So I just finished watching a documentary by Kurt Kuenne called ‘Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father’. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s a quick overview (spoiler alert). Kuenne follows the story of his childhood friend Andrew, and his tragic death. Shot five times by his ex girlfriend, Shirley Turner, we follow Andrew’s parents search for justice. By a cruel twist of fate, Shirley reveals that she is four months pregnant with Andrews baby, whom she later names Zachary. As the result of a flawed legal system, Turner eventually walks free and has custody over Zachary, with Andrew’s parents being allowed to have supervised visits with the child a few times a week. Unfortunately, due to the laws on bail at the time and a clear oversight from child protection services, Zachary was killed by his mother in a murder-suicide. Not only does this movie highlight a pivotal change in the Canadian laws on bail, it is a raw and emotional documentary, that can only be made at such a high standard in this context by someone who has a cause that is close to their heart. Kurt Kuenne’s original intention when making this film was to create a message to Zachary, a way to get to know his deceased father. However, after the child’s tragic death, this film turns into a statement on the corrupt legal system and a homage to Kurt’s best friend and his son. From the offset, the viewer is fond of Andrew Bagby. Only his close friend could have portrayed him in such a personal, endearing, and honest way. Pictures of Turner holding her child are chilling to say the least. Pictures, that to an outsider, would seem to depict a mother and child. As a viewer of this film we feel genuine fear watching the innocent Zachary being held in the arms of his father’s, and eventually his own, killer. It is upsetting to see Andrew’s parents crippled at the loss of their son, but then completely crushing to see them lose their grandchild. If there were ever going to be more documentation on this case, I would be interested to see a deep psychoanalysis of Shirley Turner, to delve into her childhood and try and piece together what led to her evil nature. However, we must consider the whole point of the original documentary. It was not made to explore the mind of a killer. In 2010, “Zachary’s Bill” became law in Canada. Investigations were done into the misdirected and morally corrupt decisions made that led to a murderer being allowed to walk free. Andrew’s parents, Kate and David Bagby are now activists and doing their best to ensure that no one endures their pain. This documentary affected me emotionally far more than I thought it would, and is a true insight into the crippling loss of a loved one.
