William McLeod provides update on Merle Newcombe, George Weeden mystifying disappearance near Amyot 50 years ago

GEORGE WEEDEN AND MERLE NEWCOMBE – THE SAGA CONTINUES FIFTY YEARS AFTER THEIR DISAPPEARANCE NEAR AMYOT, ONTARIO



By William McLeod


October 23, 2009 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the disappearance of two Chapleau moose hunters at Mile 106 near Amyot, Ontario. Amyot is located about 180 km. west of Chapleau on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

A detailed account of the disappearance appears on an earlier blog generously provided by Michael Morris. The following is a brief summary of the matter.

Merle Newcombe and George Weeden, both employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway, left Chapleau on October 22, 1959, planning to do some moose hunting in the vicinity of an old tourist camp that had been owned by Newcombe’s family for a number of years. They were last seen near the camp by a passing train crew the following morning - October 23. After that they simply vanished from the face of the earth. In spite of massive search efforts until the snow came that fall and again the next spring, no trace of the hunters was ever found. No rifles, no spent shells, no signs of a struggle, no evidence of an animal mauling. Nothing.

The mystery has intrigued me and many other folks who live or lived in Chapleau at the time. I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book “The Chapleau Game Preserve: History, Murder and Other Tales” which I published in 2004. Since the book came out nobody has come forward with any new information about the case.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the disappearance Canadian Press ran an extensive and well written piece by Pat Hewitt on the disappearance. The syndicated story ran in numerous newspapers and on radio stations across the country.

A number of elements in the CP story broke some new ground and raised new questions about the disappearance. Two aboriginal trappers were in the vicinity of Amyot on the last day Weeden and Newcombe were seen. They told police they spoke to the two moose hunters and then set off up the track to set a beaver trap. When they returned to the spot where they had talked to the hunters, Weeden and Newcombe had simply disappeared. I knew the identities of the trappers when I was writing the story in 2004. But, because their names were expunged from the official Ontario Provincial Police file on the case, I decided that it would be too risky to name them. But the CP story did indentify them as Clem Nabigon and his son Herb who was seventeen at the time. Clem Nabigon died in 1982 but Herb is very much alive and resides in Sudbury.

Harriet (Newcombe) Bouillon who is Merle Newcombe’s step-daughter finally agreed to talk about the case. Like most people who know something about the disappearance, Harriet believes that the men met with foul play. She made a very interesting comment about her dad’s wallet that surprised me. Some time in 1968 two Chapleau men, Walter Telik and Hamil Robinson were staying at Newcombe’s camp. For whatever reason, one of them looked under the mattress of one of the beds. Hidden there was Merle Newcombe’s wallet containing his identification and two dollars. After looking into this new development, the O.P.P. concluded that the wallet had been placed there by Newcombe shortly before he vanished. The police further concluded, probably correctly, that no one had thought to look under that mattress at any time during the search. However Harriet told Pat Hewitt that she believed the wallet had been “planted” under the mattress. Planted when, by whom and for what reason she did not say.

And finally, completely unrelated to the anniversary, in late September of this year, I received a call from a lady named Grace Pettingill who lives in Lapeer, Michigan. She is the daughter of Merle Newcombe by a previous marriage. The disappearance has bothered her for all of these years. In an attempt to get some answers and some closure, she Googled “Merle Newcombe” and my book came up. She had never heard of the book and it did provide her with some information. Grace and her daughter Marshall Bay of Decatur, Michigan have made a pilgrimage to Amyot and, on October 23 they will stand on the site near Mile 106 where their father and grandfather were last seen alive.

Hopefully Pat Hewitt’s story will persuade some person or persons to come forward with new information about what happened in that October fifty years ago. If this happens, some closure will come to the Newcombe family. George Weeden was a bachelor and I know of no living relatives that survive him. Regardless, the case continues to mystify many people even today.

Information on how to acquire Bill McLeod’s book on the Chapleau Game Preserve and his latest book “Murder in the Schoolhouse” may be obtained by telephoning Bill at 705-522-3858. Murder in the Schoolhouse is the story of the 1954 murder of Steve Klapouchak, the Dalton school teacher.

NOTE: Bill McLeod, one of my oldest friends from Chapleau, Ontario, where we were both raised, is a retired professor of Business Administration at Cambrian College, Sudbury, Ontario. Thanks Bill for providing this update... mjm