After searching for more than two weeks, the body of missing Greater Sudbury city councillor Michael Vagnini was discovered in the late afternoon on Feb. 13. His truck and remains were located shortly before 2:30 p.m. at a seasonal residence on Reserve Camp Road on Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation.
The owner of the residence had gone to check on the property, and called the OPP, who then contacted GSPS.
While a full investigation into the disappearance and death of the Ward 2 city councillor has yet to be released, Det. Staff-Sgt Barry Ornella shared with Sudbury.com a few preliminary details of that investigation.
The death investigation is now led by the coroner’s office, which Ornella said will give police a much better indication of what “may have led up to his disappearance and ultimately, what caused his death.”
Ornella provided Sudbury.com with a bit of the timeline of Vagnini’s movements on the day he disappeared, Jan. 27. In the early stages of the investigation, when Vagnini was first reported missing, police released information that the local politician may be confused in some way, having missed his prescribed medication.
Vagnini was last with people during the afternoon of Jan. 27, when social media posts confirm he visited the participants of a weekly Freedom protest in the York Street parking lot across from Bell Park.
However, his behaviour at that event prompted one of the participants to follow the councillor’s truck when he left the demonstration, Ornella said, fearing for his ability to drive safely.
Ornella said the participant told police Vagnini had acted quite confused at the event, which is why she followed him in her vehicle. She said she stopped following him in the area of McCharles Lake as she felt confident in his ability to drive safely.
“She didn't see it necessary to follow him further down the McCharles Lake Road to his final destination,” said Ornella, “Based on that information, we did an extensive canvass and video canvass of the area. and it was during that step in the investigation where a homeowner provided us with their home video footage, which showed Mr. Vagnini’s vehicle travelling by the residence, a matter of minutes after that last sighting by the member of the public that had followed him to the area.”
That was the last time Vagnini was seen alive.
Given the information released by police about Vagnini’s health and mental state prior to his disappearance, we asked police if more details could be released that might help explain the city councillor’s behaviour.
“It wouldn't be proper to divulge that extended information at this point,” he said. “We're at the very preliminary stages of the death investigation, which is led by the coroner's office. And most often we get a much better understanding as a result of the post mortem and through the coroner's investigation, so that is where I remain hopeful that we will get those answers through those processes.”
Vagnini, who was 62 years old, was located deceased a short distance from his vehicle, but Ornella wouldn’t say whether he was outside on the ground or in a building. While he could not speak to how long Vagnini had been there, he said they were able to identify him visually at the scene. “And, obviously, we were able to identify his vehicle as well with the license plate and the features of the motor vehicle.”
He also would not discuss the location of Vagnini’s remains in relation to his vehicle, or give any indication of why Vagnini may have been at the location.
The area where Vagnini was found was in the general area of the search effort mounted for several days by GSPS and OPP.
“In a broad term, yes, it was in the general Panache Lake area, appreciating that geographically, Panache Lake is a large body of water with many points of access,” said Ornella, noting that it was also located at a private residence, where “vehicles and single members of the public would not have necessarily travelled, going into private driveways or things of that nature.”
He said that “might help explain why there was a period of time before he was discovered.”
Ornella said he would have to check GPS records of the OPP helicopter to confirm whether or not it had flown over the area where Vagnini was ultimately discovered.
“But we’re aware the McCharles Lake and Panache Lake area was a focus for the search that was concentrated on by the OPP helicopter.”
It was an extensive investigation, said Ornella, noting it included “everything from our forensics unit to patrol operations or major crime team, Missing Persons Unit, our rural division, our search and rescue personnel or media relations, and our traffic management unit,” he said. “So I would say that there were very few units in our service that did not have some part in the investigation at one point or another.”
When Vagnini was reported missing the evening on Jan. 27, Ornella said the GSPS patrol division was engaged and began searching known locations.
“That effort continued into the early morning hours,” he said, and the following morning, police began using “what authorities are afforded to the police under the Missing Persons Act.”
One of those steps was to contact Sirius XM, which Vagnini’s truck was equipped with.
“Sirius XM attempted to communicate with his vehicle at 2:45 a.m., the morning of Sunday, January 28,” said Ornella, “And at that time, the vehicle was not communicating back, which suggested that it was without power, so that was roughly a nine-hour period of time between his last known sighting to that first attempt at communicating with his motor vehicle.”
Ornella said they began allocating resources for ground and air search through “various areas of the community.”
On Jan. 30, GSPS began their dedicated tipline, which eventually generated more than 60 tips, said Ornella.
Though they called for the OPP helicopter, the weather was not favourable until Feb. 2.
Regardless, “each day, we had officers deployed by vehicle and any areas that were identified as places worthy of a search, we deployed either ground search or drone operators to do aerial searches of identified areas,” said Ornella.
After a search of the Moonglo neighbourhood of Sudbury, which did not elicit any new information, GSPS continued regular contact with service providers “looking for any signs of life in terms of financial information, medical information, the motor vehicle and the electronics aboard the vehicle that would have assisted with pinpointing a location,” said Ornella.
Police also shared information about Vagnini across Ontario and Canada through the national police databanks, he said.
“That essentially brings us to the events of yesterday (Feb. 13), when he was discovered,” said Ornella. GSPS then entered into a parallel investigation, “conducting our missing persons investigation in conjunction with the OPP conducting the death investigation.”
One aspect that Ornella said surprised him was the community support that went into a parallel search for Vagnini by members of the public.
“It's something I have never seen in my time. It was truly remarkable how the public passionately dove into trying to find Mr. Vagnini’s vehicle, take it upon themselves to search high and low and do everything they could. And also the support they showed our police service was remarkable,” he said.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com