Just over five years ago, on the evening of March 4, 2018, Jerry Keeshig visited his girlfriend’s apartment to see his baby daughter. By midnight he was dead from a stab wound to his chest.

The next day the police told a family member that Jerry had stabbed himself, that he had walked almost a kilometer before falling to the pavement, and that he was taken to Owen Sound Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Jerry’s family has misgivings about the Owen Sound Police Investigation and Report, and his father, mother, step-father and sisters held a press conference to lt the public know they would like to see the investigation into Jerry’s death reopened.

Arlene Keeshig described her son as a loving father and good provider for his daughter, now an active six-year old. Strong and athletic, Jerry had been a top athlete at St. Mary's High School. He had a good job and had been making his lunch for work before he left his mother's home that last evening to visit his daughter.

His step-father Eric Jenner did not deny that Jerry had a drinking problem, but neither he nor the rest of the family could believe what the police were telling them about Jerry's final hours.

Jenner pressed the Owen Sound police for four years to get answers through Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commission. At first he was ignored, and then received only redacted pages and autopsy and crime scene photos. More information from witness interviews came after appeals to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, some of it transcripts of interviews, most of it summaries.

The Report accepts, without argument, what the residents at Jerry’s girlfriend’s house told Police:

Jerry had come in drunk and got into an altercation with his girlfriend. He grabbed a small kitchen knife and went outside, threatening to stab himself, which he did in front of the house. He then walked down the street, dropped the knife on the ground and continued until he fell onto the roadway about a kilometer away.

The police did find a small, red-handled kitchen knife some way from the house. It had been “wiped”, according to their report, and returned to its sheath.

But even with additions received on appeal, the family still has problems with the Report.

The family is asked to believe that Jerry stabbed himself three times, fatally nicking his heart (according to the autopsy report), wiped the knife down, returned it to its sheath and dropped it on the ground before walking a kilometer to where he was found by police and paramedics responding to a 911 call.

Jerry was missing a shoe when he was found and his brother (since deceased), who saw him on the street that night, thought he “looked like he had been beaten up”. The Police report says that was likely from attempts to resuscitate him, although it contains no information on resuscitation.

It is now just over five years on. The family still has no closure. Their experience has led them to several recommendations for future investigations, including contacting families as soon as possible, quickly processing forensic evidence, and transparency with families about the investigation.

Owen Sound Police Chief Craig Ambrose, who came to the City in 2019, has said that he has reached out to the family through their lawyer and that the police will always take new information relating to an investigation and determine how to proceed.

We expect to talk with Chief Ambrose on Monday.

source: media release and press conference