couldn't, couldn't
take it.
Looking at the blood, right?
Yeah.
I'm, I'm not certain that I would have had a different, different emotion than that.

(20:58):
I'm sure.
You know, you had to have that emotion and luckily, luckily nobody else was, no other
vehicles were crossing the bridge when, when, when they lost control, right?
It went out into the, went out into the brook.
Yeah.
It would have been that much more.
It would have been that much more tragic.
Right?

(21:18):
Absolutely.
And, uh, buddy, buddy who was fishing, he came up to the bridge to, uh, came up on the
bridge waving for cars.
And one of the girls was with me.
She said to me, she said, Ray, she said, somebody back there got a fire going and is up on the

(21:39):
bridge.
Got a, uh, one of the wrestling magazines at the time did a story on it, did a story
on Adrian Adonis and the other wrestlers that were killed.
And they interviewed the RCMP in Luzport and I had the magazine, but ended up, my mother
worked with the RCMP at the time and, uh, the staff sergeant or the RCMP in town couldn't

(22:04):
get a copy of the magazine.
So he, so I offered him my copy.
Right?
Other than that, I would have had to copy.
Right?
Like you told me, Saran never got interviewed by a wrestling magazine in my entire police
career.
So I'd like to, like to get me hands on a copy.
You said they were going to send me one, but they didn't.
I said, sure, John, I got a copy of that down there.

(22:24):
I said, I'll bring them off.
He said, I know you did.
I said, I got a copy of that down the house you can have.
So I ended up giving him my copy.
Right?
Talk about your souvenirs.
Jeez.
Yeah.
Your souvenirs.
You know, it's unreal.
Right?
When you see a guy on TV and he's that popular.

(22:44):
Right?
And then the next year you see him, you see him in your hometown, going, going to watch
him in wrestling.
Right?
Which you're right.
Happy about.
And then you go up to just to have a bit of fun before the dance and you find out, look,
you just brought that guy up out of the, out of the broke and he's going to die.
I knew he had nothing.

(23:06):
I knew he wouldn't want to make it.
Right?
It was only a matter of time before he got the grand, before he died.
Right?
And then one of the Kelly brothers, the one that lost his leg.
We, we, we knew it seemed to us that he was going to live.
Right?
The six of us that was bringing him up, it seemed to us that he was going to live.

(23:27):
And he did.
This is the end.
It'll soon be the anniversary in August of him.
That's what I mean.
Yeah.
So that's why I'm trying to get this put together and put out there because, you know, as, as
the story keeps getting told, more of the, of the facts keep getting omitted and the
more, more of the, you know, sensational portions of it is what kind of remains.

(23:49):
And it's unfortunate.
And nobody has taken the time to really figure out, you know, what the, what the people who
dealt with it were dealing with.
You know what I mean?
No, they didn't.
And no, nobody's, sorry, go ahead.
I walked in the house that night.
Right.
And I came in and I had, I had a pair of rubber boots on and I was, as far as mom and dad

(24:11):
were concerned, I was going to the stadium dance.
Right?
The dance for the end of the season, for the end of the festival.
Dad asked, he said, he said, you, you're not going, going to the dance like that.
He said, you were fishing.
And then I told him, I said, no, I wouldn't fish in daddy's.
So we went up to see if anybody got any salmon up in the air.
I said, we came across an accident.
I said, there's three people killed.

(24:33):
There's two people killed up in the end.
And I said, there's two more, two more serious condition.
I said, we brought them up.
I said, my boots are in the, in the woods at the Indian.
I, I told him why I said they were full of blood.
Jesus.
Yeah.
It's just unreal.
Yeah.
I can, I can see it now.
Like it was yesterday, Adrian Adonis down in the brook and somebody old and his head

(24:59):
up so he wouldn't drown.
Right.
And he was crowd over by over by one of the Kelly brothers doing the same thing.
Old and his head up so he wouldn't drown in the brook.
Right.
And I, I, and again, I can't, I can't even put myself in that, in that position of being

(25:19):
there.
Right.
You know, even hearing it vicariously 35 years later, it's still, it's, it's shocking
to say the least.
It is shocking.
Yeah.
35 years later.
It's unreal.
It was a brown, to me it looked like a brown van.
It looked like a brown van they were driving.

(25:41):
Right.
But everything was beat up on the van.
Right.
And they were, and the guy that was in the van to me looked like he was cut off, cut
too.
But now his body was bent that bad with, with the accident that you don't know.
Right.
But it looked like he was almost cut in two.
Yeah.
I could see his blood everywhere.
Right.

(26:02):
And the smoke coming out of the van.
Jeez that's, well, I mean, obviously I'm, I'm sorry that you had to go through all that,
but I'm glad at least that you're willing to, you know, talk to me and at least put
it on the record and, and that I was able to get your perspective of it.

(26:22):
Because like I said, that's the one thing that's been missing in this, in the whole
conversation, the, you know, these whole 35 years is, is the perspective from the folks
who were there.
So I want to thank you for, for willing to, or being willing to speak to me about it.
That I'm glad, I'm glad the story is told.
Right.
In the YouTube video that I saw about it, there was an aerial picture of me and Ian

(26:47):
Aram where it happened and they interviewed and Adrian Adanis' wife was interviewed.
Right.
And it was nice for closure for the family too and the anniversary of his brought up
and people, they understand how, how they died.
Right.
I mean, the way I look at it, I'm telling you how they died.
Right.
Yeah.

(27:08):
And it's nice, nice for that to get out how they died.
The family, the families can have closure now.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And, and again, the, the fact, the facts of what happened, right.
That's the biggest thing.
Yes.
I'll tell you now it was a clear night, beautiful night, warm, everything was perfect.
Right.
It was a great night in the festival.
And, and the way I, and you can't say whether at any part in the accident, it didn't.

(27:35):
Right.
But whatever, whatever, whatever is said, they're reporting a moose.
The articles are on YouTube are saying that it was a, that the, the swerve to avoid a
moose.
And if anybody know Newfoundland and Labrador, there's a lot of moose on the highway.
I after hitting two.
So, I mean, there's moose on the highway.

(27:56):
If we were very well, it could have been a moose.
Right.
But the way they jumped the brook and everything, they had to have been going at good speed.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
They had to have been going at good speed.
When we were, we were first night got married before I got divorced, first night got married,
we were going to Gander one night and commented and the ex-wife nobody knew about the accident.

