Son hopes justice will be served in January death of Nipawin man
Chuck Letendre planned to visit his father in Nipawin on the night he died, but changed his mind. It was late, but the younger Letendre hadn’t seen his father in five or six years.
“I told the police that when they came to notify me,” Chuck said in an interview on Tuesday. “And they said they were glad I didn’t go because I could have wound up in his shoes, or both of us. So, I’m kind of confused if I should have went or not.”
RCMP were called on Jan. 4, 2017 after 57-year-old Frank Letendre was discovered dead in his home in Nipawin. Police initially described the death as “suspicious.” Less than two weeks later, they charged 32-year-old Danny Brian Crate of Nipawin with second-degree murder.
There were two Charles Letendres, but the elder Charles was known as Frank, while his son was known as Chuck. When Chuck was a child, his parents divorced, and he didn’t have much chance to be close to his dad. He remembers him as a good man, however.
“One of those people that would basically give the shirt off his back to help you out, type of thing,” Chuck said in a recent interview. “Hard working.”
When Chuck was young, his father was injured in a work accident in Carrot River. Working was difficult after that, but he enjoyed the outdoors, hunting and fishing. He was a quiet man, Chuck said.
“Maybe you didn’t know him or whatever, but he’d have been one of those guys who would have sat there next to you and caught a fish or waited for a deer to come out into the field or what have you.”
He wishes he had a chance to be closer to his father, and that Frank had the chance to meet his 18-month-old granddaughter, Chuck said. The little girl is Chuck’s daughter. Charles Francis Letendre was also the father of a daughter, Nicole, who is two years younger than Chuck.
Nipawin Mayor Rennie Harper said the suspicious death raised some concerns about safety in the community.
“I don’t think that’s unnatural; I think that’s a very common concern when something like this happens in a community the size of ours. We’re pretty small, most people know each other, all of those kinds of things,” she said.
Those fears have subsided, in large part due to the RCMP confirming to people in the community that Letendre’s death wasn’t related to drugs or gangs — it was more a case of a social outing gone very bad, Harper said.
Following Letendre’s death and “other things,” Nipawin’s town council increased its conversations about community safety with the RCMP and the public, she said.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s changed because of the incident, it’s just heightened our awareness we need to be really diligent about working with each other.”
Chuck Letendre said his family has been coping all right, but it will be better once the court case is finished.
Police say Crate and Frank Letendre were known to each other. Chuck said he hadn’t heard of Crate before the arrest.
Chuck has been attending the court hearings and said he has been disappointed that the man accused in his father’s death has been appearing in court through a video link rather than in person. He plans to keep going to the hearings in hopes of learning about what the RCMP discovered in their investigation, and to be as involved as he can be, he said.
“My only thought right now is I hope that justice is served.”
Crate’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 19 in Nipawin, again on a video link.