Everyone who has been involved in policing has been involved in investigations that cling to you. Especially those involving children. Those little beings with their whole lives ahead of them. Those files refuse to fade away. This is one such case for me and many others who worked on it. Two three year old girls drowned in Gander Lake while on an outing with their father in August 4th, 2002. In the playground, a single set of small footprints running across the sand toward the lake are depicted in one of the crime scene photographs.

An intensive investigation was conducted and years later, the father was charged with murder and convicted. However, on appeal he was acquitted in 2014. As far as I know the case remains open. I wrote the following poem about this tragedy.

The Drownings

The water wanted in and as much as

The small girls struggled to keep it out

It overpowered their trivial efforts and

Replaced their breath with

Its cold, liquid fingers showing their

Young and open little minds

Humans do not exist without air

They would float until it, the lake

Would claim them, sucking them below

The surface and away from those

They held dear

Their killer, walks free

Yet, he has no freedom

He is stuck in the quicksand of

Guilt, living his days

In a mental squalor

Their deaths in his thoughts

Knowing his deed

Maybe even regretting it

While two children

Blanketed with dirt sprouting grass

Sleep without breathing and

Slumber without dreams