Friday, September 17, 2004
Man interrupts own funeral
By TARA BRADBURY BENNETT, The Telegram
Today, Dane Squires is going by a new name — Lazarus. The nickname stuck after Squires called his daughter, Trina, on the phone while she was attending his own funeral.
The Squires family was told Sunday by police in Toronto, where Dane lived, that on Sept. 10 he had been struck by a Go Train while crossing the tracks and died instantly.
“I came home from blueberry picking last Sunday and walked in through the door, and my wife said, ‘you better sit down.’ She said, ‘your bother was killed in Toronto,’” said Gilbert Squires, Dane’s brother, of St. Philip’s. “We found out he had been hit by a train and his head was gone. I was totally, totally devastated.”
The family began making preparations for the funeral in Toronto. All week, Gilbert said, they had been mourning the loss of his brother, a 48-year-old retired welder.
On Thursday, Dane’s 27-year-old daughter Trina and a number of relatives were gathered outside the Toronto funeral home where he had been resting, watching as his casket was loaded into a hearse to be taken to a crematorium.
That’s when the phone call came.
Gilbert, peppering his recounting of the incident with “oh my God,” said the funeral director came running out of the building, announcing that there was a phone call for Trina. When she answered the call, she heard her father’s voice on the other end of the line.
“She totally, totally lost it,” Gilbert said. “She said, ‘There’s a ghost talking to me on the phone. Please somebody try to make sense out of this, because I’m losing my mind.’”
Gilbert said Dane had heard a man had been killed by a train, but the name of the victim wasn’t released by police. It wasn’t until he read his own obituary on The Telegram website and in the Toronto papers that he realized what had happened.
“He went to my sister’s house and whoever answered the door fainted,” Gilbert, an offshore engineer, said. “Then he called the funeral home and said, ‘What are you doing there?’”
Gilbert said neither he nor his brother know why Dane was falsely identified as the victim of the accident.
Attempts to contact Dane and Trina Thursday evening were unsuccessful.
After being told Dane had been killed, Trina and her aunt went to the train tracks to have a look around the area, where they found a shoe they thought might have belonged to Dane.
Trina was also given two locks of hair from the remains of the victim, which Gilbert says his family was never called in to identify.
According to a news release dated Sept. 13 and posted on the Toronto Police Service website, police appealed to the public for assistance in identifying the victim of the accident.
“An overwhelming response has lead to the positive identification of the victim and next-of-kin have been notified,” it read. “The Toronto Police Service would like to thanks those members of the public that took the time to call Traffic Services.”
When contacted by The Telegram Thursday evening, Staff Sgt. Bill Lithgoe of the Toronto Police Service was hesitant to speak about the case, but did confirm it had been reopened.
“We presently have our detective officers out trying to confirm and verify what we’ve got here,” he said. “If it’s a case of mistaken identity, we have to confirm the identity of the deceased.
“Let’s just leave it that we had identification, and we now have information that that is possibly something that needs to be further investigated.”
Gilbert said the family is looking into the odd task of retracting Dane’s obituary, and cancelling a memorial service which was due to be held in St. John’s next week.
They’ve also got to call Dane’s friends to say he is not dead, but very much alive.
Gilbert said the family has been in contact with a lawyer in St. John’s to see what their options are. He has
also been in contact with his brother, who he said is still trying to come to terms with what has happened.
“It was like speaking to someone who had come back from the dead,” Gilbert said.
“We’ve been going through a hard time. We’re quite relieved that he’s alive.”
tbb@thetelegram.com
Man interrupts own funeral
Man interrupts own funeral
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Akaran_D
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I want something like this to happen to me.
I'd get such a kick out of it.
I'd get such a kick out of it.
Akaran of Mistmoore, formerly Akaran of Veeshan
I know I'm good at what I do, but I know I'm not the best.
But I guess that on the other hand, I could be like the rest.
I know I'm good at what I do, but I know I'm not the best.
But I guess that on the other hand, I could be like the rest.
I saw this on The National the other night. Dan Squires looked to be completely drunk at the time they interviewed him, which was quite amusing. Though I thought they had mentioned on the news broadcast that his sister had positively ID'd the body.
"When you dance with the devil, the devil don't change, the devil changes you."
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*~*stragi*~*
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