(28:18):
Did I out bring them up?
And we passed as he passed by the, as you pass by the brook, I said, that's where the
wrestlers got killed.
And the ex-wife said, yes, she said, they got killed there, didn't they?
I said, I said, I can't pass by without thinking about it.
She said, why would you think about that all the time?
I said, Tracy, I, you don't know.
I said, I brought them up that night when they were dying.

(28:40):
She said, what?
I said, I brought them up from the, from the brook.
I said, that's why I always think about it.
I said, I can't, I can't go up to Indiana without thinking about it.
Something that you live in your memory forever more.
Yeah.
And, and the brother-in-law was with me, that was with me that night, right?
When we, when I, when I told the ex-wife that I was up to the accident scene.

(29:05):
And he looked up at me, he said, we had a, they had a towing company at the time, a garage
and everything down in Kalman.
He said, dad had to go up, he said, and bring, bring the vehicle.
He said, down to the garage.
He said, to do an inspection for the RCMP on the vehicle.
I said, I never knew that Steve.
He said, we had, we had inspections on vehicles and accidents for the RCMP.

(29:26):
He said, we had to go up and tow the, tow the truck up, the van up.
He said, and do the inspection on it, right?
He said, Ray, so you're talking about people coming down around the garage to see if they
can see the van.
I said, well, I wouldn't come down because I didn't want to see it.
And I said, I don't want to see it ever again.
And he could understand that, right?
Absolutely.

(29:46):
Yeah.
Now, during the course of my conversation with Raymond Dawg, you would have heard about
an individual who was holding the head of Adrian Adonis, keeping him as stable as possible,
keeping him as comfortable as possible.
You also heard in Raymond's story about an individual who was waving people down on the

(30:11):
highway.
This individual is one of the same.
This individual's name is Jim Butler.
And he went into great detail about what it was like for him in this tragic situation.
Now, before we go into his conversation, this conversation contains some graphic descriptions.

(30:49):
I have to be honest, when I was having the conversation with Jim, I was not prepared
for it to hear it.
So I just want to make everybody aware that there is distressing material in this next
conversation.
However, his story deserves to be told.

(31:14):
And I hope that you, the listener, will understand his point of view in describing it the way
he did.
But also, you'll feel the cathartic nature that he felt describing the incident.

(31:43):
It wasn't easy for him.
It was certainly not easy for me to hear.
And I just want you, the listener, to be prepared to hear some, like I said, distressing material
as we move forward in the program tonight.
So with all that being said, I humbly present to you my conversation with Jim Butler.

(32:09):
There's one thing about it.
When you witness something like I witnessed, you don't ever forget it.
You don't get any of the images out of your mind.
I can look at it now and I can remember it just the same as the day it happened.
And that's what's really missing from the reporting.

(32:31):
See, now, I'm not sure if you're into wrestling or not, but...
I'm into wrestling stuff, Adrian Adonis, I used to watch him on the WWF or E, whatever
it was.
The two Kelly brothers were tag team crowds.
I watched them a few times, so I knew who they were.

(32:53):
The manager, I didn't really know.
Because when I went down over the side of the highway, down over the bank and the bridge
embankment to go to the people that survived, now, I'll let you know, I can get pretty
graphic with this because I can remember it like it was yesterday.

(33:13):
I had to step over him, his face, he was face down on a boulder.
And when he hit that boulder, he never ever moved again because basically his head and
his face was all crushed when he hit such high speed.

(33:33):
And his hair, believe it or not, his hair was out around the boulder.
He had a little bit longer hair and his hair was right even out around the boulder as even
like it was placed there.
It was unreal.
Jesus.
And he was dead.
He was face down on the boulder.
His hands, his arms were out to a little bit from his sides, but not totally out at a 90

(34:00):
degrees like you stand up and just hold your arms out level with your shoulders.
They weren't quite out there.
They were probably back to about five to eight degrees, I'll say.
Reason I say that is I'm a carpenter and I deal with degrees and doing things.
And yeah, I stepped over him to walk down the trail that was there a little bit.
He was if he would have been if he would have been another 10 to 15 feet to his right, he

(34:28):
would have been up on the guardrail or the highway.
He would have been thrown way out almost up back on the highway where the van was to was
probably down about 30.
I'm going to say 30 feet, maybe 40 feet away from the bridge in that.
And he was almost thrown, he was thrown probably, I'd say, about 50, 60 feet away from the van,

(34:54):
but obviously stopped right on the boulder.
And when I walked down over the bank, I'll start from the beginning and I'll tell you
exactly.
Me and my cousin were up there salmon fishing with fly rods.
Right?
Yes.
I'll start right from the beginning.
And there was fellows up further, there was a little bit of a steady there pond like area

(35:20):
where the river flows out of that pond, a little bit of a steady pond area.
And then up far there's where the river empties out into this area.
And you could see fellows on up the river farther fishing the rapids up there.
And I will say this, the RCMP in their official report said there was moose in the area and
moose caused asthma.

(35:40):
Well, I don't know about any moose.
We were there all, we were there for probably, I was there probably a half an hour to three
quarters an hour before the accident.
And friends of mine were one guy that my cousin knew really well, Tom Jones.
Now this is going to sound funny, but his name was Tom Jones from Camelton.

(36:03):
And he was up farther up in the river and we never ever did see any moose, none.
And I don't think that was the cause of the accident.
If someone wanted to really know the truth, they were probably intoxicated when the accident

(36:24):
happened.
But that's besides the point.
That's something that you wouldn't, where it happened so long ago, you wouldn't want
to hurt families or anything with that.
And but anyways, a few minutes before we witnessed, me and my cousin witnessed the accident.

(36:45):
I was standing up in the spot where the van hit looking with my glasses on.
I had sunglasses on, polarized sunglasses so I could see into the water a bit better.
I was looking for salmon to see if I could fish them.
There weren't any there, so me and my cousin walked back up over the bank that I described

(37:06):
a few minutes ago.
I went across the highway and down, down river from the highway where the bridge is to, probably
down about, I don't know, I'm going to say about 50 yards, was a railway trussle that
goes across another bridge for the railway.
So we went down there where the river empties out into the larger Indian armed ponds, I

(37:31):
believe.
And we went down there and we were checking for salmon because we could see salmon out
further in the pond.
We're breaching, they were heading up the river to spawn.
And to be honest, we were fishing there for a few minutes and then we heard something
and we both turned around at the same time.
Now I was standing on the trussle at this time.

