From: Marc Don
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2006 10:17 PM
Subject: The wait is over.

Hi everyone, well the wait is over. A body was recovered from the water near Pont Viau bridge (near the Commodore Marina) last Tuesday afternoon and the body was that of Bob Cliffe.

At the time, it was told to me that the body had a knapsack and a camera around the neck when it was found. When I heard about the camera I had a pretty good idea that it was Bob. The knapsack was a little puzzling for me, but then again I didn’t know Bob’s attire when he went out on his expeditions. Later that night, I phoned Ed (Bob’s brother) in Japan to try and find out about Bob’s dentist and to see if we could track down any of Bob's dental records. When I phoned, Louise was still there (which I didn’t realize) so I told her the news as well. She told me afterwards that this was great timing because Ed and Louise could share the news together, rather than Ed hearing about this by himself. The timing was perfect!

What I did next was to go back to Bob’s house to try and match the camera registration from the box that the camera came in, with that of the camera that was found. I went to the Police station on Wednesday morning to hand over the box and I left my business card with the Investigator and my cell phone number.

On Thursday the Investigator in charge, Sergeant Legault, called me and told me that the camera matched and that Bob had on an Injection Classique tee shirt which of course only he and I wore. He also had a set of keys with him and Sergeant Legault requested that he test the keys in Bob’s car and he also wanted to check the company Van so he met me at my job Thursday afternoon. When I talked to him, he said that he was 99.9% sure that the body was Bob (because of the business card I left him with the company Logo on it) and that he had a chart from Bob’s old dentist that the dental pathologist would compare with on Friday morning. He also told me that the Coroner needed to be 100% sure and that so far all the evidence gathered in the case was considered circumstantial evidence and that we still might have to go and identify the body. This is the reason why I didn’t tell everyone, the Police wanted to be 100% sure before the news was released.

On Friday morning, Sergeant Detection Carrier (Sergeant Legault’s partner) phoned me and gave me some exciting news. Sergeant Carrier is also an expert on computers and knows about Memory Cards. He had said that it was likely that the photos from the camera could be saved. I phoned Louise (now in Vancouver) and told her the news (about the camera and the Coroner’s decision) and we decided that we would wait until she arrived back in Montreal to make any final decision on identifying the body.

Today (Monday morning) she phoned Sergeant Carrier to set up a time to go and Sergeant Carrier told her he would phone her back to confirm a time. When he phoned back he gave Louise the best news we could possibly get. First, was that the pictures on the memory card have been retrieved, and even better, no one had to go and view the body. The Coroner had reviewed the body and had made a positive match to photos that were provided to him.

It’s been quite a week and everything that has happened in the last month or so has ended on a good note.

BOB IS COMING HOME! ! !

I will be emailing people (and posting at the Glenmore Curling Club site) more info once I get it, and I just wanted to let everyone know that the family and I are going to do our best to hold a Wake for Bob (no suit and ties allowed) at Cap St.-Jacques at Pointe-Louise (check your maps). Once we have a date set up, I will let everyone know. Also, the News & Chronicle will be doing a small piece on Bob this Wednesday to help get the word out.

The last thing I’d like to mention is to thank everyone that has expressed their prayers and support to myself and Bob’s family. It has made this whole process so much easier, and on behalf of the family, I’d like to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. We will never forget.

Marc Don

From: Marc Don
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 1:55 PM
Subject: Search and Rescue

Hi everyone,

As most of you know by now but some might not have heard as yet, my business partner and best friend Bob Cliffe went missing Thursday night (March 23rd) at Parc-Nature DuCap St. Jacques. I spoke with Bob on Thursday morning as we were scheduled to work that day but a scheduling conflict meant that we had to push our work to Friday. That was the last contact I had with him. When Friday came, Bob never showed up to pick me up which he usually does. 14 years working with Bob, that has never happened so I phoned him and left a few messages. Around 10 am I drove past his house to see what was happening and his car wasn’t there. My initial thought was that something came up but still for him not to phone was a little off. I drove past his house a few more times that day and then decided to go check out Cap St. Jacques around 4:30 pm. That is when I found his car in the parking lot at the far end of the park.

