The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
NOVA SCOTIA
Ex-client recalls chilling memories
As the details came out it occurred to me that this man had to have been an open book
Tanya O’quinn
It didn’t take long for the denturist to get on a roll about the decommissioned police cruiser parked in front of his Halifax denture clinic last spring.
Tanya O’quinn and her partner Mike Heilman had just met the man almost this time last year, on May 24, 2019. By the end of the two-hour consultation session the couple were a little overwhelmed by the man’s eagerness to please and chatty demeanour. But they also sensed something was off about the man who roughly 11 months later would commit the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history.
“We thought he was great in a way: very supportive, comforting, extremely generous,” recalled O’quinn. “We walked out saying, ‘Wow. He’s really nice but he’s really strange.’”
Heilman needed a pair of partial dentures but having a bit of a phobia for dentists and doctor types he had O’quinn accompany him for his first consultation. The denturist’s main clinic was in Dartmouth but he used the former office on Novalea Drive as a convenience for out of the way clients.
In retrospect, O’quinn said the denturist fit the stereotype of a policeman: tall, well-built with a bright smile. Shortly into what turned out to be an unusual and much longer than expected first session, the denturist started in on the white Crown Victoria sitting outside.
“He said he had just bought the car at an auction and he went on and on about it,” said O’quinn. “He said if you could get your hands on one that they’re a great vehicle; they’re usually really well maintained. He kept going back to the car, saying he’s always on the look out to buy one.”
The vehicle had no decals and by all accounts wasn’t one of the vehicles that the gunman used in his 13-hour rampage last month. O’quinn said he made no mention of owning other police vehicles, only that he had purchased them before.
“I just assumed when he needed a car he’d go and buy one,” said O’quinn.
For two hours the couple did little talking but listened to the denturist jump from one unusual topic to another. He zeroed in on the multiple properties he owned, including in Portapique, and how his cottage and the community offered him great relief from city life.
During the gunman’s rampage he set multiple vehicles and homes on fire.
At one point O’quinn recalled the gunman describing a falling out with someone who he had purchased one of his Portapique properties from and that ended with arson. She said the denturist explained how there was a barn-like structure on the property containing a number of the person’s belongings. When the former owner didn’t collect his things the denturist eventually burned the building down, she said.
He also talked about having previously worked at a crematorium and he planned to open up a business himself.
“He wanted to do cremations and embalming but he didn’t want to be a funeral director," said O’quinn. “I told him I wouldn’t want to be in that kind of business and he said, ‘When they’re dead, they can’t hurt you. It doesn’t bother me.’”
O’quinn also recalled the denturist saying that he was planning to travel to the U.S. in the following couple of weeks to help out a friend who was sick at the time. During his rampage the gunman used automatic weapons that are believed to be from the U.S. The couple said the man made no mention of guns or any other weapons.
O’quinn said it was clear that the denturist was lonely and needing to talk.
“We were a younger couple than his usual older clientele, so we kind of thought he wanted to latch on.”
The encounter was enough for her not to go back again.
“I just felt at any point he could be inappropriate, if that makes sense. He was just very strange and random.”
But at the same time the denturist revealed a caring side, she said, and a commitment to his profession.
“He said he actually enjoyed being a denturist and one of the things he actually enjoyed about it was that he got to give people their confidence back right away. They come in and they have this issue and he gets to fix it for them. He genuinely seemed to enjoy helping people.”
He offered to give her partner a mouth guard free of charge.
Heilman agreed that the denturist was strange but also considered him an interesting guy at the time.
But he said he was alarmed and embarrassed by an exchange the denturist had with an elderly client who came in the office complaining that her dentures weren’t fitting properly. The woman said that she couldn’t eat meat with dentures. The argument became heated after the denturist repeatedly advised the woman to use glue to keep them in place.
“She said if I need to eat something, how am I going to eat if they’re going to be bouncing all over the place?
“He got into her face almost nose-to-nose and in a kid’s voice said ‘Don’t eat anything then.’”
The woman replied: “What if I’m out with my friends?" to which the denturist in the same kid-like voice replied: "Don’t go out with your friends."
Heilman said the denturist was still obsessing about his exchange with the woman at his next visit to the clinic.
“He was just obsessing. I kept telling him if you do good for people then why are you worried about that one person? He kept saying, ‘can you believe that lady? I give her a good price (for her dentures) and that’s how she treats me.’”
Both say they’re still trying to make sense of the tragedy. Neither thought he was capable of anything close to the massacre he committed.
But O’quinn said some of the evidence that has emerged since is hauntingly familiar.
“As the details came out it occurred to me that this man had to have been an open book,” said O’quinn. “He burned those homes and vehicles, he carried out the shooting in a police vehicle. I think, yeah, he talked about those things on that day.”