Months after her son’s body was discovered near the track at Penticton Secondary School one early morning in September, a mother is pleading for the community to keep coming forward with any tips that might help police find his killer.
Taig Savage, 22, was found near the track at the high school at about 5:30 a.m. When police arrived, he was unresponsive and suffering from “critical injuries.”
While he was looked after by emergency crews and transported to hospital, Savage passed away from his injuries and police announced his death was "suspicious."
“Sometimes communities get connected by tragedy. And my hope is that we could connect by Taig or through Taig, in hopes that two things can happen. That we all can heal...and also that justice can come for those who have done it,” Tracey Savage told Castanet.
She posted to local Facebook groups on Saturday morning, asking once again for anyone who has heard anything to take it to police — whether big or small, fact or rumour.
“I think the most important thing is to keep his name and his picture circulating,” she said.
After she posted, Savage shared that by Saturday afternoon she had received six text messages from people who had information. While this information is incredibly difficult for her to hear, she feels it is important.
“I mean, it messed up my whole day," she said.
"But I think I have a few little silver linings because I think I can pass things on right now to the police, that may or may not help them. It also helps me because I know that I'm not sitting here, not doing anything, which I could do. And it just makes me feel like I'm contributing somehow.
“I feel that he needs it not to go away. It needs not to. I need the police to also know that I'm not going to give up. I will be in the news and I will be everywhere I can be until I feel that it's done. ... I also really strongly feel that Penticton needs a crime solved.”
In January, South Okanagan RCMP Supt. Brian Hunter stated the investigation was ongoing into the murder.
“What I can tell you about that investigation is it's going very well," Hunter said.
"It's an all-hands-on-deck situation at the detachment. It's a complex investigation. But I'm confident in our members and support staff working on that file. And it's progressing in the right direction."
Since Taig was identified as the victim in September, little new information from police has been made public or told to his mom.
“We don't get to know the time of his death. We don't get to know what caused his death. We don't get to know what he was wearing. What happened to him or anything right,” Savage said.
“The communication is that it’s murder and we cannot share anything with you. From the beginning.”
It took several days before Taig’s identity was officially confirmed to Savage, but she was able to put the pieces together before then.
“They also have told me that when it goes to trial, I'll see what they have been doing. When I thought they were doing nothing.”
While Savage understands the police’s need to keep things private as they build evidence for their case, she and her other children struggle without answers.
“My family was just too wounded," she said.
"We didn't even have a celebration of life or a funeral for him.We're gonna have it this summer on his birthday. ... I had such a range of emotions ripping through our family and we just had to re-connect ourselves.”
Savage said she is left with many questions as to why her son was killed — mainly what happened to the bright, kind-hearted young man who was a good kid and didn’t involve himself in trouble?
“I mean Taig would have given the shirt off of his back for anyone — and he definitely would have helped a lady, an underdog or a dog,” she said.
“Nothing today will bring Taig back. No one telling me anything will bring him back. And I have 10 children or had 10 children and all my kids handle it differently. Some want to know and some don't want to know.
“It's the same as the community, there's people out there that just would like to bury their heads and not want to know who would commit such a terrible act and others that just have to know.”
Taig was last seen in the area of the 100-block of Eckhart Avenue, police have said. He was on foot wearing a hooded sweatshirt and grey pants.
Any tips can be called into the Penticton RCMP at 250-492-4300.
