3 heading home from funeral killed, the latest in a string of fatal northern Ontario highway collisions
CBC
After Darius Ferris was sent a photo on Facebook of a crushed SUV, he had a gut feeling it was his vehicle and that his loved ones were involved in the fatal collision reported on Highway 11 in northern Ontario.
Ferris, a member of Constance Lake First Nation, said he and his wife had attended a funeral on Jan. 31 in Aroland First Nation with his wife’s brother, sister and sister’s partner.
Instead of driving home afterwards, Ferris and his wife decided to go to Thunder Bay and lent their SUV to their relatives.
“We just started getting concerned, more concerned by the hour,” Ferris said. “We hadn’t heard from them at all.”
The next morning, members of the Thunder Bay Police Service knocked on the door of Ferris’s hotel room and broke the news: all three of his family members had died.
“My wife was in shock. I was in shock,” Ferris said.
The collision on Highway 11 near Highway 631, west of Hearst, was reported to police around 6 p.m. on Jan. 31. It involved a passenger vehicle and a commercial motor vehicle, according to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in James Bay. The highway was closed for 22 hours.
Darrell (Jackboy) Taylor, 57, his 36-year-old sister, Raeanne Wesley, and Wesley’s partner, 37-year-old Aaron Paypompee, were pronounced dead.
An OPP spokesperson told CBC News the investigation remains ongoing and no charges have been laid at this point.
“Investigations of this nature are complex and can take months to complete,” Sgt. Martin Thibault of the OPP North East Region said in an email Thursday.
Taylor and Wesley were members of Constance Lake First Nation; Paypompee was a member of Whitefish Bay First Nation.
“My brother-in-law, he was the most loved man in the community,” Ferris said of Taylor. “He loved the bush and he liked working in the bush.
He described Taylor as a talented hunter, trapper and fisher who was mentoring his youngest son.
“He's leaving a legacy for my son and my son misses him a lot,” Ferris said.
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