(37:56):
And when I turned around, I seen the van on the other side up on the highway.
It came along, it clipped through some low-lying brush-chair alders, we call them.
The van just missed the side of the handrail hitting that on the bridge.

(38:17):
That would be the upstream side.
It just missed that.
As it traveled through the air across the bridge, I'm going to take a guess and I'm
going to be honest, that bridge might be replaced now for all I know because I've been gone
from home for almost 30 years.
And when I was in the railway trussles down in elevation a little bit, I watched the van

(38:43):
fly through the air and you could see the van, the wheels below the bridge upstream
and the cab above in the handrail as it was traveling through the air.
And of course it slowly went down and it hit, it jumped the river completely and it hit
the boulders and the bank on the other side.

(39:10):
And I looked at my cousin and I said, Ned, I don't know if anyone could ever survive
that.
We were both shocked.
I immediately ran to the other side and my pickup was trapped up on the side of the highway
on the footwear because there were pretty wide shoulders there.
Actually, it was my father's pickup I was driving.

(39:31):
And meanwhile, my cousin, Edwin Russell, he went to the handrail of the bridge and looked
out over.
And I went to the Irving gas station and got on the phone and I phoned the RCMP and I told
them guys to phone the ambulance service and make sure and right off the bat they said,

(39:54):
well, how many ambulances should we bring?
I said, bring at least three.
And I can't remember exactly how many, can't remember exactly how many, because obviously
I'd left my cousin there.
By this time, Tom was up creating a scene that happened too.
Heard the noise of seeing the van, seeing the whole start together.

(40:17):
But by the time I got back to the river, I thought over on the side of the road and parked
the truck right out of the way of everybody.
I went to the, I walked up to the bridge and looked out over the side and Tom was down
in the water by up at the river drowning.

(40:37):
Happened to be aging adults.
And I looked down and I looked back, there were probably about eight to ten people there
in the bridge just talking to death.
And the first thing which in my mind is what's wrong with these people just standing up here
and no one's helping?
Well, I was lucky.
It was where I was in the trade school and that I also done first aid.

(41:01):
So I took off down over the bank, as I said before, I stepped over from one side because
the, but the van was beat up on the opposite side of the river.
So when I stepped over, I guess obviously it must have been one of the Kelly brothers

(41:21):
then that was up on the bank that I stepped over.
Because there was another Kelly brother that was pinned in the van.
And now the news said that it was a Dodge minivan.
That was not right.
A quarter ton panel van.
Full size.

(41:41):
Pardon?
Full size.
Yeah, it was a full size van.
Yes.
Now, whether it was, to be honest with you, I thought it was three quarter tons.
Because when I went down over the bank, I stepped over one person that was dead on the
boulder.
If you took a blunt nose van or the one with the bit of a stout on it, it was the same

(42:06):
thing as if you took the bumper and the engine and reversed everything.
The engine was in up on top, the bumper and all that was up on top.
Everything was in reverse when they hit with such force.
Yes.
And he was pinned between the steering wheel and the bumper and everything else.
And he was hanging out over the van.
But he was pinned with everything and the seat and everything.

(42:28):
And he was gone.
He had died instantly as well.
But one day I was out in front of the van, probably about six, seven, eight feet away,
about, I'm going to say about two or three inches of water.
And he had obviously got hit, I believe his arm was broken or something was broken.

(42:49):
I can't remember exactly now.
But I did notice one thing.
He had a welt.
He had got hit in the forehead and he had a bump on his forehead right on the front
about the size of a medium egg.
But he was alive.
He had something, Tom Jones had placed a little something under his head so his head wouldn't

(43:13):
be on hard rocks.
He was conscious but a bit incoherent because I mean he had a severe head injury.
Now Tom was holding a guy up about one third of the way across the river.

(43:34):
See the river at this time later on in the summer with the salmon going up, the river
was probably I'd say about 16 inches deep.
Wide but 16 inches deep.
So Adrian had done us, Tom was holding him up and Tom needed a break.
So I went out and what I had done is I knelt down and sat down under my legs and I put

(44:02):
his head in my lap.
And I talked to him and tried to console him as best as I could under the circumstances.
But I know I was down there holding him up at the water for 45 minutes before they finally

(44:22):
came on over the bank with a stretcher.
And then I helped Freak's Ambulance and the paramedics helped him get him on the stretcher.
And I don't know if you want me to go very graphic with his injuries but I can remember
Tom.
It's up to you.
Like I don't, if it's too much for you, like it's whatever you're comfortable with sharing.

(44:47):
I can share.
I held him in my lap.
And on the left side of his face if you put your hands, to open up your hands and your
fingers and you take your hand and place it over, your small finger over your nose and
then the rest of it, your fingers and that spread out over the rest of the other half

(45:10):
of the left side of your face.
Well all part of his nose that you've got your finger on and everything that was touching
the face down to the chin and the forehead and the eye socket around that side, the skin
was ripped off.
Oh my god.
I could watch as we were talking in conversing, I was watching the muscles around his eye

(45:33):
and the tendons moving his eye off.
Now his left arm was floating downstream, it was broken off at the wrist and the foot
was I say for about six inches off his arm and like, like taut and broke the wrist and
the skin down over about six inches of bone.

(45:55):
That was just floating downstream, still attached to his arm.
His chest was literally pushed, I'm going to say a lot, a nice bit, you could see he
had a lot of chest injuries because his chest was all pushed over to his left side.

(46:16):
So I knew he had broken ribs and a mess and his legs were the same thing as if he took
a pretzel or making a pretzel and a pretzel dough, his legs were all intertwined, they
were all broken off.
And I mean the poor man, he screamed in pain because I mean it had to hurt when we lift

(46:38):
him up to put him on the stretcher.
But I mean you had no other choice on the backboard.
But I talked to him, I held him up out of water and he asked me what happened and I
told him you were just in an accident.
I said everything's fine, the paramedics and everyone on their way they want to help me

(46:59):
and then they asked me what's my family going to do.
I said that's fine, you've got lots of family that will take care of your closest ones right
now.
You just concentrate on getting better.
You know that's how I talked to him as much as I could.
I mean if Tom wouldn't have went down there when he did, the man would have drowned in

(47:22):
the river because I mean he couldn't get himself up or do anything.
And yeah it was quite the scene.
I don't even know what I, you know you made the comment earlier about you saw people standing
around and kind of like they weren't doing anything.

