Montreal, Quebec – The body of Matthew Besner, a 27 year old insurance company employee who had been missing since he stepped out of a Montreal restaurant for a few moments early Sunday morning, was found at 8:15 this morning on the shores of the frozen Lachine Canal fifteen blocks west of the restaurant. Footprints on the north side of the canal and broken ice on the chanal showed that Besner crossed the canal and fell through the ice several times before he made it to the shore.
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There are no indications of foul play and Besner is described by friends as “dependable and not a big partier.” Police have no idea why Besner was at the canal and whether he was alone at the time of his death.
Montreal newspapers quote Police Constable Daniel Lacoursiere as saying “Once he got to the shore, he wasn’t able to get up the slope. Nothing indicates there was a crime. He was wet; he froze.”
Police are insistent on doing an autopsy according to Aron Schmeltzer of Refuah V’Chesed of Montreal.
“We are working with them trying to prevent an autopsy,” said Schmeltzer. “So far they plan on doing it to determine if his death was an accident or a homicide. We will know tomorrow morning whether or not we succeeded.”
Had he been drinking?
very sad news what’s going on here? B.D.E.
homocide
Its more important that they do an autopsy to determine if it was foul play than worrying about halacha. If this was not accident, they need to investigate and an autopsy is the only way to know for sure.
I recall that Chesed Shel Emes arranged a meeting with the Medical Examiners of NY & Canada & with the Local askunim, let hope & daven it should work out fine.
There had been a spate of these incidents in the NYC /lower NY State area over recent years; young men being found drowned. They were out with friends, being separated from then and then being found drowned. There was an article on the news about a “smiley face killer” (google it). I think it’s worth investigating. Either this story is very poorly written or a lot of facts are intentionally being withheld.
If this was your child or friend or boyfriend would you want to dismiss his death as accidental knowing it’s not in his carachter to just wander off…. This investigation needs to be taken very seriously and by any means necessary obviously including an autopsy we have to find out what really happened saturday night.
Footprints on the north side of the canal and broken ice on the chanal showed that Besner crossed the canal and fell through the ice several times before he made it to the shore.
There are no indications of foul play and Besner is described by friends as “dependable and not a big partier.” Police have no idea why Besner was at the canal and whether he was alone at the time of his death.
NO indications of foul play. Therefore, no need to desecrate his corpse with an autopsy. BDE and let him rest in peace.
wow. Thaht exactly what i mean by ignorance… Do you not think I read the article too??? And guess what the cause of death will probably come out as hypothermia but that doesn’t in any way mean there was no “foul Play” what if someone forced him to walk on the canal…who knows. The bottom line is it wasnt in his caracter to just walk off 15 BLOCKS away from where they were and cross an obviously barely frozen canal and he wasnt verey intoxicated! you dont have to be very smart or a detective to figure out something doesn’t make sense! If it were your loved one would you just dismiss all these signs that something probably went very wrong when he was outside of the restaurant or would you want to find out what hapened and if anyone else might have been involved! You can never rule out anything things can not be what they seem so maybe its best to let the expets do their jiob and hope they do it well and get some answers!
There are no indications of foul play!!! Get it? Got it? Good!!!!
Who hasn’t tried something dangerous like walking on thin ice, or climbing a broken ladder, or fixing a broken electrical connection without turning off the power, at least once in their lives? Usually little or nothing happens – but occasionally the consequences are disastrous and that is what happened here. Montreal is a safe and beautiful city, and Old Montreal is one of the nicest parts of the city as it is mostly a tourist attraction and trendy relaxation spot.
An MRI or other methods can find out plenty if there is a need to know. Cutting open a Jewish corpse when there are NO INDICATIONS OF FOUL PLAY is a bizayoin – and I hope that Aron Schmeltzer, an ehrliche askan whose well known brother is a big baal chesed, is successful in maintaining kovoid hames.
