Just happened today!!! OUR CLOSE FRIEND TEMPEST!!!!! WE JUST PLAYED A SHOW TOGETHER LAST WEEK IN VICTORIA, HAD BREAKFAST TOGETHER THE NEXT DAY! THIS IS TERRIBLE FUCKING SHIT!!!! WE WERE SO HAPPY HANGING OUT THAT MORNING....HOW TERRIBLE!!!
ANYBODY WHO HEARS ANYTHING..PLEASE CONTACT ME!!!!!
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Hornby Island "folk-punk" musician dies suddenly, foul play not ruled out
Vancouver SunNovember 18, 2009 5:18 PMBe the first to post a comment
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Tempest Grace Gale, 25, died suddenly on Hornby Island
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Tempest Grace Gale, 25, died suddenly on Hornby Island
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A "well known and loved" musician and poet on Hornby Island died Wednesday, announced Comox Valley RCMP.
Police said in a statement Tempest Grace Gale, 25, died suddenly on the island and a "person of interest" has been taken to the detachment.
RCMP said foul play has not been ruled out and a number of people have been sought to speak with police.
Gale described her music as "folk-punk" on her myspace page and recently performed at the Dancing on the Edge festival.
The investigation is in its early stages, RCMP said.
Her MySpace bio referred to the singer/poet as "an artistic maelstrom whose expression is as multifaceted as her origins. Currently arising from the dripping shore of the notorious yet veiled Hornby Island, she brews a vociferous fervor which has swept her from coast to coast."
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Residents of the close-knit community of Hornby Island are grieving
after the mysterious death at the marina early Wednesday of a
well-loved, free-spirited 25-year-old performance artist.
The
RCMP said it had not ruled out foul play in the death of Tempest (Pest)
Grace Gale. She was a gardener, musician, poet, unicyclist, and
stilt-walker.
The death was “sudden” and a “person of interest”
was at the RCMP detachment in Comox Valley, the RCMP said in a news
release. If the death turns out to be murder, residents said it would
be the first since Europeans settled on this idyllic island, inhabited
by just over 1,000 eco-friendly, peace-loving residents.
Locals
say Gale’s body was found at the Ford’s Cove Marina, where she lived on
a boat, either alone, or with her boyfriend, Steph Desjardins.
Residents of the island said Gale’s parents, Mike and Jazzmyre Gale,
lived on a boat in the same marina.
Matthew Fredbeck, who owns
Ford’s Cove Marina and lives 500 feet from the dock, said he was awoken
by screams from Michael Gale, the father of Tempest Gale, at 7:45 a.m.
Wednesday.
“The father was screaming at the top of his lungs from
the dock, going on and on and on, ‘Murder! Murder! My daughter! My
daughter!’” Fredbeck said. “It was a horrible thing.”
Fredbeck said he ran to the dock.
“The
scene on the dock was, there she was, Pest,” Fredbeck said. “The
boyfriend had found her, and she was dead. The father was screaming,
and it was a horrible thing.”
By 9 a.m., police helicopters had arrived and police dogs sniffed along the beach, Fredbeck said.
“They are really looking for anything and everything to try to piece this together,” he said.
“Everybody loves her,” said Fredbeck, who has known Gale for four years.
“Of
all the people for this to happen to, it’s this person that the
community really loves,” Fredbeck said. “Because of that, for a lot of
people on the island, it’s like losing a member of your own family.”
He said the island opened a community hall for people to drop in and share their memories of her.
“Sometimes I just sit and cry,” Fredbeck said. “I’m just trying to get by.”
George
Buyver, a 35-year resident of the island, said he tried to comfort
Gale’s parents and her boyfriend, a Quebecois who moved to the island
and works as a carpenter.
Residents said a man who used to attend
a now-closed centre for troubled youth on the island had been
threatening Gale’s parents.
On Tuesday night, the evening before
the death, the parents felt so threatened that they stayed at the home
of a friend, Buyver said.
Buyver said that on Wednesday, the
parents told him they were concerned for their safety. “They said they
were afraid of him,” Buyver said.
He said he tried to comfort Gale’s parent and her boyfriend.
The boyfriend didn’t want to believe the death was murder.
“His
belief that he wanted to believe for sure was that it was an accident
and she fell,” Buyver said. “He certainly didn’t want to believe that
there was an evilness out there that actually wanted to murder her.
“That’s
an emotional response. Certainly he just didn’t want to believe that of
his best friend. ... They’ve been together quite a long time.”
But Gale’s father said he believed his daughter was murdered, Buyver said.
“It’s a father who just lost his only daughter,” Buyver said.
He said the man on the dock worried the parents.
“They
were all concerned about him, and then she shows up dead on the dock,”
Buyver said. “It’s hit the island pretty hard,” he said.
“She’s a kid who grew up here and is well-liked, and the family is part of the island.”
Residents
said if the person of interest had been found on the island soon after
the death while tempers were flaring, some might have turned to
vigilante justice.
But locals also emphasized that it was not
known yet if the death was a murder and that if it turns out to be
murder, any suspect should be given a fair trial based on the evidence.
Bob
Sarti, who has lived on the island for three years, said few young
people live on Hornby and Gale was well-respected, especially among the
younger generation.
Sarti last saw Gale perform at a bluff on the
island as part of Hornby Island’s participation at 350, a worldwide
event to push governments to act on climate change.
“She performed there on the beach and gave a very heartfelt plea,” Sarti said.
“Everybody
is very upset and shocked,” he said. “They’re talking in small groups
at the hall and at the store. Nothing like this has ever happened
before.”
rdalton@vancouversun.com