(47:43):
I have to imagine the shock that people would have had at that point.
I think a lot of it is people at this point seeing the mess wouldn't have known what to
do.
But I helped, that would be Gordon Wolfrey, I helped him put one of the guys in the body

(48:06):
bag after several of us.
And the pair of us and everything.
Obviously.
I don't think that they were doing anything in the area.
What happened I can't remember, he said one day in the afternoon or something.

(48:28):
I never left it and got back home until one o'clock that complete.
Oh you stayed with, you stayed through the entire ordeal then?
I stayed there for the entire ordeal and helped out to get the dead bodies out and everything.
When it was all said and done, I went flagging traffic.

(48:49):
Me and a police officer went out flagging traffic because I also, on construction I
had my flagging ticket.
So I flagged traffic in with them while they got the van up over the bank and out of the
river.

(49:09):
But the van was only in a few inches of water because there's a little bit of a, I'm not
going to call it a beach.
It's probably a place there three or four feet wide that was only a few inches of water
and that's where the van was at.
So I'll just, sorry go ahead.
It was quite the quite the ordeal.

(49:32):
I can't imagine putting myself in your shoes what I would have done, but I would like to
think that I would have at least the courage to step up and help out where possible.
I mean to hear you recount all of this is to be quite frank is hard to hear.

(50:00):
There's only two people I know of that were down helping the victims in the water and
that was me and Tom Jones.
Everyone else was up over the bank but obviously once the RCMP showed up and the ambulances
got there they were down there right away.

(50:22):
Yes.
And they had to go in there right away.
And yeah.
Was Dasen Freak still alive right?
No my cousin Ned Russell he never participated in the rescue or anything.

(50:43):
He had an accident early in his life with his own brother that died from hypothermia.
He had to watch him perish so I mean that was no.

(51:05):
So he probably wouldn't have wanted to get involved anyway.
But yeah you would understand that part of it at least.
Yeah.
But no it was quite the scene, quite the scene to witness.
And like you said it's 35 years later and like you said it's still.

(51:26):
I remember if me and you were to go back there now I could point out to you exactly where
the van is to and if they haven't changed the bridge or disturbed any of the scenery
I could probably now no doubt the bushes and everything has grown up there a lot now probably.
I could show you if nothing is disturbed I could show you the rock that one victim was

(51:47):
sprawled out around.
I could show you where each one was laid out.
And yeah.
Jesus what a memory to have.
I don't know if you had any.

(52:09):
Well later on that evening when we were cleaning up everything and cleaning up some of the
wrestlers all of a sudden pulled up that just came up on the scene and by this time everyone
in the bodies had been removed and they were going to start winching the van.
This was another party I think was three maybe four of them.

(52:33):
But one of them got pretty was pretty distraught and saying all kinds of things.
I just said to him sorry for your loss.
Holy suffering.
I said that guy just went to the circus he was getting ready to go fly right aboard me
and pound right into me.

(52:55):
And two of his friends had to grab him and haul him back and drag him back to the car
and they said thank you for what you said thank you for your condolence for your sympathy
and we'll get this jacked.
They caught him in the jackass.
They dragged him back to the car and drove him back and made him out.

(53:15):
But anyway.
I mean I suppose that's a little bit of levity in such a horrific situation.
You never expected someone to be able to tell you exactly what happened like that did you?
Absolutely not.
You know I have a few conversations that I've had already and then I have a few more to
get to but I have a feeling that this one is more than likely the most disturbing.

(53:44):
Not in the sense of.
In the sense of being there and having information to describe everything.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And that's the biggest thing with you know this story has been told and retold so many
times but every time it's told it's told with less accuracy and with less participation

(54:07):
from the people who were there right.
People like yourself have nobody's ever gone out and learned what the people who witnessed
it went through.
And that's the thing that's been missing from this conversation for the last 35 years and
that's my whole reason for doing this.

(54:29):
So I truly appreciate the I mean I don't know what it would be like to talk about something
like that because I've never experienced.
Well you have experienced some stuff but nothing like that in my life.
I've lived with these pictures in my mind for so long now that yeah it's just it was

(54:53):
a nasty scene I'll tell you.
For someone 20 years old.
Well absolutely and.
When was it when did this happen?
I can't even remember what year this happened.
June July 4th 1988.
Okay that's when I just got into trade school so I was 19 years old huh?

(55:17):
19 or 20 yeah.
And what a scene what a just an event for someone of that age to witness and go through
I mean my god what can you say right?
That's incredible.
And the funny thing about it is if I came up on an accident and had to do it again I

(55:39):
would.
I think that speaks more to your character sir than anything I could possibly say to
you.
I'm just in awe with your story and what you accomplished.
The sad thing about it is what affected me the most.

(56:00):
Well I was holding a geniditis in my lap and at his hand cradled in my lap his head cradled
in my lap keeping it up out of water.
Obviously his short term memory was affected by the injuries because he kept dying every
now and then he'd ask me what happened.

(56:24):
And I experienced that with my father at his head injury with the horse.
He asked me what happened.
I said you just had a little accident with the horse?
Stay still.
He said I can't move.
I told my father I said stay still.
The calipers on the way.
That's all I said to him.

(56:50):
He out there it was quite the place.
What can I say?
I was only probably about 5 to 6 minutes away from New Sport Junction.
I wasn't taking my time either getting there.

(57:12):
I put on the hazard lights and I just floored it.
I was saying now what if the cops catch me and close me over.
I'm not stopping for nothing.
In the LRI water I'm going to get on that phone.
Well then you can drag them there too.
If I drag cops there I'm going to say ok turn around and get back to that scene up the road

(57:32):
and do some good.
I've told a few people that story over the years.
This is the first time I sat down and went into described it right from start to finish.

