Police identify man found dead at Saint John encampment; foul play not suspected

The Saint John Police Force is investigating a sudden death after the body of a man was found at a tent encampment in the city on Tuesday.

Emergency crews responded to the encampment near the intersection of the Courtenay Bay Causeway and Crown Street around 8:45 p.m.

“On arrival emergency personnel confirmed that a person was deceased,” says Saint John Police Staff Sgt. Matthew Weir. “The Forensic Identification Section and the Coroner's Office were called to investigate. The deceased was transported to the Saint John Regional Hospital, where an autopsy will be scheduled.”

Following further investigation, the man has been identified as 44-year-old Jamie Langille.

“It's always disheartening when this type of thing happens in the community,” says Weir. “It's hard for the families, and it's hard for the friends of the individuals that know them. It's unfortunately the reality of what we have in our city where there's a number of encampments set up that we respond to on almost a daily basis.”

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Major Crimes, along with the Coroner’s Office, continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding Langille’s death. Police say it is not believed to be criminal in nature.

Remembering Langille

Co-founder of Street Team SJ -- a non-profit group that assists and helps feed the city’s unhoused -- Ivan McCullough says he spoke with Langille this past weekend.

He says interactions with Langille were positive as he was always grateful for the services being provided by Street Team SJ.

“He was the kind of person who, if the only thing he had on his back was his shirt, and you needed a shirt, he would give you his shirt,” says McCullough. “That's who Jamie was.”

He also had a sense of humor. McCullough recalls a joke made by Langille related to him having to have his left leg amputated from the knee down in January after suffering frostbite while unhoused.

“I recently had a knee surgery and he asked me how I was doing,” McCullough says. “He looked at me with a big smile on his face and he goes, ‘Yeah, I'm still waiting for my leg to grow back.’ He said it so tongue-in-cheek. He knew his situation but he was just happy to speak to us, see us, sit down, have a meal, crack a joke and just carry on his way.”

McCullough says the unhoused situation has worsened recently. At the start of the year, Street Team SJ was helping feed 24 unhoused people; that number is now up to 40 with still plenty more to help.

He says, while it may not look like much is happening in the public eye, there is plenty being done behind the scenes in Saint John to address the crisis.

“The absolute majority of the people that we deal with on a daily basis that we speak to are grateful,” says McCullough. “They're kind-hearted, they help each other out, and they do their best to look out for each other in their little communities. They're not looking for confrontation and they're not looking to make problems.”

He hopes more solutions are made public soon to prevent similar incidents.

“Had those parts of our system been in place, he'd probably be still out there making other people happy or smiling and living his life to the best that he could,” McCullough says. 

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