January 20, 2003
It was one of those sad stories destined to hit the headlines only once before fading back once more to its status quo of obscurity. "76-year-old found in foul, locked basement".
On the day of the discovery, the small town of Willow Beach in Georgina was displaying a Christmas card scene. Lights wavered in the wintry wind down on the main street. Buoyed by the weatherman, the children were looking for a white Christmas. There was a special feeling in the air that only alights once a year. It was Dec. 8, 2002.
The "extraordinary story" of an ex-Toronto cop found living locked in a squalid room in the basement of a Georgina home was like no other the Toronto Police Association had ever dealt with, said its leader union president Craig Bromell.
When word leaked out, it was Steve Peacock, and many of those who knew him in his younger years were truly saddened. This gentle giant of a man was remembered for his kindness. A Scarborough cop, he stood six-feet-six-inches and once played baseball with panache. More than one neighbourhood kid now grown remembers his having to bend down to say "hello" and tease them.
Long out of mind on the day he was discovered, Peacock who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, was found by police after neighbours reported terrible odours coming from the bungalow in the small town of Willow Beach, north of Toronto.
When police arrived, they were saddened to find there was a urine-soaked cot for the 76-year-old former officer to sleep on and urine-soaked towels on the floor. A five-gallon bucket was used to collect feces and there was a slot under the door where his food could be slipped in.
Ironically, the living quarters of this once proud police officer were eerily similar to a prison cell.
It must have made for a poignant moment when amidst this squalor was a photo Peacock had kept of himself with a Toronto partner standing next to a yellow police cruiser.
His common-law wife, Ranka Bogojevic, 49, was charged with failing to provide the necessities of life. Bogojevic’s son, Semo filled in some of the missing pieces. It seems that his mother had been taking care of Peacock for the past 10 years, and his condition had been steadily deteriorating to the point where, in the last year, he’d wander off and get lost.
Thanks to intervention, the former officer was liberated. Peacock got to spend Christmas Day in a warm, clean, well-lit hospital with smiling people around. A meal where he was spoon-fed by a smiling nurse rather than having it slipped through a slot.
Part of the tragedy of the stories like the Peacock one is their tendency to fade back into obscurity after one-day headlines.
Then, of course, through no fault of his own, the former officer was once a member of an organization treated less than favourably by the mainline media.
But for Craig Bromell and his association, Peacock is more than flashing news.
"This is an extraordinary story and it’s not like anything the association has ever come across," said Bromell, adding that it strikes at the heart of elderabuse and how many other senior citizens may lay suffering in beds out of the headlines across this city.
Toronto cops have an employee-family assistance program in its 2,500-member pensioners’ association and Bromell is already looking to see what can be done for Peacock.
Steve Peacock, standing so tall next to a yellow police cruiser in a photograph, may have faded from newspaper headlines, but not from human memory.
Lying in squalor, the gentle giant remembered by many achieved something for others: awareness of the possibility that there may be other elderly members of the community suffering alone and eons away from the liberation of newspaper headlines.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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