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American family finds closure on brother’s 2006 death

Richard Hagen was last seen in the Alberni Valley on July 15, 2006
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John Hagen, right, with the last people who saw his brother, Richard alive in 2006, Jennifer and Russell Dyson. SUBMITTED PHOTO

When an American couple came to Port Alberni to find closure on their brother’s 2006 death, they didn’t expect they’d be the ones giving closure to the people who saw him last.

On July 15, 2006, Richard Hagen, a 46-year-old man from Utah, was on a fishing trip in Barkley Sound with friends. Around 2 a.m. that morning Hagen inexplicably jumped off the fishing boat and swam to Effingham Island where a Bamfield coast guard picked him up and transported him to West Coast General Hospital.

“While [Richard’s] friend was coming behind them, who was delayed getting to the hospital due to boat issues, my brother was at the hospital and [doctors] found he was of sound mind and they released him at 6:30 a.m.,” said brother John Hagen. “That’s the last we saw of him.”

Richard’s remains were found six weeks later on land in Hupacasath’s Kleekhoot Reserve, 12km west of Port Alberni.

A 2006 article in the Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper states that a Hupacasath woman walking her dog in a wooded portion of her property discovered Richard’s skeletal remains on Aug. 21.

An autopsy was later performed in Vancouver and no obvious signs of trauma were reported. Coroner’s records state the cause of death is undetermined.

For 11 years, John and his wife Stephanie have wondered what happened to their brother the day he went missing. On Monday they began their journey to find out.

“We’ve wanted to do this for a really long time,” said Stephanie. “We said, we’re taking a week of our lives and see where this takes us.”

Originally thinking their brother, who struggled with alcoholism, bought a bottle of alcohol after being released from the hospital and went into the mountains and drank himself to death, the Hagens finally found the place where Richard “laid to rest.”

With few leads on where to begin their search, the Hagens first stopped in Victoria to meet with a coroner.

The coroner couldn’t give the Hagens the name of the person who last saw Richard but he could give them an address.

“We get this address and we go find the Dyson family,” Stephanie said.

“Russell Dyson is the last person to have seen Rich alive.”

Russell Dyson, former Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District CAO, lives on a farm on Coleman Road, 1 km away from where Richard’s remains were found.

Dyson was the last known person to have seen and spoken to Richard on July 15, 2006.

Dyson told the Hagens that around noon he saw Richard on his property and went over to talk to him. Dyson told them that Richard seemed confused and agitated, he was sweaty and was adamant he didn’t need help. They added that Richard, who worked on a golf course in the States, said he was trying to get to the golf course.

“[Russell] said that all these years, after [Richard’s] body was found, ‘I’ve thought I should have done more,’” Stephanie said. “He’s never gotten closure, so today we were with their family all day and by the time we left he was saying thank you for doing this.”

To find the property where Richard’s body was found, the Hagens had to use information they wrote down from coroners’ reports, since they were unable to take the records with them.

They noted the property had a private gate next to a tree with a sign on it and there was a water cistern near by.

They found a gate on a property 1 km away from the Dyson’s farm on Kleekhoot Crescent and Bigmore Road that they figured must be the place.

The Hagens walked to the cistern and around the general area where Richard’s body was found but don’t know the exact spot because the woman who found him 11 years ago was unreachable.

Stephanie said the woman had performed a spiritual cleansing around the area after finding Richard.

“We’re quite at peace that she performed a cleansing,” she said.

John reiterated that he found solace knowing the place where his brother spent his final moments.

“It’s more a journey of closure, but now we have a lot more answers, a lot more clarification and we’ve come across so many people that have helped us that are now part of the journey, part of the story,” John said.

Now a pillar in the Hagen’s story, Russell Dyson said meeting the family was remarkable.

“It meant a lot to us as well, given that we were probably the last to see Rick alive,” Dyson said.

“It’s definitely a moving experience. We’ve often thought about Rick and just who his family was, so for them to reach out to us and make that connection was very important for us.”

Dyson said that not long before meeting the Hagens, he had been thinking of Richard and his story.

karly.blats@

albernivalleynews.com

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John Hagan in the wooded area where his brother, Richard’s body was found in 2006. SUBMITTED PHOTO