Dovi Mattered As All of Us Do
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DOVI AND HIS LIFE MATTERED AS ALL OF US AND OUR LIVES DO
His name is Dovi Henry. Dovi was intellectually gifted, a kind, generous and funny person, who always had a smile on his face. When he was 4-years-old, he wanted to open a chocolate factory. Dovi was excited when his teacher Vivienne told him that he would catch up in French by grade 10. He was in grade 5 gifted French Immersion. Dovi was an avid soccer player, who was a member of the Ottawa Internationals and the Ottawa Royals Soccer Teams, and also played on his high school volleyball team. He loved chess, words and purple flowers, and was thrilled to be born on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo). As a budding writer / poet and spoken word artist, Dovi started a poetry club at his high school and would often participate in poetry jams and artistic events from his late teens onwards. He graduated from Glebe High School in Ottawa and attended the University of Toronto and Ottawa. Dovi was not a perfect person. He made his share of mistakes. Even so, he and his life mattered.
Dovi had just turned 23-years-old when his body was found at the West Beach near the Ontario Place Marina on July 27th, 2014. My sister, Maureen Henry, Dovi’s mom, was determined to find him after we lost contact with him sometime after his birthday on May 5th, 2014. We know Dovi was still living in Toronto from a conversation he had with me his Aunt, Cheryl Henry, on April 28th, 2014 through Facebook. He mentioned that he was on his way to Ottawa the next day, April 29th, 2014.
Dovi’s Uncle, Geoffrey, saw him and spoke with him as he was going to the Mercury Lounge in Ottawa’s Byward Market. A family friend also saw him during that time. We know he left Ottawa and returned to Toronto sometime between the mid to end of May 2014. We never saw or heard from him again.
As I mentioned earlier, my sister, Maureen, was determined to find Dovi. We were concerned with how the police treated young black males and we contacted the Salvation Army, who offered a Family Tracing Service. They performed a national search and did not locate Dovi. We called the police, who came to my residence in Toronto and did not record the visit. Maureen contacted the Toronto Police and requested that they go to a Frat House on Lowther Avenue and check if he was there. The Toronto Police officers reported back that the people at the Frat House mentioned that Dovi left around the beginning of August 2014. Maureen also contacted the morgues, jails, social services and hospitals. None of these efforts resulted in any contact with my nephew. Throughout 2015, we continued to ask Dovi’s friends whether they had heard from him or knew where he was without success. We continued to contact the police in Toronto and they kept sending us to the Ottawa Police. When the Ottawa Missing Persons’ section was contacted, they were rude discouraging us from reporting Dovi missing.
Around March 2016, we heard that he may have gone to Germany where he had a friend. When we checked with his friend in Germany, she had not heard from him. When I went to the police station at 14 Division to report Dovi as missing at the beginning of April 2016, I received attitude from the police officer at the front desk and was informed that I would need to wait about three hours for a car to be available and suggested that I call them instead from home.
The week I was to go to visit the Frat House on Lowther Avenue, Maureen did a Google search for unclaimed black male remains and was directed to an OPP website for missing and unidentified persons. She called me on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, to say she found a posting of a person that she felt for some reason sounded like Dovi. She contacted the OPP regarding the post. On Thursday, April 28, 2016, Maureen called me to say that she had spoken with the officer(s). They requested dental records, which were sent. On Friday, April 29, 2016, I received a call from my sister that the OPP Officers had shown up at her front door to inform her that the dental records matched and that the body found almost two years ago was my nephew Dovi’s.
We have since met with the Detective responsible for Dovi’s case at 14 Division, who had no records of either Maureen’s or my phone calls regarding Dovi and met with the Coroners Representatives. We celebrated what would have been Dovi’s 25th birthday on May 5, 2016, cremated his bones on May 7, 2016, and held a memorial gathering with his family, friends and artistic colleagues at the Mercury Lounge on May 28, 2016.
The police are not going to investigate how Dovi ended up deceased since the Coroner’s Office concluded that his death is undetermined. We need your support to hire a good Lawyer and Investigative team, who are interested in and ready to take on Dovi’s case. The cost is $450.00 per hour. Please help us to retrace my nephew’s last steps. DOVI AND HIS LIFE MATTERED AS ALL OF US AND OUR LIVES DO.
Your donations will not only help us to find out what really happened to Dovi and give us real closure, but also assist us to bring awareness to the treatment of families of the missing and the treatment of individuals who are missing. Also important to us are the many unclaimed missing people in the morgues and how their situations are handled.