At that time, I started getting a little worried and decided to talk with the Police. Because of the time of day, there was still a chance that he might be out and about taking pictures because that’s the time he would usually be there at. After explaining my story to the Police, I mentioned that his neighbor was a person that kept an eye out and acted as the neighborhood watch. I went to talk with his neighbor and he told me that he didn’t see Bob’s car in the driveway Thursday night and that it wasn’t there in the morning on Friday. He did see the car Thursday morning but it was gone later that afternoon (which would be consistent with Bob’s schedule of taking pictures at Cap St. Jacques at dusk).

That was good enough for me to file a Missing Persons report with the Police and I did so around 6:30 Friday evening. At that time, the constable told me that they had sent a public security officer to check to see if his car was still there, and it was. That is the moment that the Police went into action. Friday evening 18 Police officers and dogs searched an area that they believed he might have been and did so until around 11 pm when it became too dark to continue.

We weren’t allowed to go and help at that time because of the dogs and the fact they didn’t want anyone else there. At this time I asked if we could phone friends to help out on Saturday with the search and the Sergeant on duty wasn’t sure because they might continue with the dogs in the morning and they might not want people there. On Saturday morning I was told that we could go ahead and get people to help out.

I’m sorry I didn’t tell everyone Friday night because I didn’t want to panic everyone. I still really didn’t know what was going on. What I decide to do instead was tell a few people who would help me contact everyone if we got the green light for Saturday.

Tracy phoned the SR gang and got them to call their friends. My parents phoned people from Dorval golf and other friends and neighbors and we also had the Glenmore Curling Club connection with the help of Stanley Fong, RJ Awasthi, Dickie Young, Kim Harper and Helen Chanfat. Gary Drisco and Ian Spencer phone their friends and I got some of my musician buddies to phone around.

I wanted to thank you all once again for the help you provided me Saturday morning. I had a tough task ahead of me that day and I wanted to assemble an army of volunteers to help search for Bob, and you all did just that.

To everyone that came out and searched, I thank you for your efforts and your determination at trying to find Bob. At times, it was hard to keep some of you waiting while we organized things at the parking lot and I know how anxious we all were to get out and look for Bob but the coordinated efforts made by all involved proved to be very valuable to aid the authorities. All of your efforts helped the Search and Rescue team concentrate their search where they needed to and in the end it was a team effort by all that enabled the Search and Rescue team to complete their task on Saturday.

To everyone that wanted to come out but couldn’t, I know how much you wanted to be there and I realize that it was probably more difficult for you all knowing where you wanted to be and having that thought in your mind the whole day. Kim told me that there was an equal amount of people that wanted to go out and were ready and willing to go today (Sunday) but the fact that the grid pattern was completed Saturday meant that the Search and Rescue team wouldn’t be returning to the site.

What that meant to John (Bob’s brother-in-law) and Louise (Bob’s sister) was more than you can imagine. Seeing hundreds of volunteers from the Pointe-Claire Search and Rescue team, the Beaconsfield Search and Rescue Unit and the Special Rescue Unit from the South Shore (the one the Sûreté du Québec uses) and all the attention that this search received via the media was overwhelming for John and Louise. It gave them a sense of what Bob meant to so many people and it warmed their hearts to see everyone there.

Bob, a quiet individual, touched so many people in different ways and it showed by the number of people that showed their support. He is not the type to stand out in the crowd and so don’t worry if you had a hard time putting a face to the name. What happens from here is that the file remains open and Bob is considered a Missing Person and his file has been sent to all the different authorities across Canada.

I spoke with John this morning and him and Louise are out there again today (Sunday) and they are mainly looking along the shoreline. I’m sure there are some of you that might want to go out there, and if you absolutely need to, John has said to stay along the shoreline and to make sure to be careful. Please don’t go alone as it is still dangerous out there. When we did the search Saturday, they told us to be in groups of three or more so make sure that you have someone else there with you.

It’s a beautiful day today and if you go, you’ll see why Cap-St. Jacques was a favorite spot for Bob. The beauty and the surroundings are breathtaking and I will be posting some of Bob’s pictures that he took there on the Injection Classique website and I’m sure there might be a few posted on the Glenmore Curling Club website as well as RJ Awasthi website. There is a Forum at Glenmore which is about Bob and I will use it to keep you all updated. Feel free to post there.

Once again, thanks everyone for your support.

Marc Don

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