THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, TUFSDAY, JUNE 15. 1993 D8 irief over son's death turned Toronto cop into wife-killer, friends say TRACY NESDOLY TORONTO SUN Mattison was arrested on March 26, 1992, outside his girlfriend's home. On the promise of a plea to manslaughter, he admitted what he'd done. McGreal said his friend probably lost his mind, temporarily, because in the minds of Nicole's friends after she disappeared. He said she probably took a dive into Niagara Falls, that she had a "thing" for it.
"He said, 'Kevin, do you know you can fall over Niagara Falls and break up into a thousand pieces? McGreal recalls. "It was Dec. 21.1 said Dave, you should have said something before now," says McGreal. He told his friend to come in and fill out a missing-persons report. Mattison was so shaken and jittery, the 1 5-minute job took two hours.
Mattison planted ideas of suicide of the grief. cally cut her body into pieces, wrapping it in plastic to avoid getting blood in the trunk of the car, taking it to the garage of an empty Pickering home they owned, using a knife and a hacksaw to dissect it. He severed her head and put it in a tin can. He cut off her fingertips to avoid the commonest means of identification. He put her parts into bags and threw her into a canal in Burlington, west of Toronto.
Children found a thigh on a beach in nearby Hamilton a month after Nicole disappeared; an arm washed ashore on Mother's Day. One of Nicole's closest friends told police she feared the couple would kill each other. Nicole once stabbed her husband with a knife, wounding him in the lower abdomen, and threatened suicide. Even their remaining son knew things had changed for the worst. "My childhood was normal, happy," says Eric Mattison, 25, an officer with Niagara Regional police.
"It changed. I told her she should leave him I could see where it was leading." The turbulent relationship was further strained by the responsibility of looking after their dead son's children, now ages 1 1 and 9. Months before he shot her, Mattison told a psychiatrist he "would rather do five years for killing her than 1 5 years living with her." He was sentenced to 10. Mattison kept the life he developed in the aftermath of his son's death away from Nicole. He had a girlfriend and didn't tell her, choosing instead to stay out all night without explanations.
When she would hysterically demand answers, he'd laugh at her, his son said. "This thing should never have happened," said Toronto police Constable Kevin McGreal, a 23-year veteran of the force who worked under Mattison. "Everybody knew what was going on the whole damn station knew." It was McGreal whom Mattison called to report that his wife had been missing since Dec. 2. OING AWAY? After their son killed, Nicole Mattison watched her husband change.
The grief overwhelmed both of them at first, just after the fatal car crash in 1 989. But she later told one of his friends she was managing to get a grip on it. He couldn't. The loving husband who was once a provider, supporter, and friend became an aloof philanderer, "a liar, and finally a killer who butchered her body and covered his tracks to the best of his police-jrained ability. David Mattison, 55, a police officer since 1966, a sergeant since 1980, pleaded guilty last week to the manslaughter of his wife of 33 years.
He said he shot her with his service revolver in the midst of a fight in December 1991. He said that when she ran at him with a kitchen knife he grabbed his gun. He admitted he then systemati Take advantage of one of these services we offer to Gazette subscribers! Vacation Pack: We can have your papers held while you're away and delivered upon your return in a free canvas tote bag. Donation Pack: While you're away, why not donate your newspapers to one of these worthy causes: Sun Youth, the Old Brewery Mission or the PSBGM Adult Literacy Program. Weekend Service: Going away for the weekend? We can have your papers held for the weekend, and delivered by your Fishermen's aid is month behind schedule EOIN KENNY CANADIAN PRESS carrier on his or her next visit.
Call us for details at 987-2400. qualify for assistance if they agree to skills training. Workers in plants that process at least 25 per cent groundfish will also be included. Simmons said Fisheries Department application forms to determine who is eligible for up to $406 a week in compensation were printed and then scrapped. New forms are just now being sent out and it could be another month or more before fishermen and fish-processing plant workers find out if they will get help.
And have a great time! A Head Start Every Day I T- months so far more than two months." Crosbie reacted angrily to questions from Simmons in the Commons, calling his comments "grossly exaggerated." He also took a kick at the Liberal government of Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells. "Why doesn't (Simmons) make constructive suggestions?" Crosbie fired back. "Why doesn't he suggest to the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador that they do something to assist? There's no law that stops the provincial governments of Atlantic Canada assisting. Why don't they supplement our assistance?" The bailout package was put together four months after Crosbie slashed groundfish quotas by up to 70 per cent. It's similar to one set up last year to help about 20,000 people on the east coast of Newfoundland affected by a two-year closure of the northern cod fishery.
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