A teenager in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia who had been missing since leaving a party around 11:00 on Friday, November 3rd was found dead yesterday afternoon. His body was found in a swamp. In typical Nova Scotian fashion, the rural community has rallied behind the family to search for the 19-year-old boy. Friends, relatives, neighbours, and even people who didn’t know him or his family searched for Christopher Parks. Other people brought food. Maritimers are known for their practical displays of compassion, and it is nice to see that this tradition continues, at least to some extent. The sad part of the story is that if there had been more of that compassion, Christopher Park probably wouldn’t be missing in the first place.
Christopher was involved in a fight at the party that he left the night he died. Some reports say that he had been beaten up by three or four people. It’s also rumoured that the dispute was over a girl. I could write about the growing problem of violence in my province, but there is another aspect of this boy’s death that I’m also concerned about.
After getting beat up Christopher Park walked out of the party along Lawrence Road, which is near a swamp. The CBC news report says “Some said he was last seen in a ditch by the side of the road.” This indicates that more than one person saw Chris in a ditch, and kept going. What happened to the days when people stopped to help someone they saw in a ditch?
I thought about this. Would I have stopped for him? What would cause a person to decide not to help him? There is a good chance that one or two of those who saw him in the ditch were coming from the party. Perhaps they had been involved in the fight with him and therefore didn’t want to help him. Perhaps he had been drunk and belligerent at the party, and those who saw him in the ditch felt uncomfortable about helping. Or maybe one was someone (especially a female) driving alone, who didn’t feel safe picking up any stranger. Even if they didn’t want to get out and help someone on the side of the road, they could place a phone call to someone who would. In a small place like Berwick, they might have known his friends, and could have called them. Anyone could have called 911 so that the police or an ambulance could have come to help them. I expect that the people who saw Chris in the ditch and kept going are feeling bad about it now. They will continue to feel bad much longer than it would have taken to call 911.
The newspapers have quotes about what a nice boy Christopher was. Even if he had been an angry drunken idiot though, he didn’t deserve to be left in a ditch. His family didn’t deserve to find his body in a swamp this week. Compassion makes a big difference.
1 comment:
I'm from Berwick Nova Scotia. There are many unanswered questions as to what happened to Chris. I had friends who were at that party. They said it was just a typical brawl between a few boys. Surprisingly when they found Chris he did not have any obvious signs of trauma. I was told that the area where Chris had been found was searched numerous times prior to finding him. He was also found to be missing his shoes and jacket. November is a very cold month to be walking around without these articles of clothing. What else is mind boggling about this case is that the people who found him noticed his socks were in pristine condition. It led investigators to believe he hadn't walked to where he was found, because if he had walked his socks would've been filthy. Also how did the search party miss his body so many times when they previously searched that area. Chris's mother and family personally searched that area numerous times prior to hinding him, and they were even there when Chris was found. His family noticed right away his clean socks and missing jacket. They assumed Chris had been dumped there because there was no way he coulrdve walked through a bog without getting his feet dirty. When His autopsy showed no signs of foul play and his cause of death was deemed due to exposure it blew everyone away! Ites been over 10 years since this has happened and we are still left scratching our heads! When I heard of Missing 411 and the profile David Paulades had discovered concerning missing young Caucasian males I instantly thought of Chris Parks. Chris's disappearance matches David's profile to a t. I actually wrote to the Canam project to see if they would look into Chris's disappearance.
Anyways you are right the people at that party had zero compassion for Chris. The guy who was charged for punching Chris prior to his disappearance is still to this day a brute. He and his friends are bully's. They are always looking for a fight and are well known to gang up on a single person. They've been tied and suspected of many vicious beatings. The most recent one happened at a bar in Greenwood. They beat a man from Ontario so bad they put him into a coma. The man had his head repeatedly slammed in between a car door. I know that if Chris hadn't been at that party they would've singled out and attacked someone else. You would think now that they are in their 30's they would grow out of such atrocious behavior, sadly for the public they haven't.
Post a Comment