Editor’s note: This article contains information some might find disturbing.
The mother of a deceased Kilworthy man is hoping new information in a coroner’s report will prompt police to reconsider their theory about his death.
Justin Evans, 22, had been missing since Dec. 12, 2020. His body was found by a hiker May 19 on the edge of a pond near Muskoka Mobile Home Park, where he lived, on Highway 11 South, about 30 kilometres north of Orillia.
Not long after, Ontario Provincial Police Det.-Insp. Matt Watson said Evans’s death was “not criminally suspicious.”
Jaime Wise, Evans’s mother, has always felt otherwise.
“It’s not who Justin is,” she said of her happy, outgoing son. “He wouldn’t do that to us. He wouldn’t do that to me and he wouldn't do that to his sisters.”
Wise recently received the report from Dr. Scott Whynot, the investigating coroner, and shared it with Village Media.
“Given the uncertain circumstances of the disappearance and the limitations in the postmortem examination the cause of death is unascertained,” Whynot wrote.
“The postmortem scavenging artefacts to the neck and chest area may have obscured some injuries that could have been fatal. The possibility of drowning also cannot be excluded.”
Part of Evans’s body, including his head, was partially submerged in the pond when he was found.
The coroner noted there were two “superficial, likely non-fatal, incised wounds to the left wrist.” They were horizontal wounds, both 7.5 centimetres long. Tendons had been cut through, but there was “no clear involvement of major blood vessels.”
The pond was revisited after the post-mortem and a rusted “Exacto” knife was found near the area where Evans’s body had been discovered.
When police responded after he was reported missing, a shed on the property was found to contain “significant amounts of blood.”
Wise said Evans spent plenty of time in the shed, which was near the trailer he lived in, listening to audiobooks.
His body was found 339 metres from the shed.
Wise said authorities suggested her son, “in blood-loss delirium,” stumbled to the swampy pond and collapsed. Given the distance from the shed and the amount of blood found in it, she doesn’t believe that’s what happened.
“There wasn’t a blood trail down the road,” she said. “Why? Because somebody dumped my son there like he was a piece of garbage.”
She also doesn’t believe the wounds on Evans’s wrist were self-inflicted.
“I’m not buying it,” she said. “I think it was staged, personally. I think he was already gone.”
Wise said the pond was not included in the search area.
“That pond should’ve been searched within the first 24 hours,” she said.
“They would’ve found him, and then we wouldn’t have all these unanswered questions of how he died, and I’m never going to know what happened to him. They’re never going to catch who did this.”
The coroner’s report noted Evans had “no known history of suicidal ideation.”
It also pointed out one of Evans’s neighbours in the park took his own life after Evans disappeared “and in an audio suicide note seemed to take responsibility for Mr. Evans’ disappearance, though did not give any specific details regarding his death or the location of his body.”
That information strengthens Wise’s belief that her son did not kill himself.
“People will say, ‘Sometimes you just don’t know.’ I know he was truly so happy. He loved life,” she said. “He woke up every day and danced around the house and had a smile on his face, and he didn’t fake it. It was real and genuine.”
Also, he had just purchased a snow machine and an ice-fishing hut and was saving money so he and his sisters could visit Cuba.
Evans loved the outdoors. He enjoyed fishing with Wise’s boyfriend. He always looked forward to family camping trips.
“I’ve been out on the boat once this year because I ...” Wise said as she began to cry. “He’s supposed to be there with us.”
Last year, when Evans learned his mother’s boyfriend wasn’t able to take time off from work to go camping, he got his boater’s licence so he could take Wise. Just the two of them enjoyed time together on the boat.
“Those are some of the best memories that I’m going to have,” she said.
The last time she saw her son was about a week before his disappearance. He was helping decorate her Christmas tree.
On Dec. 14, Wise’s mother called her and said she had been informed by those from whom Evans was renting the room, and with whom he lived, that he had not been seen in two days. It was out of character, Wise said, noting her son would always let people know when he would be leaving for a weekend.
She said Evans’s friend and roommate, who was his ride to work, had called him that morning, but Evans didn’t answer the phone.
“I knew right away that Justin wouldn’t just disappear. He’d never no-show for work, ever,” Wise said.
His cellphone has still not been found. His ear buds have also not been located, though their case was found with his body.
Evans’s disappearance and death have garnered a lot of attention, particularly on the Facebook group called Justice for Justin, which has almost 9,000 members.
There have been rumours and speculation about how he died and who might be responsible. Wise wants to know the answers, which is why she hopes police will look at it as a homicide investigation.
Village Media reached out to Watson to get a response to Wise’s concerns about the police investigation and to see if the details in the coroner’s report would lead police to consider probing it as a potential homicide.
“I am aware of the concerns expressed by Justin's family and I understand how emotionally devastating this tragedy has been for them,” Watson said in an email. “This investigation remains open and in the coming weeks consultations are planned involving members of the Muskoka Lakes Crime Unit, Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, Coroner's Office and several OPP specialists. That is all I have to say at this time.”
On May 28, police charged 70-year-old Kenneth McKinney, who was one of Evans's roommates, with obstruction of justice in relation to the investigation. That case is still before the court.
