Decades-old mysterious death to be subject of full-length documentary (2 photos)

Halifax's Bernie Langille was named after his grandfather, a man he never had a chance to meet.

Cpl. Bernard Lawrence Langille died under mysterious circumstances 15 years before Bernie was born.

Their story has been made into a short film and will soon be expanded into a full-length documentary.

Production company Peep Media is behind Bernie Langille Wants To Know Who Killed Bernie Langille.

Director Jackie Torrens said Cpl. Langille was living at CFB Gagetown with his wife Annie and their three sons.

In February of 1968, Langille headed out to the mess hall to join some friends for a few drinks while his wife went to bed.

“His wife Annie wakes up in the middle of the night with her husband in bed beside her and his head has been bashed in,” Torrens told NEWS 95.7's The Sheldon MacLeod Show. “And there is a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs.”

That's just the beginning of the bizarre events that lead to Langille's death.

He was taken to hospital in Oromocto where a doctor gave immediate orders for him to be airlifted to Shearwater so he could be taken to the Victoria General hospital.

Five hours later, it's discovered those orders have been ignored, then there's a further delay in tracking down an aircraft for his medical evacuation.

“While he's at Oromocto, he's there with three military medical personnel, including a doctor who assaults Langille, hits him in the eyes,” Torrens explains. “He's finally put on a plane to Shearwater, and lands at Shearwater around 6 in the evening the next day.”

“As the ambulance is leaving Shearwater to transport him to the VG, it stops on the train tracks right outside Shearwater where it's hit by a train and Bernard Langille is further injured.”

Langille finally made it to the VG, but died of his injuries on Feb. 12, 1968.

Following his death, his family starting noticing other odd things about that night.

“His car was parked in a different spot and he always parked it in the same spot every single night. It was locked, this was something he was not known to do. His coat and boots were hung up, this was definitely not something he was not known to do,” said Torrens. “So there were a number of inconsistencies, along with the rather bizarre series of events that happened after he fell down the stairs.”

Langille's son Lawrence did a lot of digging into what happened to his father, tracking down a number of documents through the Freedom of Information Act. He has since passed away, and now Bernard's grandson Bernie Langille has taken up the cause.

“He took part in the short and he will be filming with us for the feature. It's his story,” Torrens said. “At the heart of it, this story is about family narratives and how they can affect our individual identity.”

“How do you find resolution when you're not given a typical way to find resolution.”

The short version of Bernie Langille Wants To Know Who Killed Bernie Langille has won Best Short Film and Best Director at this year's Screen Nova Scotia awards. It also just won Audience Favorite Short at the Parrsboro Film Festival.

On Sunday, Nov. 3, it will air on  CBC's Reel East Coast program, then be available online through CBC Gem.

The filmmakers and Langille family are still looking for information about Bernard's death.

“We are chasing leads currently and we are calling on the public,” Torrens said. “If anyone knows any information about a Cpl. Langille who served at CFB Gagetown in the '60s — he also served at Petawawa in the 1950s and he was a Korean vet — if anyone has any information about that, we are on Facebook“

Peep Media can also be contacted through their website.

This is a corrected story. The original stated the short would air Sunday, Nov. 1.