As night fell on Jan. 2, 2017, the retired 33-year-old corporal entered the house in Upper Big Tracadie and killed his mother, wife and young daughter before taking his own life.
On Monday, relatives, government officials and lawyers will gather in a municipal building in nearby Guysborough, N.S., to begin a fatality inquiry that will try to determine what happened to Desmond and what can be done to prevent similar tragedies.
“Desmond had serious PTSD,” said lawyer Adam Rodgers, who represents Desmond’s sister Cassandra — the personal representative of Desmond’s estate.
“He tried to get it treated for 10 years in different ways, and none of it quite worked. He never found answers. His family wants to find those answers for him and for others.”
Rodgers said the inquiry will begin with opening statements from the commissioner overseeing the inquiry, provincial court Judge Warren Zimmer, followed by statements from various lawyers.
“There were different points where the system failed him,” said Rodgers, who practises in New Glasgow, N.S., but grew up in Guysborough. “He was let back into his community without adequate supports and without knowing how he was going to handle that.”
The first witness to give evidence is expected to be Nova Scotia’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Matt Bowes, the man who reviewed the circumstances of the deaths and recommended that an inquiry be held under the province’s Fatality Investigations Act.