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The kind neighboursMiddi and Peggy Huneault lived next door to the train station. They arrived on the scene to find Harold Dent mortally wounded on the floor of the station. Dent died in Peggy's arms less than an hour later.
The stationmaster
Canadian Pacific Railway stationmaster Bill Heintz , his wife, and daughter Gladys, lived at the train station. Mrs. Heintz was an active member of the Navan Women's Institute.
Heintz sold Miki a train ticket for the 10:18 a.m. train bound for Ottawa. Following the shooting just minutes later, Heintz called the Findlays and asked them to call the police.
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Gertrude Findlay1970
Navan, Ontario
42
The telephone operatorsGertrude and Marjorie Findlay ran the local telephone exchange out of their family home on the ‘South Road' in Navan.
43
Findlay home1940
Navan, Ontario
44
At approximately 10:00 a.m. on June 20th the Findlays received a call from Bill Heintz that ‘a soldier had been shot' at the train station. They immediately put out the call to alert police and Navan residents about the shooting.Acting Sergeant Allan Stringer, brother-in-law of the Findlays, was staying with them when he overheard the call from Heintz. Stringer was one of the first people to find Constable Dent lying wounded on the floor of the station.
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Dr. Irwin, his wife and daughter1940
Navan, Ontario
46
The good doctorDr. David Campbell Irwin got the news of the shooting within minutes.
47
Dr. David Irwin's house1990
Navan, Ontario
48
His house was just east of the station.He met George and Eric Smith on the hill, and they arrived at the crime scene together where he tended to the dying officer. Later he went to Spears' Bush where he pronounced John Miki dead.
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Dr. David Irwin and family1940
Navan, Ontario
50
Tragically, Dr. Irwin was killed by a train in January 1944 while driving through a level crossing near the Bradley Farm at Blackburn, just west of Navan.51
Gladys (Scharfe) Eggert1940
Navan, Ontario
52
The young witnessLittle Gladys Scharfe, along with her mother, Jennie Findlay Scharfe, was visiting her aunts – the Findlays – in Navan on the morning of the murder.
She was with her aunts when the call came in from Bill Heintz, and witnessed two of her aunts raising the alarm to inform the police and villagers that there'd been a shooting at the station.
Her aunt and uncle, Biddy (Joanne) and Allan Stringer were also visiting the Findlay home. Gladys saw her uncle, Allan Stringer, jump into his car and race west down Smith Road in response to the alarm.
Gladys's father, Robert Scharfe, owned a farm between Cumberland and Navan on Frank Kenny Road. Gladys married Werner Eggert and they raised three children.
53
Constable Thomas Stoneman He was a detective from the Ottawa Police Force.1940
Ottawa, Ontario
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