A man police called a “person of interest” in connection with the sudden death of artist Tempest Grace Gale has been antagonizing people from one end of peace-loving Hornby Island to the other, locals say.
Matthew Fredbeck, owner of Ford’s Cove Marina where Gale’s body was found floating face down by her frantic father on Wednesday morning, said Garth Edward Newmeyer “was constantly abrupt and abrasive and obviously a troubled person."
"There was a total paranoia and fear about this person,” said Fredbeck, 44.
“This is our darkest hour.”
As an RCMP dive team scoured the ocean bottom in front of his marina on Wednesday, Fredbeck said Newmeyer, who is around 50, wasn’t from Hornby but first came to stay at a former group home for troubled youth.
He left the island in the mid-1980s, but would return a couple times a year either with his power boat or van and would usually leave a swath of trouble in his wake. Fredbeck said Newmeyer came to the marina last summer and trouble soon followed.
Newmeyer suspected someone sprayed his boat with Coca-Cola.
“Garth started obsessing about it and figured the parents [Mike Gale and Jazzmyre Corrigan, who live on a boat in the same marina] were responsible,” said Fredbeck.
Fredbeck said Newmeyer drove his van very quickly along the island’s narrow roads.
“The day before Tempest was found, I noticed Garth’s van in the parking lot and it would leave and come back six times in one hour,” Fredbeck said.
“He was looking for the parents because he knew they rode bicycles.”
Gale’s parents became so afraid, they moved off their live-aboard on Tuesday night and went to stay with a friend.
“He got so aggressive,” said Fredbeck. “He was still obsessing about the Coke incident.”
A flower-and-photo impromptu memorial was set up at the local ballpark clubhouse on Thursday afternoon.
“People have been bringing stuff down here, too,” said Fredbeck. “It’s a very solemn place. This is all people are talking about.”
Fredbeck said Gale’s parents are very distraught after the death of their 25-year-old daughter – the trio all played together in the family band called Killer Bagels. “I got a call from her mom this morning,” Fredbeck said. “They are beyond upset. She was their only daughter.”
The parents lived on a boat in the same marina as Tempest and her boyfriend Steph Desjardins, who’s from Quebec.
“Steph is devastated,” Fredbeck said. “They had been going out for the three years I have owned the resort. They were a really nice couple.”
After Gale’s death, Newmeyer was arrested on a ferry leaving Hornby.
Comox Valley RCMP Const. Tammy Douglas did not name Newmeyer, but said “the person of interest” has been interviewed and released.
“He was spoken to by police and now he has been released,” Douglas said.
“He remains a person of interest.”
An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.
“That will give us a cause of death,” Douglas said. “We do have considerable resources working on this. This has been quite devastating to the community.” Fredbeck said he hopes police make an arrest before any kind of vigilante justice happens.
“I think for his own safety he should not come back,” Fredbeck said.
“Someone in the community might take things into their own hands.”
Douglas said she understands the community is reeling, but asked that they let police handle the matter – adding everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
“If there are any concerns about anything we would like to hear about it, rather than people taking things into their own hands.”
While some are suggesting Gale may have tripped and fell into the water where she drowned, Fredbeck said that theory seems unlikely to him.
“It’s inconceivable,” Fredbeck said. “She was very nimble and fit and lived on a boat her whole life. She could ride a unicycle and juggle at the same time – there is no way in the world she simply fell into the water.”
Gale was a well-loved musician, poet and visual and performance artist.
On her MySpace page, Gale, who was born in Mt. Shasta, Calif., described herself as “an artistic maelstrom whose expression is as multifaceted as her origins.”
E-mail reporter Stuart Hunter at shunter@theprovince.com
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