Alberta father, two sons found dead
Investigators suspect murder-suicide
SPRUCE GROVE, ALTA. • Corry MacDougall took his two sons to their hockey games, and coaches say nothing seemed amiss, the day before the three were found dead in an apparent double-murder-suicide in their home west of Edmonton.
Radek, 11, was on the ice with the Spruce Grove Saber tooths peewee team early Sunday and was disappointed the concession wasn’t yet open so he could buy a big bag of bubble gum that he often passed around to teammates, says coach Brendan Ardron.
His big brother, 13-yearold Ryder, played Sunday night with the city’s bantam AA Timberwolves and was benched for part of the second period after a penalty. Coach Dallas Ansell says the quiet and loyal defenceman had improved over the season and was coming out of his shell and cracking jokes.
The two coaches and other hockey officials, along with a pastor and a chaplain, gathered with players in an arena room Monday after learning the boys had been killed.
“It’s OK to cry” and “it’s OK to not be OK,” Ansell said he told the young players.
There were lots of tears, added Ardron.
“It’s a pretty hard pill to swallow as an adult, let alone when it’s a kid and your friend has passed away for no reason,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
The boys’ stepfather, Brent Stark, told the media Monday night that he and his wife, Tracy, made the discovery when they arrived to pick up the children. Stark, owner of the Whitecourt Wolverines of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, said the boys had been killed by their father, and called him a coward.
“I’m going to say it as blunt as I can — that coward of a guy took the life of his two young boys and then himself,” Stark told The Edmonton Journal.
“They were great kids. Lots of ambition, lots of charisma, loved sports. Life was a happy place for them.”
RCMP said three bodies were discovered in a home in Spruce Grove early Monday and that officers were not looking for any suspects.
A message from Spruce Grove Minor Hockey Association president Christy Rake posted on the league’s website said she was arranging for counselling to be available for the boys’ teammates.
“The loss of two children in our SGMHA and PAC family is an unimaginable tragedy. I ask that all of you join with me in sending your love and prayers to their family today and in the difficult days to come,” Rake wrote.
“Like all of you, my husband and I have had a very difficult time trying to explain the unexplainable to our son.”
A memorial in the snow outside the house included hockey sticks, teddy bears and notes for the family.
The boys had previously played hockey and lived in Whitecourt but moved earlier this year to Spruce Grove, where they joined their new hockey teams and started grades 6 and 8.
Radek gave no indication there were problems at home with his father, said Ardron.
Corry MacDougall sat quietly during Ryder’s last game, and chatted with a videographer who was recording the play, added Ansell. A parent in the stands said MacDougall also asked her that night about the schedule for a tournament over the Christmas break.
The coaches said stickers with the brothers’ hockey numbers — 8 for Radek, 3 for Ryder — will be on put their teammates’ helmets for the rest of the season. Signed jerseys will also be given to the boys’ mother.
Corry MacDougall posted a photo on his Facebook page last year of he and his sons, all three smiling near a lake. The only recent entry was a copy of an Edmonton Oilers logo. He listed himself as owner of two companies called Cemac Compression and Powertec Energy.
His aunt, Delores MacDougall in Edson, described him as a kind and doting father and said family members are struggling to explain the deaths.
“I don’t know what happened, but that wasn’t him,” she said. “He pedalled those kids to hockey all the time. He loved those kids. That was his life.”
She said he and his wife had split years earlier and, although she believes he currently had custody of the boys, she didn’t know if there were plans for it to change.
“Corry was a good father and what went wrong, I guess, we’ll never know.”
The Canadian Press, with files from The Edmonton Journal