Foul play from an outside source is not suspected in the deaths of four cadets at Canada’s Royal Military College last week, the Department of National Defence said Wednesday.
The department said the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the local military police detachment and police in Kingston, Ont., where the college is located, are supporting an ongoing coroner’s investigation into the incident.
“At this time, there is no reason to believe there is any foul play from an outside source related to this incident,” the department said in a written statement.
No further information will be released until the coroner’s report is completed, the department said.
Officer cadets Jack Hogarth, Andrei Honciu, Broden Murphy and Andrés Salek, who were all poised to graduate, died early Friday morning on the Kingston campus when their vehicle plunged into the water at Point Frederick peninsula, where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence River
Commodore Josee Kurtz, the head of the school, identified the cadets late Friday and said the college community was in mourning.
“The entire RMC community is devastated by this tragic loss,” Kurtz said last week.
Hogarth was in military and strategic studies and hoped to be an officer in an armoured regiment. Honciu was studying business administration and planned to be a logistics officer.
Murphy, also a business administration student, was working to become an aerospace environment controller. Salek, a student of military and strategic studies, also wanted to be an armoured officer.
The Department of National Defence is asking anyone with information about the fatal incident to contact investigators.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May4, 2022.
