Darreld Rayner died in “unusual circumstances”.
After 10 years of not knowing what happened to him, and going through the shock of dealing with the discovery of his remains recently, his family are now preparing to bury him and move forward with their lives.
“They have now closed the investigation,” Brent Rayner, Darreld’s son, said last week. “Unless someone comes forward with more information.”
It’s been tough for the family during the intervening decade.
“We’ve had to live with this for all that time, and now we’ll have to live with it for the rest of our lives, not knowing,” he said.
“But we know what didn’t happen. We know how he didn’t die. There’s talk around that he committed suicide. But people who knew him know he would never have taken his own life. We know that.”
Rayner was such a family man, Brent said, pointing out that his father was looking forward to happy family events like a graduation coming up, and everyday things as well.
“Dad was going making an appointment or had an appointment that day with the doctors to get his stitches out and was waiting to get the go ahead to get back to work,” Brent said.
“And if he was going out there to take his own life, he wouldn’t have taken his dog with him. He was always optimistic about life. There’s no way in hell he would have done that. I know it. That’s what keeps me going.”
However, a decade of rumours about Rayner have hurt his family, Brent said.
Now, with Rayner’s remains finally found, the family are going to hold a memorial event in the upper part Centennial Hall on May 12 so that everyone can remember the husband, the father, the grandfather, and the friend: the important part that Darreld Rayner played in so many lives.
Doors will open at noon, and the celebration will begin at 1 p.m., he said. Refreshments will be available in the lower hall afterwards.