Ray Lonsdale (also known as Phoenix McGourty) in Osoyoos (Photo supplied)
The man who set fire to buildings in downtown Osoyoos more than three years ago has a message for the community – he’s deeply sorry.
“I am writing this email to offer my sincerest apologies for my actions that day,” Ray Lonsdale said in an email to the Osoyoos Times. “I was young, immature, mentally distraught and simply unwell.”
Lonsdale, who also went by the name Phoenix McGourty, was sentenced later in 2011 to four years in prison for arson in the May 1, 2011 blaze. The $1.2 million fire destroyed the Osoyoos Christian Ministry thrift store and Osoyoos Dollar Smart Discount and damaged neighbouring buildings.
Lonsdale, now 21, was released on parole in August from the Mission Institution, a medium- and minimum-security federal penitentiary in Mission, B.C.
He is currently living at a halfway house in Edmonton.
“In no way can I blame anyone other than myself for the actions I displayed that day,” Lonsdale wrote in his email. “Nor will I ever be able to forgive myself for the hurt that I inflicted upon the town that welcomed me with open arms.”
Before the fire, Lonsdale’s time in Osoyoos was about the best he had ever experienced in a difficult life in which he was shuffled from foster homes to group homes to youth detention centres.
The talented musician and singer gained a reputation in Osoyoos for singing the national anthem at Coyotes hockey games.
“He had just an amazing voice,” said Coyotes owner Randy Bedard. “I thought he could really go somewhere with that voice.”
While Bedard was disturbed by the events surrounding the fire, he said he has only good things to say about Lonsdale’s time spent with the Coyotes’ organization.
“We welcomed him,” said Bedard. “He said the only family he felt he had was the family around the Coyotes on game night.”
Lonsdale, however, also recalls fondly the “wonderful family” he stayed with as foster parents and the friends he made at Osoyoos Secondary School.
He tells how he befriended Vince Sam, a local homeless man, who would listen as he tried to open up.
In a lengthy interview with the Osoyoos Times, Lonsdale recounted that he was conceived when his drug-addicted, 16-year-old mother was raped by a man 11 years older. At the age of 18 months, he was placed in foster care.
“I had a rough upbringing,” said Lonsdale. “I was raised in foster care and group homes. It was not very stable and a lot of that led me to criminal behaviour. I never reached out and I never really had the supports that I feel I needed. I had a very good foster home in Osoyoos, but I was only there for about 10 months.”
Lonsdale said he learned recently that he suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental condition in which a person’s mood swings between depression and “manic” elevated phases. He quickly adds that he is taking medication for this condition.
His time spent in adult prison has convinced him he never wants to go back.
Last week he got a job at an Edmonton fast-food restaurant and he said he’s trying to turn his life around.
“I chose Alberta for a new start,” he said. “Right now, as selfish as it sounds, it’s about me. It’s about getting Ray’s life back together.”
Lonsdale insists that his horrible experiences in prison have convinced him there is no way he wants to go back behind bars.
And that means he’ll have to find the inner strength to resist the influences that have drawn him to crime since he was first picked up by police at the age of 10.
That’s when he and another boy were caught stealing from unlocked cars.
In the Mission Institution he was placed among gang members, including people with convictions for murder, rape and other serious crimes.
“I was just an 18-year-old kid who lit a fire,” said Lonsdale. “When you get in, the classic question you get asked is what you are here for.”
His story failed to make an impression with the hardened criminals.
“I was involved in two fights,” said Lonsdale. “I got my ass kicked pretty good. I’ll admit it.”
Lonsdale saw another prisoner stabbed over a debt leaving blood everywhere. There were periodic beatings and stabbings.
A man he considered his best friend inside killed himself “because he was gay,” Lonsdale said.
As part of his parole conditions over the next 14 months Lonsdale has been seeing a psychologist at the halfway house who has been helping him confront his past demons.
The Osoyoos fire wasn’t Lonsdale’s first. When he got started in crime with another boy from his group home at the age of 10, the boys sometimes set brushfires and grass fires.
Then on April 6, 2008, Lonsdale, still not quite 15, and another boy got drunk and set two fires in Penticton.
One to a building on Edmonton Avenue caused minimal damage, but a second fire gutted the Hamlets retirement condominium, which was still under construction.
A psychologist has suggested that Lonsdale’s fascination with fires might be linked to sexual abuse he experienced as a child when he was aged around five and eight, he said.
“In my opinion that’s just a doctor putting a label on things,” Lonsdale said. “For me it was about power and control. This is something I did and the bigger the better. There was never any thought that someone might get hurt or someone might die.”
As a result of the Penticton fires, Lonsdale was sentenced as a juvenile to a three-year term at the Prince George Youth Custody Centre.
There he received good schooling, he said, and got into music.
“I learned how to play guitar and started singing a lot,” he said.
After an exam, a teacher told him he was smart – something he had never been told before.
“It really did warm me up to know that there were things that I could do without hurting people and causing trouble,” Lonsdale said.
It was not long after his release in 2010 that Lonsdale, then 17, ended up with a foster family in Osoyoos.
Why, when he was doing so well in Osoyoos, did Lonsdale set another fire?
“I frankly have no idea why that happened,” he admitted. “It wasn’t a crime of opportunity. It wasn’t a crime of passion or anything. It was just a plain stupid crime.”
Nor were alcohol or drugs involved, Lonsdale insists.
His only explanation is that he felt he was losing control of his life again. His foster parents were away on an extended vacation and he ended up “couch surfing” instead of staying with his foster parents’ son or daughter as he was supposed to.
As Lonsdale tries to get a new start in life, he hopes to return to the country music that he loves, playing guitar, piano, singing and dancing.
He also has advice for other youths who may be struggling with the same difficulties he faced.
“The biggest one is open up,” he said. “Don’t be a volcano. Don’t keep it down. Don’t wait until somebody pushes you too far. It doesn’t matter if you’re not comfortable talking to a parent or teacher. There are support lines out there.”
His second piece of advice is to always remember that somebody cares about you.
“They may not be voicing that they care, but they care,” he said. “The hardest thing I had to learn in life was that just because somebody’s not telling you that they love you or they care about you, it doesn’t mean they don’t.”
His apology email was brief.
“While I was in prison I actually thought about writing a letter, but I could never put pen to paper,” said Lonsdale. “Every time I did, it ended up just getting crinkled up and thrown in the trash because it was just rambling nonsense. Finally, I had the chance to sit down and really think about what I wanted to say and keep it short and brief.”
His email concludes: “I will sign off here and again offer my deepest apologies.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Ray Lonsdale (also known as Phoenix McGoury) relaxes in Osoyoos almost four years ago. (Photo supplied)
