Ray Lonsdale (also known as Phoenix McGoury) has apologized for starting a fire that destroyed several buildings in downtown Osoyoos in May 2011. He told of a difficult upbringing, but his biological mother is disputing some parts of the story that pertain to her. Rachel Shea said she wasn’t a drug addict and never used drugs even casually. (Photo supplied)
The mother of the man who caused a fire to several buildings in downtown Osoyoos in 2011 agrees that her son had a difficult life, but disagrees with several key details in his story.
Rachel Shea was responding to a November 5 front-page article in the Osoyoos Times about her son Ray (Phoenix) Lonsdale (McGoury).
“I have remained silent in regards to my past when it comes to Phoenix’s biological father and how Phoenix’s life began to unfold,” Shea said in an email. “After reading your recent story, I feel that it’s time to break my silence and finally get some truth out as the story you published is not entirely accurate.”
Shea especially takes issue with Lonsdale’s claim that she was addicted to drugs at the time he was conceived.
She also said she willingly gave him up initially and that he was not taken into foster care because of any bad parenting skills on her part.
Lonsdale, who was released from prison in August after serving time for arson is currently living in a halfway house in Edmonton. He has been trying to reconcile with his mother, who also lives in Edmonton.
“I have never in my life been addicted to drugs,” Shea insists. “Never. Not even prescription. No nothing. Not a drink… I didn’t even so much as smoke cigarettes and I didn’t start smoking until Phoenix was eight or 10 months old. No casual use, nothing. I will swear on 1,000 Bibles.”
Shea said she has spoken to her son about this part of his story and she thinks he honestly believes it. She now speaks with him regularly, she said.
“I think he’s still very lost,” she said. “He’s coming up to 22 and he’s lived a pretty difficult life and I do not deny that at all. I regret every day that I wasn’t given the opportunity to be with him.”
Shea said she was just 15 years old when she first encountered Lonsdale’s biological father, who was 12 years older.
“I was taken against my will away from my family and he took me all across Canada,” she said. “I was brutally raped and brutally beaten and that is how Phoenix came about.”
She said she willingly gave Lonsdale up to the provincial ministry responsible for children because the biological father got out of jail and petitioned for custody.
“I didn’t want him raised with a convicted sex offender and I felt that if I raised him, I would never be able to get his father out of my life,” she said.
She later regretted her decision and fought hard for 22 months unsuccessfully in court to get him back, she said.
Despite the “hell” Shea said she went through at the time, she has managed to “come out on top” in life, she said.
She has attained a post-secondary degree and found a rewarding career as a certified nursing assistant.
She also had two more children of her own and is stepmother to a third.
“I married and I’ve been with my husband for 10 years,” Shea said. “I’ve got three beautiful kids that I raised and a pretty good life, so it didn’t beat me.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
