RCMP have charged a man with murder after they responded to a report on May 13 of an assault turned homicide at a residence in Regina Beach.
Clint Daniel Salminen, 32, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his uncle, Robert Gardiner.
Salminen made his first court appearance on May 15 and will be back in court on May 29 at 9:30 a.m.
The homicide investigation was launched on May 14 after Lumsden RCMP found the body of a man when they had arrived at a home on Fairchild Avenue after receiving initial reports of an assault.
“The complaint came in initially as an assault investigation, once members arrived on scene and discovered one of the persons was deceased, the investigation was immediately upgraded,” explained Cpl. Rob King, the media officer for the RCMP’s “F” Division.
RCMP Major Crimes Unit and Forensic Identification Unit were called in to assist with the investigation.
Neighbours describe Gardiner, 52, as a quiet, almost reclusive middle-aged man, who was “harmless.”
“He was a nice guy, he wandered around town, just sort of walked everywhere, didn’t drive much. He’d come into the store and he was always really nice. Kind of quiet, a bit of a shut-in but no one was ever really worried about him,” Kara Wheeler, a nearby neighbour, offered.
“You wouldn’t expect him to hurt a fly, and you wouldn’t expect anyone to have that sort of beef that would lead to that sort of end,” Wheeler explained.