Corinne Cook thought her oldest child had finally silenced the voices that tormented him for far too long.
Leading up to his disappearance, Joshua Slauenwhite had endured a nightmarish four years. He had fought to overcome an addiction to prescription painkillers, overcame two suicide attempts and multiple stays at the South Shore Regional Hospital’s psychiatric unit.
But it seemed to Cook that for a period of sevenmonths her boy was starting to overcome schizoaffective disorder, a conditionencompassing both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder symptoms. He was painting again,regaining his quirky sense of humour and feeling increasingly optimistic.
But on the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2017, he walked off the family property in Farmington, Lunenburg County. Moments before that, Slauenwhite had declined his mother’s invitation to join her for a trip to Bridgewater.
Surveillance camera footage from a nearby convenience store, captured the same day he disappeared, is all Cook and the RCMP have to go on. Slauenwhite purchased cigarettes, an energy drink and a sandwich before he was on his way. He has not been seen since.
Cook is devastated. She’s also angry. Her anger is aimed both at the RCMP and the province’s mental health-care system, accusing both of abandoning her son.
“My son never had a counsellor he could go to, he was left on his own,” said Cook. “We couldn’t afford his treatment. We had to get help from a neighbour to pay for it. His doctors should have known he was too sick to work, but they let it happen and showed no concern.”
Cook says over the past month she’s been attempting to talk to someone at the Lunenburg RCMP detachment about her son’s file. She says she was told by a Lunenburg RCMP officer in January that the media would soon be notified of her son’s unsolved disappearance. The news release, prompting the public to help in the search, was issued by police on Tuesday.
She believes the police stopped looking for her son two days after he went missing.
nd rescue team arrived on her rural property the day after he was reported missing and the operation wrapped up the following day.
“You can’t help but think that all of this has so much to do with your social stature. If me or my son had money, he would have gotten the care he deserved. The RCMP wouldn’t have given up on us this early and my son’s disappearance would have been all over the news.
“It’s somebody’s son. Joshua’s my son and you’re fighting to get a call-back from the cops.”
The RCMP would not provide details on its efforts to track down Slauenwhite.
Cook has taken it upon herself to find her boy. Back in the fall, she rounded up a small group of friends and family members, including her daughter, and for eight straight weeks covered hundreds of kilometres of ground trying to find her son. They continue to plaster missing person posters at various locations across the South Shore, holding out hope for a breakthrough.
“I have to believe he’s still alive,” Cook said through tears.
“He’s got a little brother that he loves. But he’s a danger to himself if he’s not medicated.”
There was a time when her son showed promise. He moved to Red Deer, Alta., in 2009, where he found part-time work as a computer technician and was a student at Red Deer College, enrolled in its visual arts program. He also got married there. But his illness surfaced and he turned to prescription painkillers. His marriage and life fell apart.
Cook says the family shared the cost of bringing her son home four years ago. The first six months he was home he spent in and out of the psychiatric unit at South Shore Regional Hospital. Two years ago, he was finally diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Before then he had been fed a concoction of medications, including venlafaxine, olanzapine and lorazepam.
His paranoia became so extreme that it was impossible for him to hold down a job. For a period of time, he worked at Bridgewater’s Michelin plant and on several occasions Cook recalls driving her son to and from work and he’d be in tears.
“His pants were soaked with urine and he was crying like a baby, saying, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” During a stint working at A& W in Bridgewater he became so distraught he walked off the job without telling anyone. An RCMP officer eventually found him wandering along Highway 103.
“Nobody listened. He complained to his doctors that people were after him. He was terrified. He pleaded for help with his addiction. But there was no support.
“He ended up living with me. I did my best, but it wasn’t enough.”
The Chronicle Herald enquired with the Nova Scotia Health Authority for details about Slauenwhite’s case, but no information was provided.