After being unable to reach his son Scott to wish him a happy birthday, Glen Grier began searching online for his name along with Victoria, BC. The second result was Scott’s obituary.
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Glen Grier says it would have been hard enough to find out about his son’s death 10 months ago from the Victoria police or the BC Forensic Service.
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Instead, last week, the father of Stony Plain, Alta. he learned from a Google search that his 35-year-old son Scott had died, been cremated and buried in a Victorian cemetery without his knowledge.
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“I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s been wild, tough,” Grier said Friday. “It doesn’t matter to investigate him to make sure that what he saw on Google is true. It makes it so much more difficult when you spend a whole day confirming it, making call after call.”
On January 18, Grier and his wife, Michelle Grier, attempted to contact Scott to wish him a happy birthday. Scott had battled addiction for four or five years. He was last seen in the fall of 2019, when his father put him on a bus from Calgary to a healing center in Sicamous. But Scott got nervous by the third week, left the center and went to Victoria.
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“He was always in contact. It might be a month or two, maybe twice a month, but she always found a way to say, ‘Hi. I’m fine,” Grier said.
In September 2020, when Grier hadn’t heard from Scott for a while, she filed a missing person report with Victoria Police. Scott was located safely.
They spoke to him in May 2022 and assumed he was fine, Grier said.
“Then too much time passed and his birthday came. I tried to find other ways, looking up missing person reports. I would search for unidentified bodies that were found. So I thought, ‘Can I bother the police with another missing persons thing?’
Grier just wasn’t feeling well and began her usual searches. At 9 pm, he decided to google “Scott Grier, Victoria, BC.”
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The first thing that came up was the 2020 missing person report. The second was an obituary listing Scott’s name, date of birth, and date of death: May 16, 2022.
“Our hearts just sank,” Glen Grier said.
“We thought someone was pulling our leg or it was a hoax,” said Michelle Grier.
They called the Victoria Police, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction and the coroner, but were unable to reach anyone at that time of night.
“We were restless. It was hard to sleep, hard to think,” Michelle said.
“There was a lot of denial until we found out it was really true,” Glen said.
The next day, the coroner said he had Scott’s fingerprints and confirmed that he had died of a fentanyl overdose. He collapsed in the street and could not be revived.
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“Another one of those sad stories,” Glen said.
He and Michelle are still waiting to find out why they weren’t notified. Glen’s name and phone numbers were on the missing person’s report and he had received a phone call when Scott was found.
Glen has been in all the files of his life. Every time there were problems or he ended up in the hospital, Scott would give the doctors Glen’s name and number and say, ‘You can tell my dad anything,’” Michelle said. “We have had the same phone number for 30 years. It’s all very frustrating.”
The Griers had to find out where Scott is buried. Now they are trying to recover his ashes.
“The ministry said that if we want to dig it up, anything is possible,” Michelle said.
Recovering the ashes will cost $1,100.
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“I asked the lady from the ministry directly: ‘You knew his name, you cremated him, you buried him, why didn’t they tell us?’ She did not comment on it,” Grier said.
While they wait for answers, the Griers are also dealing with the grief of Scott’s seven-year-old daughter, Octavia, who lives with them.
“Yesterday was a beautiful day and the snow was soft, like a snowman’s snow, and she wrote ‘I miss daddy’ and drew some big hearts in the snow. It was so sweet,” Glen said.
They hope this will never happen to anyone again. People have been reaching out to them. A woman from Victoria asked if she could put flowers on Scott’s grave and then sent them a photo.
“I didn’t realize how excited I would be when I saw the scoreboard; my tears flowed immediately. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of this stranger and the sight of where he was buried, for now,” Michelle said.
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Victoria Police began a file review to determine whether officers could have taken further action, Const said. Terri Healy.
“This is a tragic event and our hearts go out to Scott’s family. No parent should have to learn of their child’s death in this way… We have reached out to the Grier family to offer our condolences in their time of grief and to assure them that we are actively working with our partners to ensure this does not happen. another family.”
A spokesman for the Ministry for Social Development and Poverty Reduction said they had received a referral from the Public Guardian and Trustee to handle Scott Grier’s funeral arrangements. The Public Guardian and Trustee sends references when it determines that a deceased person has no estate to administer. The referral did not identify any next of kin.
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“When the relatives are identified, the ministry will follow up to review the final arrangements that are being made. However, next of kin were not known at the time in Scott’s case,” the spokesperson said.
In BC, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction pays necessary funeral expenses for any person who dies in the province if the deceased person’s estate does not have immediate resources to cover these expenses.
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