Wife of P.E.I. man found dead at Province House says police, health system failed him

Warning: This story deals with serious mental health concerns and suicide.

The family of a man who took his own life at Province House, the historic seat of the P.E.I. Legislature, says police and health officials failed him. Now, they're looking for answers.

Laura Knockwood says she believes her 34-year-old husband, Tyler Knockwood, would still be alive today if officials had heeded her warnings. 

"I told them that he was going to die," Knockwood said from her Charlottetown home. 

"I didn't feel good about the situation, I didn't know where Tyler was, and I knew that he was alone and I knew that he wasn't well." 

Knockwood describes her husband as her best friend, the father of their two children, and a large man who commanded a room at 6 feet, four inches.

A member of Lennox Island First Nation, he had found a new passion working on the restoration of Province House. It was a building he felt so attached to that he donated an eagle feather to Parks Canada, which operates the building, to be used during a smudging ceremony. 

But Knockwood said her husband struggled with mental health and addictions from an early age. 

"He was really trying, you know, everything that he could do to grow himself as a better person. And he really tried, he fought hard," said Knockwood.

"For Tyler, there was a lot of stigma around being an Indigenous man with mental health issues."

Over the last three years, Knockwood said she noticed her husband becoming more reserved and withdrawn.

But that was just the beginning.

In mid-January, Knockwood said, her husband's extreme paranoia prompted him to leave their home, three days before he took his own life.

Hours later, she received a text that he had hurt himself. Tyler called 911 and was taken to hospital.