A Calgary couple married almost seven decades stayed side by side until the very end, their bodies found just metres apart along an isolated, bush-country road not far from where their car seems to have run out of gas.
Grandson James Graham said the family is struggling with losing Allen and Margaret Berrington on the remote Alberta pathway, but can take comfort in the fact the two died as closely as they had lived.
“I have never known them to have words with each other, much less any fights. They were as unified as any two people I’ve ever known,” he said after an emotional gathering with dozens of family members.
“They were discovered together and we take great comfort in the fact they were together at the end.”
RCMP say the couple’s silver Chrysler Sebring was found by two dirt bike riders Wednesday night about 100 km northwest of the city.
The gas tank was empty. The pair, both in their 90s, was found three kilometres south of the car, after apparently trying to walk out of the bush, RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said.
“That area is very isolated and very difficult to get into,” said Webb. “It would have been difficult to get that vehicle even into that area.”
He said police don’t suspect foul play. Why the couple ended up in the middle of the bush, however, remains a mystery.
“We’ve got nothing to say exactly why they were there. That will be part of the investigation,” Webb said.
“But at this time we have no reason to believe that they were there for any particular purpose. More likely just confusion or getting lost.”
The pair was reported missing by family members on Monday, four days after a get-together at their southwest home for Margaret’s 91st birthday.
When family members went to check on the couple, food was still sitting out uncovered and the dishes were undone.
They initially suspected the couple, prone to routine, had gone to a casino on the Tsuu T’ina Nation on the city’s southern outskirts for a birthday buffet dinner.
But a helicopter search conducted in the area turned up nothing and the pair did not appear on casino security video.