Douglas Allen MacIsaac
Fredericton, NB / Nov. 15, 1996
Long-time Standard Taxi driver Douglass Allan MacIsaac was fond of golf and horse racing, and loved a good game of poker. He was a Nova Scotia native who grew up in Germany, the son of a Canadian Forces family. All who knew him described him as quiet, decent and kindly.
Doug MacIsaac's death at age 48 came at the hands of a 20-year-old man who later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 14 years.
MacIsaac's body was discovered at 3:25 a.m. on Friday November 15, 1996. About an hour earlier, Standard Taxi dispatcher Milton Cogswell had become alarmed when MacIsaac did not respond to radio calls. Cogswell instructed drivers to comb the downtown area in a search for MacIsaac. A fellow driver spotted the missing cab in a driveway at 262 Charlotte Street, the lights on, the engine running and the driver's door open.
MacIsaac was found dead next to the vehicle, his throat cut. Police arrived minutes later and began a crime-scene investigation that lasted much of the day and involved more than two dozen officers and investigators.
A weapon was found at the scene and numerous tips were called in to a police hot-line, though the immediate neighbours on Charlotte Street had heard nothing unusual. Police determined that the fatal ride had begun with a dispatch to 633 Windsor Street and that the address on Charlotte Street had been the requested destination. The investigation led to the killer's arrest about 32 hours after the crime.
Cabs from around the province joined in a funeral procession through downtown Fredericton on the day of Doug MacIsaac's funeral.
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