‘I was in shock then and still am now’: Father of two found dead in tent at Dartmouth homeless encampment

Right away, he knew something was terribly wrong. 

John Cordeau poked his head into his buddy’s tent and was immediately taken aback by a foul smell.  He yelled out Dan’s name but Dan didn’t answer.

He reached for Dan’s leg to try to wake up his friend. He got no response and Dan’s leg was “ice cold.” Dan’s face had turned black.

“I yelled and screamed, and nothing. He’d probably been there for a day and a half.”  

Cordeau yelled to a neighbour to call 911.

Earlier this week, Dan died alone in his tent. For six months, he’d been living in a tent at a homeless encampment on Wyse Road in Dartmouth, according to Cordeau.  The camping site sits behind a shelter run by the Nova Scotia government. Formerly the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, the site was converted to a shelter last spring. 

Halifax Regional Police confirmed that officers were called to the encampment on Tuesday at about 2:45 a.m. A man was found dead there, according to the police. The police did not release the man’s name or cause of death. Spokesperson Const. John MacLeod said in an email that the man’s death is not considered suspicious at this time.

Cordeau said people at the encampment were preoccupied with survival in the hours before Dan’s body was discovered. Wind gusts in Halifax had reached as high as 100 kilometres an hour on Monday. People were doing their best to keep their tents grounded and their belongings together, said Cordeau. 

“It was very, very windy that day and there was a lot of stuff going on,” said Cordeau. “I really wasn’t thinking about Dan.”

Cordeau and another woman at the campsite said that Dan had been using a propane heater to keep warm in his tent. They’re concerned that he may have died from carbon monoxide poisoning.  

“I was in shock then and still am now,” said Cordeau. “He was a very quiet soul, a gentle giant.”

Dan’s tent has since been removed. Piles of garbage, including two empty propane tanks, lay all around where it had been. 

Cordeau has been living in a tent at the encampment for the past three months. He wants to get off the street but he can’t find shelter, he said. The homeless population in Halifax continues to climb while advocates accuse the province and the city of not doing enough to address the crisis.  

Dan was in his 50s and had two children, according to people living at the encampment.

Chasity Crowell was checking up on some friends at the camp site when the man was discovered. She said she was close with Dan. Crowell said that Dan was trying to get back on his feet and had been working construction two days a week. 

Crowell said he was quiet and had many friends. She said no one knew his last name. 

“He was an amazing person, huge heart, I’ve seen him crawl out of his tent grumpy, for sure, but he was just a genuinely good person,” said Crowell. “He didn’t do anything to hurt anyone.”

Crowell said that her friend was in the process of getting a housing support worker to try to get off the streets.

SaltWire contacted the Department of Community Services to find out whether there are empty rooms at the Wyse Street shelter but we never got an answer.

We also asked why Dan wasn’t in one of the rooms. A department spokesperson said it couldn’t comment on a specific case, but “that outreach workers are working tirelessly to help people experiencing homelessness connect to shelters and supports.”