(57:54):
Obviously if we would have stayed there and fished I would have been still up right where
the van hit and I would have been probably under the van.
Jesus and there's another thought.
I would have been dead as well.
It's only by God's grace that I walked up over the bank.
Me and my cousin we both walked down to the other railway trussle just downstream a few

(58:19):
yards and we were up standing up on the trussle and we were just going to start to get ready
to haul out the rods and put them together and fish when we heard the noise.
That was when the tires hit the gravel on the opposite side of the highway up there,
the gravel shoulder and then the van clipped through the haulers and just missed the guard

(58:43):
rail and went whatever.
Well grace of God is right.
I mean you talk about fate.
That's a...
But I was...

(59:03):
You know your families might have had lots of questions and would have had lots of questions,
probably still do have lots of questions.
But whether they would have the detail that I can give them I doubt it.

(59:24):
Or whether they would want to hear it is I guess I suppose that's the other portion of
it.
Yeah that's the other thing.
They probably wouldn't want to know at this point in time because there's only be bringing
up their feelings again.
And I'm kind of walking the fine line on this program because you don't want to sensationalize

(59:51):
it, which I'm trying not to, but at the same time you can only see a story reprinted, factually
incorrect and leaving out key details and whatever for so...
And I mean it's been 35 years and...
I wouldn't want anyone... how can I put it?

(01:00:18):
If you were to go into graphic detail like I just told you, I don't know what that would
do.
It would be rough on the families, people, hear it.
But yeah, it was an unfortunate accident.
There's no day where it ends.

(01:00:39):
The next conversation that you're going to hear in tonight's episode is also the last
one.
But it is possibly the most impactful one.
And that's not to take anything away from the two previous guests, but this individual
was the responding RCMP officer on the scene that night in Lewisport.

(01:01:05):
Now Joanne Boissonneau has full clearance from the RCMP to discuss this file.
She actually was able to get her original files and reference them directly during the
course of our conversation.
She provides almost a clinical overview of what happens.

(01:01:28):
And I don't mean that in terms of an emotionless or a disconnected view, but she really lays
it on the line.
She fully explains what happened, why it happened, but most importantly, the truth of why this

(01:01:51):
accident occurred.
And you will understand throughout the course of our conversation that this truly was, in
essence, a tragic accident.
So I hope that you will really enjoy as much as you can considering the dark nature of

(01:02:17):
this episode, but I hope that you will really appreciate the candor and the expertise in
which Joanne describes what happened that evening as she was the responding RCMP officer
on the scene that night.
Yeah.
Well, it was pretty gruesome.

(01:02:42):
So for us with time, we get used to it.
However, I can only imagine for a civilian to come upon a scene like that definitely
was traumatizing.
And that's one of the reasons why it took so long for us to find out exactly what had
happened.
Yes.

(01:03:03):
So anyway, I'm not sure who you spoke with.
So all I can tell you is what I have from memory and from my notes, because I took out
my...
Actually, I've had it out for a long time, my notebook from back in the day.
Yes.
Because I would say about 15 years ago or so, I had gone on Facebook and I Googled Adrian

(01:03:34):
Adonis.
And anyway, they were showing pictures of Indian Arm and where the accident happened.
I was reading the notes and I thought, okay, they got the story totally wrong.
So I contacted Wikipedia and via text and stuff.
Anyway, I told them, I said, look, I have the information, firsthand information, but

(01:03:55):
they wouldn't take anything from me.
Because I told them, I said, the facts that you have there are not...
Well, what you're stating there is not fact.
Yes.
That's not what happens.
So anyway, but they wouldn't take anything because for me, I always like setting the
record straight.
Not just for me, but also for Adonis' wife, because I had been in contact with her.

(01:04:17):
So I just want people to know what happened and not all this surmising, if you will.
Yes.
And that's my whole purpose of doing this and programming itself, because we're coming
up on 35 years.
It'll be 35 years in July.
And as the story has been told and retold and facts are left off the table and then

(01:04:42):
other suppositions are added and it's diluting the story.
And then what's also missing is the firsthand experience of the people who were involved.
They're completely left out of the conversation.
Yes.
And I'm sure the ones who were, especially the ones fishing there at the time, who actually

(01:05:07):
held Adonis, would have been traumatized.
Yeah.
And I've spoken to two of them already who were physically in the water and dealing with...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
And that was a hard conversation to hear for sure.
I bet.
Yeah.

(01:05:27):
I bet.
So, you want to start from the beginning?
Yes, please.
I'll start.
At the beginning, whatever you are comfortable at for a starting point.
Okay.
So it's July 4th and it's Lewisport days.

(01:05:48):
It's a long weekend.
And the wrestling company was supposed to come and wrestle that weekend in Lewisport.
They were staying in Gander.
So at 10 o'clock in the morning, we had the parade.
So I escorted the parade.
Lewisport Detachment was a nine-member unit at the time.
But because of transfers, vacation, and we had two members away in Bay to Spare, which

(01:06:13):
is about 185 kilometers from Lewisport, there was some unrest at the First Nations area.
So it left myself and my sergeant at the office for the entire day.
So at about 20 to 10 p.m., I received a call of an injury MVA on the Trans-Canada Highway

(01:06:43):
at Indian Arm.
So I got to the scene.
It was almost 10 o'clock, 10 p.m.
And that was the year that we had double daylight savings time.
Newfoundland had done an experiment, if you will.
And so it was still very much light out, even though it was 10 o'clock at night.

(01:07:07):
So when I got there, I could see the van was in the brook.
Now, contrary to what is said on some of the sites, it was not a deep ravine.
It was not a deep cliff.
And the water wasn't deep.
It was a little over ankle deep.

(01:07:28):
It wasn't knee deep or anything.
So when I get there, first of all, the layout of the land, you have the highway going straight
through.
It's on a straight stretch.
And you come up to a small, it's a bridge with a brook running underneath.
So the van hit the rocks on the left-hand side.

(01:07:52):
They were traveling from Gander towards Lewisport.
So they're on the left-hand side in the direction of Lewisport.
And they hit the rocks on the other side of the bridge.
And then Dave McGinley, who was the, I don't know if he was the owner, the manager of Big

(01:08:19):
Bear Promotions.
Yeah, he was the owner.
He was the owner.
Yeah.
He was the owner.
Okay.
Because they would, they called him the bear man or bear.
So he was upon impact.
He was immediately ejected.
He took out the whole windshield and he was ejected on the rocks.
And his body was mangled.

(01:08:44):
So when the van hit like this, it then went sideways, which the side door opened.
And in the passengers in the part of the Q van were Adrian Adonis and William Arko.
So William Arko is also known as William, or Mike Kelly.

