'GOOD GUY' BATTLED DRUG DEPENDENCY

Robert Hiel was a victim on two counts -- of drug addiction and the
fatal injuries that resulted in a manslaughter charge against a
Windsor student.

"Yes, he led a troubled life, he had an illness," his sister Louise
Farrell said Friday. "It's like a cancer, it's a drug addiction. He
made bad choices because of that. But he was also a father of a
beautiful 18-year-old daughter who has to read this horrible article,
he's a son, he's a brother, he's an uncle."

She said a Windsor Star account Friday of the circumstances of Hiel's
death after being found early Wednesday morning in a downtown alley
did not show the good side of a man who battled personal demons but
was loved by his family.

"They portray him as this bum living on the street that had nobody,
and he wasn't. The disease is the disease ... it's like a cancer.
Would someone show no compassion to someone with cancer? No.

"You have to have compassion for these people too; it's a horrible
life."

Police said Hiel, 47, was "tampering" with a car not knowing it was
occupied, and that a man assaulted Hiel and left the area. He died
later at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital.

Charged is St. Clair College student Mark Curtis, 22. Arrested
Wednesday at his home, he was released from custody Thursday on a
$20,000 surety posted by his father, and ordered to stay out of the
downtown core and abstain from alcohol. He is not to communicate with
a number of individuals expected to testify in court.

"It's the drugs that just overtook (Hiel)," Farrell said. "He was a
good guy. When he could be, he was a great father, he was a great son.
But drugs do what drugs do."

In poor health -- she said her brother was six feet three inches and
120 pounds -- he was living on Park Street and had attended a drug
program at the Salvation Army. The battle with drugs was difficult,
she said.

She said her brother may have been looking for spare change in the car
when he was assaulted.

"He was wrong. I'm not justifying that he tried to go into that car.
That was wrong. The (accused) was a victim too. He was looking
probably for loonies and toonies, maybe he wasn't even looking for
drugs. Maybe he was starving and he needed to go get a burger."

Born and raised in Windsor, Hiel worked for General Motors for 28
years, Farrell said. "He wasn't a bum on the street." In recent years,
however, he had been on disability.

She said her brother should be remembered as "a really smart guy, he
was an avid reader. He was handy, he could fix anything.

"Don't remember him for the disease, remember him for who he was. He
was a person who was loved by many people," Farrell said.

"He was like anybody with a drug problem -- he had his demons," said
Lori Courtland, who was Hiel's "off and on" partner for seven years in
the 1990s and is the mother of his daughter.

Courtland said it had "been a while" since the family, including his
daughter, had last seen Hiel. But his ex-partner described him as "a
great guy," intelligent and articulate and a big fan of Isaac Asimov
novels.

"He was a person -- he didn't deserve this," said Courtland, who was
with a large group of relatives, including Hiel's mother, sister and
daughter, when he died at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital later in the day
of his back-alley assault.

Courtland said she understands Hiel and a friend were "looking for
loose change" in parked cars in the downtown early Wednesday when he
opened the door of a surprised couple. The male in that vehicle,
according to Windsor police, got out, punched Hiel and then got back
into the car and left.

"It was a criminal thing, but is that something you should be killed
for?" Courtland said of Hiel's alleged thievery. She said her
ex-partner was the kind of person who, caught loitering at Tim Hortons
and told to get out, would apologize, politely thank the manager for
letting him stay awhile and then leave with a "no problem, goodbye."

Besides Farrell, Hiel is survived by his daughter Carlie and his
mother Norma Mazzy. Funeral services will be held Monday at Anderson
Funeral Home. He will be cremated and interred later in a private service.