His name is Dovi Henry. Dovi was intellectually gifted, a kind, generous and funny person, who always had a smile on his face. When he was 4-years-old, he wanted to open a chocolate factory. Dovi was excited when his teacher Vivienne told him that he would catch up in French by grade 10. He was in grade 5 gifted French Immersion. Dovi was an avid soccer player, who was a member of the Ottawa Internationals and the Ottawa Royals Soccer Teams, and also played on his high school volleyball team. He loved chess, words and purple flowers, and was thrilled to be born on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo). As a budding writer / poet and spoken word artist, Dovi started a poetry club at his high school and would often participate in poetry jams and artistic events from his late teens onwards. He graduated from Glebe High School in Ottawa and attended the University of Toronto and Ottawa. Dovi was not a perfect person. He made his share of mistakes. Even so, he and his life mattered.
Dovi had just turned 23-years-old when his body was found at the West Beach near the Ontario Place Marina on July 27th, 2014. My sister, Maureen Henry, Dovi’s mom, was determined to find him after we lost contact with him sometime after his birthday on May 5th, 2014. We know Dovi was still living in Toronto from a conversation he had with me his Aunt, Cheryl Henry, on April 28th, 2014 through Facebook. He mentioned that he was on his way to Ottawa the next day, April 29th, 2014.
Dovi’s Uncle, Geoffrey, saw him and spoke with him as he was going to the Mercury Lounge in Ottawa’s Byward Market. A family friend also saw him during that time. We know he left Ottawa and returned to Toronto sometime between the mid to end of May 2014. We never saw or heard from him again.
As I mentioned earlier, my sister, Maureen, was determined to find Dovi. We were concerned with how the police treated young black males and we contacted the Salvation Army, who offered a Family Tracing Service. They performed a national search and did not locate Dovi. We called the police, who came to my residence in Toronto and did not record the visit. Maureen contacted the Toronto Police and requested that they go to a Frat House on Lowther Avenue and check if he was there. The Toronto Police officers reported back that the people at the Frat House mentioned that Dovi left around the beginning of August 2014. Maureen also contacted the morgues, jails, social services and hospitals. None of these efforts resulted in any contact with my nephew. Throughout 2015, we continued to ask Dovi’s friends whether they had heard from him or knew where he was without success. We continued to contact the police in Toronto and they kept sending us to the Ottawa Police. When the Ottawa Missing Persons’ section was contacted, they were rude discouraging us from reporting Dovi missing.
Around March 2016, we heard that he may have gone to Germany where he had a friend. When we checked with his friend in Germany, she had not heard from him. When I went to the police station at 14 Division to report Dovi as missing at the beginning of April 2016, I received attitude from the police officer at the front desk and was informed that I would need to wait about three hours for a car to be available and suggested that I call them instead from home.
The week I was to go to visit the Frat House on Lowther Avenue, Maureen did a Google search for unclaimed black male remains and was directed to an OPP website for missing and unidentified persons. She called me on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, to say she found a posting of a person that she felt for some reason sounded like Dovi. She contacted the OPP regarding the post. On Thursday, April 28, 2016, Maureen called me to say that she had spoken with the officer(s). They requested dental records, which were sent. On Friday, April 29, 2016, I received a call from my sister that the OPP Officers had shown up at her front door to inform her that the dental records matched and that the body found almost two years ago was my nephew Dovi’s.
We have since met with the Detective responsible for Dovi’s case at 14 Division, who had no records of either Maureen’s or my phone calls regarding Dovi and met with the Coroners Representatives. We celebrated what would have been Dovi’s 25th birthday on May 5, 2016, cremated his bones on May 7, 2016, and held a memorial gathering with his family, friends and artistic colleagues at the Mercury Lounge on May 28, 2016.
The police are not going to investigate how Dovi ended up deceased since the Coroner’s Office concluded that his death is undetermined. We need your support to hire a good Lawyer and Investigative team, who are interested in and ready to take on Dovi’s case. The cost is $450.00 per hour. Please help us to retrace my nephew’s last steps. DOVI AND HIS LIFE MATTERED AS ALL OF US AND OUR LIVES DO.
Your donations will not only help us to find out what really happened to Dovi and give us real closure, but also assist us to bring awareness to the treatment of families of the missing and the treatment of individuals who are missing. Also important to us are the many unclaimed missing people in the morgues and how their situations are handled.
Organizer
Cheryl Henry
Organizer
Toronto, ON