(01:09:10):
Yes.
There's Patton in Mike Kelly, the Kelly twins.
Victor Arko was the driver and William Arko was a passenger with Adonis.
So William and Adonis are ejected sideways from the van.
And the van comes to a rest, I would say about, let's say 75 feet from where the rocks had

(01:09:37):
hit.
It's a Ford Econoline van, flat nose that we called it.
So it wasn't one of those vans that had a long nose or anything.
It was just like short.
So Victor Arko also died on impact.
His body was hanging over the steering wheel and partially outside the van.

(01:10:02):
Okay.
Adonis is in the brook and he's slightly disfigured when I get there.
And one of the fishermen, and I don't remember his name, one of the guys that was fishing
is holding Adonis' head.
So at one point I get over and I'm holding Adonis' head and he is just, he's screaming,

(01:10:29):
he's in pain.
So I look around and I said, okay, I said to the fisherman, keep holding his head, ambulance
is on its way.
So I wade through the brook and I go to William Arko, who is suffering from a compound fracture
to one of his legs.

(01:10:49):
And that was, he was the least injured.
So help comes along, so we escort, after the investigation, to the bodies were escorted
to the Grand Falls Hospital because that's where the autopsies were going to take place.

(01:11:10):
Adrian Adonis was still very much alive.
Okay.
Although his body was pretty mangled because he coded twice.
They were sending the injured to Gander and the deceased to Grand Falls.
Okay.
So, Adonis coded twice on the way to the hospital.

(01:11:32):
We found out later that his back was broken in three different places.
He had a ruptured spleen and several other organs were like, he, there was no chance
of survival, but he was alive when we took him out of the brook.
And it took six of us to take him up because he was about 300 pounds.
So he was a big man.

(01:11:53):
And plus we're going up the creek type of thing.
So the investigation was difficult because we were being given their stage names, not
their real names.
So at one point it was, I'm in Grand Falls, Newfoundland around one o'clock in the morning

(01:12:25):
because I have to secure the bodies in the morgue and wait for the autopsies in the morning.
So in the meantime, around one o'clock in the morning, I get a phone call from the Gander
Hospital advising us that Keith Allen Franke is deceased.
And we kind of looked at each other and said, well, who is he?

(01:12:50):
Because we didn't have Adonis' real name.
So anyway, we find out it's Adonis and we went, okay, well, that's a problem because
the autopsies are done in Grand Falls.
So anyway, I can't even remember if he was transferred there or what happened because
it is 35 years ago and it was complete mayhem.

(01:13:12):
I remember a shift finished at five o'clock in the morning and already the world, the
wrestling world was calling our detachment.
We received calls from all over the world, Japan, Australia.
They all wanted to know what had happened.
When I got to the scene, of course, like any other accident scene, our car is in both directions.

(01:13:38):
Grand Falls is about 40 miles in one direction and 45 and then Gander is about 40 miles in
the other direction.
As I said, I was working by myself.
The sergeant was in Lewisport and it took a while before backup came.

(01:13:59):
Eventually the backup did come and so we were in the process of clearing the bridge once
the injured and the bodies were looked after and we were clearing the bridge saying, unless
you're a witness, to help identify or tell us what happened, you need to get off the

(01:14:19):
bridge type of thing.
We took the statements that we could at the time and the witnesses that were available.
It would take, I'm not sure if it was eight or nine months, but unbeknownst to us at the
time, because we did put out a blurb asking people if they had witnessed the accident

(01:14:45):
because the guys in the brook had heard the impact but they didn't know what happened
leading up to the accident.
This is what we were trying to find out.
I got transferred in the meantime.
February 1st I was out of there and I went to New Brunswick.

(01:15:06):
When I came back for court, it was then that I was told that the mother and her daughter
had finally come forward.
They had been in therapy because they had been traumatized.
They do remember me asking them, unless you're a witness, please leave the scene because
it was complete mayhem.

(01:15:27):
They were so traumatized they couldn't come forward.
They couldn't verbalize what had happened.
That's right.
It took months for us to finally be able to determine that what happened was the van
carrying there, Victor Arko, William Arko and Adonis were on their way from Gander to

(01:15:51):
go see the venue and sort of like a meet and greet of Lewisport days.
On their way there, Victor Arko was the driver.
He was passing four vehicles which were all towing travel trailers.
Remember I said it was still light out even though it was 9.30, 20 to 10 at night.

(01:16:15):
The sun was setting.
He probably didn't see that there was an oncoming vehicle until it was too late.
He didn't have room to go back in between the cars and the trailers so he went on the
left-hand side of the road.
At the time the shoulders were not paved.

(01:16:37):
So he was on gravel probably going at quite a clip.
He basically ran out of road.
When he came up on where the bridge was, there was no more shoulder.
So that's when he went to the left of the bridge, hit the rocks and then the other two

(01:17:01):
were ejected sideways as the van slid sideways.
So I have read, I have seen on Facebook that they were saying, you know, that the people
in behind, because there were two vehicles, but the people from the wrestling troop were

(01:17:23):
also following the Arko van.
And the rumor was that there was a theft and they were running after the money and this
and that.
It's not true.
There was a theft of money, but it happened well after the accident.
This is public knowledge.

(01:17:43):
Robert Stanley James was in the vehicle behind.
I'm not sure what his role was in the wrestling company, but he seemed to know that there
was money.
After the accident, after I went back to the office and finally two of my colleagues had

(01:18:05):
come back from beta spare.
So they were giving me a hand with the investigation.
I received a call from B. Frankie, which is the Donis's wife.
And she was the one to tell us that Donis had money, a considerable amount of money
was $6,000 because he had spoken to her and he told her he had the money.

(01:18:30):
So she had said it was in a gray pencil case and he probably had it with him.
So I said, okay, so we went through the van before it was taken for a full mechanical,
which is standard procedure in a fatal, but there was nothing there.

(01:18:57):
So I went home at five o'clock in the morning and I was thinking, okay, because hang on
a second.
I'm trying to see the next day at it was 10 after seven, Robert Stanley James and a

(01:19:31):
guy by the name of Doll Zeal, D-A-L-Z-I-E-L.
They were part of the wrestling crew and they came in to the office and they wanted some
of the exhibits turned over to them.
Those were the exhibits we had seized from McGinley and Victor Arkel.
There was money taken off Victor Arkel.

