(This story originally appeared in the Oct. 9, 2014 edition of the Chillwack Times.)
The already mysterious case of a Chilliwack man’s death got all the more mysterious with an anonymous note left at his parents’ house. Distraught with grief over their loss, and frustration at the official RCMP finding of a drug overdose, Ed and Gladys Scherbey have worked for three years to find out what really happened to their son Corey.
They have hired lawyers, contacted the Mounties, registered formal complaints.
With the recent note, the Scherbeys’ claims that Corey was murdered looks less far-fetched than ever.
“Shakepeare [sic] said: ‘Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned,’” the typewriter-written note started.
“That’s the kind of homicide is [sic] was, a scorned woman! Those who know who it was, belong to too tight a group to say a word!
“I think your son Corey decided too late to ‘back off’ and it jeopardized his well-being-his life!” The note was signed “a Reader of The CHWK Times.”
The note also came with a photocopied Times story from August with a highlighted sentence: “It was definitely a homicide of some kind,” Gladys said. “Somebody has to know something.”
It was Aug. 22, 2011 when Gladys walked into the living room of Corey’s Fairfield Island house only to find the 38-year-old dead on the sofa, surrounded by blood.
Cpl. Derek Santosuosso of the Chilliwack RCMP found no signs of trauma, no sign of a struggle and no signs of forced entry.
A pathologist determined the cause of death to be “acute combined cocaine and ethanol intoxication.”
Case closed.
But the Scherbeys persisted, insisting their son didn’t do drugs and there were just too many unanswered questions, questions that are growing by the weeks, months and now years.
This latest note only cements their already steadfast sense that Corey was murdered.
Then there is the curious case of Tammy Bourdon, a high school friend of Corey’s who arrived at the Scherbeys’ door early one morning after his death. Banging on the door, Bourdon woke them up and told the couple that she knew Corey was killed over money and drugs, but she couldn’t tell them who was involved because she feared for her life. She told the Scherbeys this on more than one occasion.
A source close to the family, who asked not to be named, told the Times Bourdon spoke to her and said if the people responsible for Corey’s death knew she was talking, she would be the next to die.
Bourdon did die on Feb. 3, 2012, of blood poisoning after cutting her finger.
Then there is the fact that the renter in Corey’s basement said nothing about what had to be a horrific smell that weekend as Corey’s body decomposed in the summer heat.
And there is the mystery woman seen the Friday before the weekend when he died who has never been seen again.
The family has the name of an ex-girlfriend they think was responsible for Corey’s death. The woman reportedly acted strange at the funeral, and had acted jealous and violent over the years, and even had connections to organized crime.
The police have been told all these things, yet the family says they have been rebuffed and ignored.
The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP reviewed the file and has requested Mounties conduct a further investigation into the case. The Sherbeys were told they would be notified when a review was completed, but they haven’t heard back yet.
On Sept. 17, NDP MP Randall Garrison, official opposition critic for public safety, submitted a letter on behalf of the Scherbeys to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP asking that a progress report be provided to the Scherbeys “as quickly as possible.”
@PeeJayAitch
paul.henderson@theprogress.com
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