The fiancée of a man found dead in the snow after a crash last week in Ottawa is remembering him as a devoted father who worked long hours and came so near to seeing his family again.
“He was almost home,” Loraleigh Bailey said of where her partner Cole Misner’s minivan crashed on a country road near the south Ottawa community of Vernon late Friday night.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontario’s police watchdog, said Ottawa police responded at 11:30 p.m. that night to reports of a vehicle rollover.
Officers did not locate anyone in or around the vehicle, the SIU said, and subsequently left the scene.
But the next morning, a police officer returned to the scene and found a dead man nearby, beneath the snow.
Bailey, 25, has identified Misner, 24, as the man found near the site of the collision, which is only about 11 kilometres from the couple’s home in Winchester.
Bailey and Misner were together for years, had two children and were planning to get married this fall, among other life plans that have now been upended.
“This was something completely unimaginable,” she said of Misner’s death.
The SIU says its investigation is ongoing.
The unit previously said it’s looking into the circumstances of Misner’s death because Ottawa police officers “may have been in and around the area at the time of [Misner’s] death.”
Investigations focus on whether police can and should face criminal charges under certain circumstances, such as a death or serious injury. An absence of information in the days after the SIU gets involved is often followed months later by a detailed report into what happened.
Bailey said it’s hard not knowing when she’ll learn more but she understands investigators have “a big job to do.”
“I want the truth just as much as they do, if not more,” she said.
Bailey said she’s deeply grateful for the support of family and friends as she charts her course forward as a single mother planning her late partner’s funeral arrangements.
Her two-year-old boy and one-year-old girl may be too young to grasp what’s going on, but they know something is wrong, she said.
“They actually asked me for their dad last night when I put them to bed,” Bailey said.
“I’m trying to put things together so that when they’re older, they can know who he was [and] know how much he loved them.”
Bailey and Misner both grew up in Guelph and moved to the Ottawa area a few years ago so Misner could be closer to his late biological father.
Misner was a construction worker who built his son’s first dresser.
He and Bailey planned to get a hobby farm with chickens. Misner had even sketched out different ideas for the layout of their future house, Bailey said.
“Everything he did, he did for his family: working long hours, working as hard as he did, coming home and making sure he had time for me and the kids,” she said.
Bailey’s father, John Bailey, said he was naturally protective of his daughter when she and Misner started dating.
“I wanted to hate the guy,” he said. “[Misner] was the first person ⦠that I was ever concerned was going to take her away from her dad. But he had such a strong work ethic and personality ⦠and he won me over, and he won her over, clearly.”
“He brought a lot of happiness to my daughter, which was something I was very grateful for,” he added.
Bailey said she last spoke to Misner on the phone earlier Friday night.
They discussed their weekend plans and “the very last thing he said to me was ‘I love you.'”
On Tuesday, Bailey wore a cross that belonged to Misner, entwined with her engagement ring, around her neck.
“We were supposed to grow old together,” she said.
Bailey said the family is planning two celebrations of life for Misner: one in the Ottawa area and one back home in Guelph.
The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about the investigation, including video or photos, to contact it.