(01:19:56):
There was about $430.
That's when Robert James mentioned the stolen, not the stolen at the time, but he mentioned
about the missing money in the gray pencil case.
And I told him I was aware of the money because B, Frankie had called us.

(01:20:22):
So James, I'm reading from my notes here.
James stated the amount was considerable.
James and Doll Zeal wanted three items from the exhibits seized in the van at the scene,
no valuables involved.
So when I asked James if they were taking William Arkel's effects, James stated no,
that they weren't relatives because William, his twin was still alive and he was at Gander

(01:20:48):
Hospital.
But they still took, they took Arkel's money, the $430.
They took that and then they left.
They were on their way to Port of Ass to take the ferry.
So after that, okay, I went to Gander Detachment.

(01:21:16):
We were, they were transferring blood samples to see if there was any alcohol in Victor
Arkel's system and then I went through Adonis's things and there was no money found.
The gray pouch was there, but it only contained the passport and the wallet, but no money.

(01:21:41):
And I remember Adonis, not Adonis, sorry, Robert James was saying, yeah, it was in a
gray pouch, but you know, it was in the van.
He had it underneath the seat and maybe it went out with the current of the brook and

(01:22:01):
it would have gone in in the bay.
And it was just too convenient, you know, and they say your spider senses are tingling.
So I went home at 3 a.m. that second day and I wrote in my notes, I get the feeling James
has missing money.
He was insisting Adonis had the pouch with him at the accident, but it was in his luggage

(01:22:26):
and I just wrote suspicious.
So then after I got home at 3 o'clock in the morning, as a police officer, your mind never
stops.
So I'm in my kitchen and I'm doing dishes and I'm thinking where would he have put the
money and being, I thought, okay, what about a safety deposit box?
So I also called the ferry in Port-au-Basque and left a message at the counter for the

(01:22:54):
ferry for Robert James to call me back.
I wanted the description of the pouch.
So the next day, quarter to nine in the morning, I came in to return Robert James' call.
He was on the ferry leaving Port-au-Basque.
So that's when I called the Holiday Inn in Gander and spoke to the person in charge and

(01:23:20):
they did confirm that Adonis did have a safety deposit box and indeed Robert James is the
one that signed out the belongings from the safety deposit box.
So we immediately called the Sydney Mines Detachment and advised them of what was going

(01:23:40):
on.
And we had them arrest Robert James and he was eventually brought back to Gander Detachment
where he did admit taking the money and he was charged.
So the theft of the money that's being advanced is a cause of why the vans were going faster,

(01:24:04):
but it's not true.
The theft happened after the accident and it didn't involve money.
It was simply an accident where they were passing four vehicles, did not have enough
room to go in with the oncoming car coming and they basically ran out of shoulder on
the left-hand side.

(01:24:26):
So now Robert James was charged for theft.
I can't recall what his sentence was, but I do recall myself and Constable Perry Nickerson
who was there as well and we had said it doesn't matter what he gets because I'm sure when
he gets out the wrestling world will take care of him type of thing because what he

(01:24:50):
had done was basically stolen money from a dead body and try to pass it off as you know
all the money went down the you know went down the brook.
So in a nutshell that's what happened.
That's mind-boggling to hear.

(01:25:14):
And you know the theft of the money aspect of this is obviously the crash is disturbing,
but that's almost as disturbing because like you said you know you're essentially robbing
a dead man.

(01:25:35):
And you know it's not like you know Adrian Adonis wasn't married, didn't have kids or
anything like that so you're not only stealing from him you're also stealing from them.
I mean that's uh yeah it's hard to hear.
Yeah it was um it wasn't my first fatal but it was my first triple fatal and it was it

(01:26:05):
was involved but I'm happy to see that we were able to resolve it especially for his
widow and at the time I didn't know he had a son I only found that after.
But yeah because six thousand dollars 35 years ago it was a lot of money.

(01:26:30):
Still is today.
Yeah but I'm glad we were able to come to a you know at least give be Frankie that type
of comfort knowing that that aspect because she was worried about the money and I we felt
at the time that if she's asking for it that bad she needed the money.

(01:26:57):
So I'm glad to have this opportunity to finally write the facts because even when this threat
started my sister-in-law who lives in Lewisport she's the one that sent me the thread or the
and I also had another friend that sent me the the link to your page and I have been

(01:27:22):
wanting to just get the facts out you know and dispel all these myths around you know
always a moose and always deep in a ravine and it's just it's not that and actually
my niece owns the piece of land right adjacent to they have a cabin and they have it as an

(01:27:45):
Airbnb and they have a right up there to say what you know about the accident and stuff
and I'm not even sure she has all these facts that I just told you today so.
I think she's one of the ones who responded on the on the post as well because I recall
somebody was talking about that they own the property it's an Airbnb now.

(01:28:07):
Julie Wilfrey.
Yeah okay yes.
Yeah yeah because I also know on this thread there was one of the guys I interviewed was
Donald Jones he was a witness and he wrote on the thread that yeah he says I remember

(01:28:34):
being interviewed by the police and I said I'm the one that interviewed you he said yes
he said I remember.
Yeah he's one of the ones I'm still figuring out to get into contact with.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah there's been a few I'm waiting on messages back to figure out because you know dealing
with time zones and all that is tricky but but I'm trying to get as many of the well

(01:29:02):
I'm trying to get everybody who said that they would talk in involved because I think
that that's the least I can do on my end of it all and then there are others who have
sent me messages they don't want to they didn't want their audio used or whatever but they
wanted their thoughts you know kind of put on the record and their experience kind of

(01:29:25):
put on the record so I'm kind of doing the fill in for for them as well because not everybody's
comfortable just talking about it some people are more comfortable you know firing off an
email for example so I'm I'm happy to accommodate that way.
So one thing I wanted to ask and this will spark maybe a different conversation then

(01:29:50):
because you had mentioned that obviously the autopsies were performed I'm assuming toxicology
was performed on the driver.
So whether or not you are allowed to say anything I'm not sure about that but that's one of

(01:30:11):
the rumors was obviously that drugs and alcohol were involved as a direct result of or that
directly resulted in a crash.
Yeah I can tell you that there was no drugs and I can't remember as far as the alcohol

(01:30:34):
I can tell you though that the alcohol consumption wouldn't have been at a level of impairment
and if memory serves me right he had not been drinking and I remember William Arko was alive
and I remember I interviewed him okay but he and Adonis were sitting in the back they

(01:31:00):
were not paying attention to what was going on in the front okay so they were conversing
with each other but they William anyway because Adonis passed away before we could even interview
him but William Arko could provide zero as far as you know what what led up to the actual

(01:31:30):
accident but I know that impairment was not it was not it was not a factor.
Because one of the and this kind of goes to the moose narrative that was going around
and I had I've like I said I've already spoken to several people who were there and they

(01:31:50):
all say no there was no there was no moose there not even close no couple of the salmon
fishers they were there for hours they never saw anything like that so to me almost immediately
it seemed like the moose was a cover story for for you know making it seem like the driver

(01:32:15):
didn't do anything wrong so in that regard I could I can understand that's why I asked
a question about impairments because regardless of being impaired or not you know if you're
passing four vehicles at a high rate of speed coming around a bend there's an oncoming car
like that this is a recipe for disaster.

(01:32:36):
It was it was pure and simple pure and simply and it was an accident we didn't have really
accident reconstructionist back in the day but we did go back and see where the sun was
setting and it would have been in his field of vision at the time around 930 in the evening

(01:33:02):
and it just made perfect sense when the lady and her daughter came forward and said you
know like he was passing and being in a van you know how it is sometimes you can pass
a vehicle but you don't necessarily see that there are three in front yes you know you
would be seeing one vehicle towing but then he was committed and he he didn't have an

(01:33:28):
out he couldn't get back in to the lane of traffic so for him it was I got to go left
and not being from Newfoundland wouldn't have known that you know necessarily the layout
that it's gravel but he's running out of road and he just went over the because you know

(01:33:52):
okay so you have the the highways here the bridges here okay yes so you have granite
boulders here and you have granite boulders there well he flew over the first boulders
but he hit head-on crossing the brook which is probably 30 40 feet 40 50 feet something
like that it's not a very wide brook okay so he jumps over the first granite rocks but

(01:34:20):
he goes head-on to the other one because I remember when I went in the brook I slid off
the rocks the granite rocks and the windshield had exploded on those rocks and when I did
when I slid down because there's one guy there from the the wrestling company who's grabbing

(01:34:47):
me and he's grabbing my arm and I've got multi multi cuts on my fingers because the windshield
had exploded on those rocks everywhere yeah and I also remember it was the time of AIDS
and being I was losing weight and I actually got tested for AIDS because I thought oh my

(01:35:09):
god you know but it was um it was an accident there wasn't a moose it wasn't liquor related
it was an accident well I appreciate clearing that up because that obviously dispels all
the rumors right there you know because even on your thread there I had seen people say

(01:35:33):
yeah I remember it was a dodge van no it was a 40 condo line van it was flat nose you know
it was navy blue in color and it had a side sliding door because that's where Donnis and
William Marco were ejected from so so that's it do you have any other questions I don't

(01:35:56):
think so unless there's something that we didn't cover that you think should be added
to the but I mean we covered a lot of ground yeah no that's really what I wanted was to
just set the record straight so the facts are out there and yeah it gives me peace of

(01:36:21):
mind as well well I'm obviously I'm I feel for you that you had to go through this experience
I mean I whether or not you're an RCMP officer you're a human being and you know to hear
everybody be open and candid about what happened it's it affects me as well and you know I'm

(01:36:51):
not a journalist I don't know how to handle stuff like this I'm just somebody who's trying
to to do the right thing and set something right and you know I had conversations yesterday
and I had to take a long break because it was you can only hear it and and listen to
it for so much until it's you just kind of emotionally shut down and I for for you being

(01:37:18):
there I mean heroic is probably the softest term I can use but like my goodness the the
strength of character that you have I don't know you have me speechless I'm not normally
this for Clem but you you've done it to me so I just I can't thank you enough for for

(01:37:41):
being willing to to discuss this well thank you for giving me the opportunity
before we wrap up for tonight I just once again from the bottom of my heart want to

(01:38:03):
thank Jim Joanne and Raymond for their contributions to today's episode once again their strength
of character is unmatched and they all three had me in awe of of them as individuals so

(01:38:27):
to the three of you thank you so much this episode would not have happened without the
three of you point blank period I also want to thank the other individuals from the Lewisport
Facebook group who were so gracious in responding to me provide me with some details that were

(01:38:48):
included in today's episode and who were really receptive to you know a guy from Winnipeg
just trying to do the right thing to to uncover the truth of what happened on July 4th 1988
and to present it to the world and I hope that I have done a good job in relaying these

(01:39:19):
stories to everybody who is listening tonight so once again I understand that tonight was
a hard episode to listen to truthfully this was one of the most emotionally draining episodes
that I've I've done for grapple with Canada I have to be honest with that in saying that

(01:39:43):
I can't imagine what the individuals who were there three of which you heard today what
they have went through and what they continue to go through so I for the three of you again
Joanne Raymond and Jim I hope that you can find some comfort some solace in sharing your

(01:40:04):
story and for the individuals who I have been in contact with who didn't want to come on
the program I understand that it's not easy to talk about but I hope that you will have
some sort of cathartism from this episode and have a chance to heal if anybody gets

(01:40:30):
anything out of this episode it's a chance to heal I hope truthfully for anybody who
was involved in the incident at Lewisport that's all that I can hope for and pray for
for for each of you and I especially want to thank you the listener for taking a chance

(01:40:50):
on a heavy episode and once again I hope that you will go to your way to share this episode
and get the truth out there you know now that everything is on the record hopefully we can
set things right and tell the world you know a horrible accident happened that claimed

(01:41:19):
through your lives and changed hundreds more thousands more and at least now the truth
is finally out there for everybody to to hear and to understand so thank you very much for
listening

(01:41:51):
this has been your episode of grappling with Canada this episode was written researched
produced and recorded by me and you the tax man you can find grappling with Canada on
all major podcasting platforms please make sure to rate and review five stars were available

(01:42:13):
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(01:42:33):
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thank you very much for supporting and listening to this program take care of yourselves and

(01:42:59):
each other.

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Lewisporte, NL - July 4, 1988

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Lewisporte, NL - July 4, 1988