Population Zero Page #4

just conversate with.

You know?

There was no dead space

when you spoke with him.

Oh, us going back.

Bear took us into Yellowstone

many times.

I would...

I would tag along when

my family didn't

want me around,

or whatever.

And Dwayne...

Dwayne and Bear,

they went in

pretty much all the time.

Sorry, "Bear"?

Bear, his dad.

He called Bear.

Um...

Yeah.

Yeah. He was, uh...

You know, sometimes you get...

When the husband's watching TV,

you know,

the wife's always complaining.

"He's not with us enough.

He's not with us enough."

Right?

But you know, Carol,

she just...

She let him be him,

and he let her be her.

Five years

into their marriage,

Carol gave birth to

their first child, Lily.

However, when Lily was only

six-years-old,

there was a deadly accident

in their home.

A fire erupted

in their kitchen.

Dwayne heard his child's

screams from outside,

and ran to try to save her.

But the fire had

raged too long.

Lily was already dead,

and Dwayne suffered

third degree burns

on his hands and arms.

It's devastating

when your child dies like that.

I can't imagine myself,

but for them...

It was horrible.

I think Carol somehow dealt

with it better than Dwayne,

in a way.

The scars that he had,

that was like his memory

of her.

He just shut down.

It's remarkable,

I think that their

marriage survived that.

Because lots

of marriages don't,

you know.

When you lose a child, it's...

It's a terrible,

terrible thing.

He was ecstatic, you know,

when Carol became

pregnant again.

You know? But, um...

He was, um...

Absolutely terrified of

losing another child.

If that was

gonna happen, you know,

you'd want it

to happen to like,

and evil person, you know.

But I mean, he was...

He was one of the good guys.

It's terrible.

Then Carol was diagnosed

with cancer.

And she was

four-and-a-half months

pregnant.

So...

She had to make a choice.

Take the chemotherapy and

risk the health of

her baby, or...

Well...

When Carol died,

that was it for Dwayne.

He still lived in town, but he

practically disappeared.

Could you

tell me about how

the death of Carol affected you

on a personal level?

She was my best friend.

Um...

And I still miss her.

It was hard.

Uh...

It was hard.

The loss

is just so deep,

that anything you say

is stupid.

You know?

It's gonna get better?

You're gonna say that to him?

It's gonna get better?

'Cause it's not gonna

get better.

I wasn't in touch

with him much,

you know, at that time.

But you know,

that's life, right?

I mean, people drift apart.

That's what happens, man.

Everybody leaves everybody

in the end.

Right?

Uh, the baby was...

It was not...

Quite right.

It was premature.

And, uh...

His little lungs

weren't formed properly.

It's understandable that

such a series of tragedies

would change a person.

For him, it...

He had to find a reason

why these things happened.

It was inconceivable

that it could just...

That that could just happen.

I don't blame him

for thinking that.

What I do blame him for

is what he did.

What I blame him for

is the fact that he

sought out a way

to punish us all

for what he thought

happened to him.

There was no way

of contacting Dwayne.

Any numbers I managed to dig up

rang without a machine.

There were no

email addresses, nothing.

Through further research,

I found a PO Box

located in a small town,

just outside

of Windsor, Ontario.

He was living in Canada now.

The more research I did,

the more questions were raised.

After his wife passed,

Dwayne spent a lot of time

at the local library.

We were all

so broken up about it.

After Carol passed,

he never really recovered,

I think.

I didn't wanna pry too much.

And he wasn't the kind of

person who made you

feel comfortable.

He liked it here.

He didn't talk to anybody.

We just left him alone.

Quiet. Quiet guy.

It's a small town,

we all go to church, and...

I think when we found out that

Dwayne had done these things,

there was a real feeling

of betrayal.

How could somebody that

was part of our community

have gone so wrong?

I'll tell you. It was all

anyone talked about

for a long time.

But nobody really wants

to talk about it anymore.

They were three young boys,

you know, and...

I don't know, it's...

I've got a lot of

mixed feelings about

the whole thing, obviously.

Why would he...

Do that?

You know?

He knows what loss is.

Right? He knows what loss is.

He lost Carol, he lost Lily.

You know, these boys,

they're someone's son.

Right? He knows what it's like

to lose a child. He knows.

I was still confused

as to why a seemingly

good natured,

hard working family man

would brutally murder David,

Cody and Thomas.

Three young men,

who by all accounts,

were innocent.

Cody, growing up, was lovely.

He was smart and funny.

Very, uh, very happy kid.

Very open kid.

And wonderful

with other children,

whether they were younger,

older, or his own age.

He was always...

A very compassionate child.

Thomas met Cody at...

They were doing...

They were both going

for their Bronze Cross.

They were trying

to be lifeguards.

And they were both

in the same...

I think they were both in

the same instructor's class.

And they hit it off.

And the next thing I knew,

they were really good friends.

So do you remember

how David met

Cody and Thomas?

David met

Cody and Thomas

in junior high.

He was, um...

He was always very...

Full of life and mischief

and jokes.

He liked to pull

practical jokes on us

and things like that.

I caught them

trying to take the canoe.

And they didn't know

how to use it,

and they weren't wearing

life jackets.

I gave them a rather stern

talking to,

and then immediately jumped

in the canoe myself

to show 'em how to do it,

and capsized the canoe.

That's probably the...

That's probably the most

I've ever seen Cody laugh.

The very nature

of a documentary

is truth and reality.

But what truth

are you presenting?

A murderer's, a Judge's,

your own?

It's a perception of the truth.

What was the real story?

What really happened?

There was no doubt that

Dwayne's story

was heartbreaking.

There was an unrelenting

feeling that something

was missing.

It wasn't that

everything didn't add up.

It added up too perfectly.

Yeah, roll it, man.

It's fine. Yeah.

- Just come over here for

a minute and watch this.

- Okay. What you got?

I want you to see this, man.

Look at this.

When did they

start going up there?

I think Cody and Thomas

were going out there

for a few years

before David joined them.

Did David spend

much time

in Yellowstone on his own?

No, he didn't.

I mean, not to our knowledge.

No, he wasn't the outdoors-man

that Cody was.

In Dwayne's confession

he states that it was David

who suggested the site

that they moved to.

I remember that, but...

Like I told Patrick,

that had to be a mistake.

Cody must have suggested it.

I mean, our boy

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes