Blood man's death suspicious

Page 5

Fort Macleod's former sewage plant supervisor said Christopher Twigg could not have entered the disaster tank by himself in 1977.

"Well, that's just my opinion, but he didn't go in by himself," said George Bota Thursday at the Rolf inquiry.

The inquiry was ordered by Premier Don Getty to look into strained relations between the Blood Band and RCMP and Lethbridge city police after a request from Blood band chief Roy Fox who

felt a number of sudden deaths were not properly investigated.

Blood band member Twigg was found Aug. 16 of that year, 12 days after he had gone missing from the town's hospital where he was being treated for alcohol abuse.

His body was severely decayed when it was found.

Bota told Judge Carl Rolf he was in charge of the sewage plant the day before the body was found.

"I found nothing out of place and if Mr. Pat Greenaway (plant worker and now supervisor) had found anything out of place, I know he would have reported it," said Bota.

The surrounding fence had not been tampered with until the day the body was found, he said.

"From what I could see, the gate had been forced," said Bota.

The digester tanks are covered with wooden and concrete covers and would be difficult for one person to lift, he said.

Once inside, getting out of the tank would be virtually impossible, he added, since the tanks had no handles under the lid.

When he and sewage plant engineers found the body, they noticed flesh had fallen off the fingers.

"It looked as though he clawed the walls," said Bota.

Responding to a question about whether Twigg could have treaded water for any amount of time, he said Twigg could have, but the water was usually very hot and Twigg would not last long.

Bota said he invited the plant's engineers to check the plant after ha had noticed a stench emanating from the tank two or three days previous.

"As I walked into the yard, I could get a faint odor, not a sewer odor," said Bota.

A backhoe was used to open the tank's covers.

A day or two later, Bota said they emptied the tank and found a billfold.

"An imprint of (a social insurance number) was embossed in the plastic window of the billfold," said Bota.

In other testimony, a man has come forward to the commission saying he saw Ivan Garry Chief Moon fall from the Whoop-Up Drive Bridge Dec. 9, 1984.

Daryl Keller says he read a newspaper story from the inquiry July 21 of this year that brought the incident back to mind.

"I may have inadvertently seen someone die and not realize it. I guess I just dismissed it from my mind," Keller told the commissioner.

Chief Moon was found dead lying under the bridge with a blood alcohol reading of .21.

Keller, who was working early that morning, was driving east bound down the bridge when he saw a man staggering.

He said he saw a City of Lethbridge vehicle go past the man after making evasive moves.

Keller said he slowed from 100 km/h to about 25 km/h when he saw Chief Moon fall.

Meanwhile, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Dennis Bad Arm in October, 1987 said cause of death was a combination of alcohol and pain killers.

Dr. Barbara Happel said Bad Arm had a blood alcohol level of .16 - normally not high enough to kill a person.

But with the presence of pain killers, it would be enough for the central nervous system to fail, she said.

Bad Arm was found dead in Cardston RCMP cells after he was taken from the town's hospital where he was exhibiting violent behavior, said commission lawyer Michael Stevens-Guille.