Murder in Paradise: Musician Tempest Gale was killed by someone

Tempest Gale

By Salim Jiwa

HORNBY ISLAND, B.C. – The worst fear of some 900 people living on normally tranquil Hornby Island was that someone had murdered beloved musician and entertainer Tempest Grace Gale.

That fear came true on Friday when RCMP said an autopsy concluded her death was caused by foul play and the first murder investigation in recorded history is now on at the Island paradise..

Island residents are stunned by the news even though they all believed that is exactly what had happened when the body of the 25-year-old was fished out of the water on Wednesday morning, 45 minutes after her boyfriend and parents made a frantic search of the dock area where they lived.

“As a result of the autopsy, foul play is suspected and this investigation is being treated as a homicide. Details on the cause of death will not be released at this time,” said Const. Tammy Douglas.

“On Wednesday, they searched for about 45 minutes, then they found her in the water at the edge of the dock – the water there is about 20 feet deep,” said marina owner Matthew Fredbeck.

Police immediately took a man in his 40s into custody and questioned him before letting him go. The man was feared by Islanders because he had been there in his juvenile years during a time when there was a group home there for troubled youth.

On Thursday police escorted “the person of interest” to his boat so he could pick up some belongings and then let him go his own way. Cops may conduct a forensic examination of the 40-foot boat that they are holding back.

The man had returned to Hornby about a week ago, said Fredbeck in an interview with Digital Journal.

Since then the man had stalked Gale’s father and mother to the point where they sought shelter at a friend’s house overnight. He had also traded insults with the young woman who ultimately ended up killed.

“He was pretty overwhelming to everyone, just an obnoxious person, he stalked her parents because he thought someone had spilled Coca-Cola on his boat,” said Fredbeck, who owns the Ford’s Cove Marina – 500 feet from where two boats were parked on the government dock on which Gale lived with her boyfriend with the other one occupied by her parents.

Her parents, Michael Gale and mom Jazzmyre Corrigan, were partners in the family band ‘Killer Bagels.’

The man also brought his boat over in summer and this time the weather prevented him from continuing his journey so he docked his boat at the same place where Gale and her family lived. There were a number of insults traded back and forth between Gale’s family and the man.

“He lived as a teenager on Hornby in a group home,” said Fredbeck about the man.

“Police need a witness to this, ” he said.

“She was a very popular girl who was loved by everyone.”

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