Knock on the Door and Terror Walked In
Appeared In The Ottawa Citizen
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 10 Nov 1971; Page 21;
Written By Eleanor Dunn & David Smithers)
FORT COULONGE - A day of terror began for the family of Regent Labine, 31, with a knock on the door in the night.
The man who knocked on the door of the humble frame home - on the Bois Franc Road about three miles northeast of here - requested help for a stalled automobile.
Mr. Labine went with the man to a small side road about a mile from his home.
There, the young father of four was shot and stabbed in what police describe as a "murder attempt." Mr. Labine was left sprawled on the gravel trail, bleeding profusely from his wounds, as the assailant drove away in the injured man's car.
The attacker then returned to the family residence.
He grabbed Mrs. Regina Labine, 23, and manhandled her towards the front door.
Back into bush
"I told him that he would have to kill me right there. I was not leaving the children in the house. He had told me that he'd fought with my husband and killed him." said the mother in an interview a short time after she and her family were rescued by police.
The assailant herded Mrs. Labine and her children, aged 10 months to seven years, into the family's 1962-model car and drove north along the winding gravel track. The roadway leads nowhere.
About seven miles from the home the car plunged down a 20-foot embankment and could not be moved.
The abductor forced the family - Mrs. Labine dressed only in nightie and housecoat and children in pajamas - to walk more than a mile back along the snow-covered trail.
Crying and whimpering with the cold and lack of food, the children were led across a treacherous bridge to a barn which became their prison for the next eight hours.
An examination of their jail revealed that a fire had been lit between timber-dry hay bales on the wood floor of the dilapidated building.
Even casual observers could not understand why the entire structure had not become enveloped in flames.
But it was the same fire which resulted in the family's rescue about 2 p.m.
Two wandering hunters, Gerard Labine, cousin of the wounded man, and Liveol Mallette, both of Fort Coulonge, spotted smoke coming from the building.
They peered through a glassless window and spotted a man whom they knew was wanted by provincial police based in nearby Campbell's Bay. They telephoned police from the closest residence, about two miles south.
Police moved in and the hours of and father was dead (sic) ended for Mrs. Labine as the family sat huddled for warmth in the barn. Only the infant's feet were covered. Mrs. Labine had torn off a piece of her housecoat and tried to comfort the child.
A man identified by police as Normand Turcotte, 20, was taken into custody. He surrendered without a struggle. He was apparently unarmed.
Yvon Labine, 28, brother of the victim, said he had passed the barn about 7:30 am as he was searching for his brother's missing family.
"I first knew something was wrong where there was a rap on the door early today," he said in an interview. "I opened it and there was Regent. He had his hand cupped over his mouth. He was all covered in blood. It was everywhere. I will never know how he got to my place."
Yvon lives with his parents on a small farm about three miles from his injured brother's residence and two miles from where the shooting and stabbing occurred.
It was Yvon who donated the parcel of land on which Regent Labine built his home after his construction accident.
"He came to this place along the trail some of the way and then must have cut through the bush. Pretty good for a man who was half-dead. He lost an awful lot of blood."
Yvon awoke two of his four other brothers and arranged for Regent's transportation to hospital.
"I just wish whoever did it came to my place," said an emotional Yvon Labine. "He would have been going to the hospital in the same car as my brother. I was ready for him."
Mrs. Labine and her children are staying with her parents in Davidson. The small home is crowded, but as her father, Armand Belair, said: "I don't have much money but I have a big heart."
The family was listening to the radio newscasts to learn of Mr. Labine's condition. A brother remained at the hospital but a heavy snowfall and absence of cars made it impossible for Mrs. Labine to travel to her husband's side.
The assault-kidnapping has become the last of a series of unfortunate events to befall the Labine family this year.
In the spring, a cow and a horse owned by the family for use on their meagre farm apparently were poisoned. Both animals were found dead.
And weeks later, a shack at the dump used as a shelter by Mr. Labine was burned to the ground.
A construction accident five years ago cost him the sight in his right eye. Aside from negligible income from his job, his family was being supported by welfare.
Father of 4 fights for life
The humble Labine home stood quiet and empty under a light snowfall Tuesday night on a little-travelled gravel road about three miles northeast of here.
The head of the house is in hospital fighting for his life.
His wife and four children are staying with relatives. The children - Claudette, 10 months, Jacques 4, Yvette 5, Jacqueline 7 - don't really understand what occurred during the day.
They knew their father was called away in the middle of the night and has not returned.
They have recollections of a drive in a car, and a cold day spent in an isolated barn. They had been hungry too.
But the children remember the man who is being held by police on suspicion of wounding their father and kidnapping them and their 23-year-old mother.
Normand Turcotte is his name.
And they remember occasional visits he made to their home.
He lived less than half a mile from their house.
They didn't know he paid $1 a month rent for the one-room shack in which he lived. He apparently did not work and had come originally from Pembroke about two years ago.
His house too lay silent under the falling snowflakes.
His 1958-model Oldsmobile is parked close to the dwelling's outhouse.
But the children's grandparents' home where they are staying "until things are settled away" is warm.
They likely will notice little difference - save the absence of their father.
Shot and stabbed, man recovering
(The Ottawa Citizen; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 15 Nov 1971; page 1;
Regent Labine, the 31-year-old father of four who was shot and stabbed last Tuesday by a man who later kidnapped his family, is showing signs of recovering from his injuries.
Pembroke Civic Hospital said today Mr. Labine's condition is now fair and "he is showing signs of improvement."
Mr. Labine underwent five hours of surgery after he was admitted.
[NOTE: Throughout the articles in The Ottawa Citizen, the name of man shot and stabbed is misspelled. Given in the articles as Regent Labine, this man's name is actually Réjean Labine.]