When it comes to your family do whatever u want…if your ok with the death of a loved one going unanswered and setteling for the easiest answer which very well might not be what happened then its ur life but generaly people want and deserve to know the truth. Its time to put put religiond and beliefs asside and be logical for a minute. Accidents as your say can happen but the example your giving have nothing to do with this situation…for the 3rd time it is not an accident when a stable person has plans with his close friends and girlfriend, to come home walks 15 blocks at 3am and turns off his cell phone to go and cross a body of water that was not fully frozen as it was not that cold long enough for it to be safely frozen to a side where there is nothing more than a factory??? REALLY??? DOES IT REALLY MAKE SENSE OR SEEM LIKE AN ACCIDENT!!!! He did not drink alot and does not tend to disappear like that like most normal people so OBVIOUSLY something is wrong and foul play is probably involved. I hope that the people handling this case have a lot more sense then that and dont speak and think non-sense when there is a very real and serious situation at hand.
As often happens on this site, the frum have one view, the secular (or Jewish Goyim as certain Rav calls them) a diametrically opposing view. And this will not get resolved. Friends, we know that autopsies are wrong, no need to attempt to convince stubborn ignoramuses.
Misse meshune. Montreal is colder than Siberia.
I believe the authorities will do what is best to settle this case to make both sides of this argument satisfied. I also have faith in today’s technology, including autopsy. The deceased are the only people who do not and cannot lie.
I do not want to offend anyone here, however curiosity does get the better of me. If… big IF! – if they discover that it was foul play and done everything they can, with everything they had already found, but still cannot find the suspect. Doing an autopsy might give more clues. Ex: he offered help to a struggling stranger and they offered him a snack, or maybe a crazy person laced his drink and he was under the influence until the unfortunate situation happened. The longer you wait evidence does start to expire and maybe even disappear.
Would you let them do an autopsy then? if it was the absolute last resort of a chance to find more evidence to capture the suspect.
Since some people here just don’t get it, the family could end up finding out something that they really don’t need to know and which would leave them in more turmoil than just accepting that there was an unexplainable tragedy. And knowing that something will not do anything for anyone else. More likely it was bad judgement, a dare or a shortcut, and it is best that it is left at that.
You don’t get forced to cross an icy canal in Old Montreal. It isn’t Watts or even Bensonhurst. And Montrealers live with ice and snow and sometimes take risks that others would not, just as a skilled electrician might take a risk with electricity and a skilled plumber might take a risk around gas or steam when it comes to their own homes. Usually the consequences of those risks are a minor injury if that. One time in several hundred thousand, tragedy ensues.
What a waste of time speaking here no logic or intelligence but only backwards beliefs and ignorance. The point is you dont know what hapened none of us do so dont assume nothing happened or dimiss any possibilities it is insulting to the victim and family to assume he would just take a stroll to somewhere he had NO REASON to be and to cross an obviously barely frozen canal when loved ones were waiting and looking for him.. Dont be stupid. Im done here except for Bykmah who obviously has some sense and can think independenly. You cant rule anything out! Bye oh and shmuel the ond idiot here is you and your backwards beliefs the world would be a better and more fair and just place if people weren’t brainwashed to be as ignorant as you!
Didn’t what? The trut needs to be known!!! and you certainly are
To Anonymous, Autopsy can show many things that happens to a person internally.
If by chance there is a serial killer, they have certain methods of doing things so they do not get caught and maybe it’s a ritual of their own insane mind. They will stalk their victims. Maybe the killer knew that Jewish people or specifically that family does not and will not let the authorities do an autopsy. The serial killer can kill by poison, which can be revealed by the person’s blood and liver. Or depending on the poisons, it will change the color of the person after they are dead for a certain amount of time which i do not know that much about. This is only an example of a possibility.
I can understand that knowing the truth can hurt, maybe even worse than death itself, but if there is a serial killer isn’t it better safe than sorry? What if someone decided to start killing more Jewish people the same way, because an autopsy will never be performed and they do it because they know they can get away with it. Wouldn’t we want to put the killer behind bars so nobody else would get hurt from this person again.