Doorbell video shows man in cold hours before he died in Saskatoon

Carla Peters is haunted by the video and images of a man she never knew, but who died steps away from her home early on New Year’s Day.

It was just after 2 a.m. on Jan. 1 when she looked outside her front door to see a man sitting on the concrete stairs of her Kensington townhouse and decided to call police because the man was not dressed for the weather.

A call log from her iPhone shows a three-minute outgoing call to Saskatoon Police’s general line at 2:16 a.m. Police also confirmed a call came in around that time about a suspicious person.

“He wasn’t asking for help,” she recalled. “He wasn’t knocking on my door. We made eye contact. I thought because it was January 1 at 2:15 a.m. he might have been partying at one of my neighbours,” Peters said in an interview with 650 CKOM.

Carla Peters says she wished she’d kept calling for help the night a man was found dead in freezing temperatures near her home. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

According to Environment Canada, the temperature that night in Saskatoon was -15 C, with a wind chill of -22 C. Peters said the man wasn’t wearing a hat, a winter coat or boots. It appeared as though he was only wearing a leather jacket, pants and shoes.

Her doorbell camera footage, which she provided to 650 CKOM, shows the man without adequate winter attire.

The minute-long video shows the man breathing heavily, looking briefly at the front door of the home, then covering his head with his hands.

He then looks down and holds his head in his hands, shakes and grunts loudly while appearing to say “cold” and rubbing his legs and feet.

A short time later, Peters saw the man walk away and she went to bed.

A screenshot of the phone call Carla Peters made at 2:16 a.m. to Saskatoon Police on Jan. 1, 2025 to report a man sitting in the cold on her front step. (Carla Peters/Submitted)

One week later on Jan. 6, Peters said Saskatoon Police called her indicating they wanted to speak with her about the phone call she made New Year’s morning and told her the same man was found dead on a neighbour’s driveway about half a block away. They also asked for any camera footage she may have recorded.

“I was so upset,” she said.

According to a statement from police, officers on patrol responded at around 3:00 a.m. to look for the same person Peters described, in the same area, without success.

Peters thought it was odd that officers couldn’t find him. After speaking with her son, he told her he called 9-1-1 at 3:45 a.m.

“He said he (the man) was sitting in the middle of the road,” she said.

Police confirmed a second call at around 4:00 a.m., regarding the same person with the same description in the same area, but because of a higher-than-normal call volume at the time they couldn’t get there right away.

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Peters said police told her the man’s family “wanted answers.”

“And, so they (police) downloaded all my footage. I had him on my camera a few times. They downloaded it,” she said.

Peters’ footage also shows a Saskatoon Fire truck travelling past her home the same night, just after 6:00 a.m. Nearly four hours after her initial call.

Doorbell camera footage shows a fire truck responding on Jan. 1, 2025. The time stamp reads 4:05 a.m., but the camera owner says first responders actually arrived at 6:05 a.m. due to the camera being set to a different time zone.

“At approximately 6:00 a.m., Police were notified by Medavie Health Services that a deceased person was located in the area of the initial suspicious-person call,” read a statement from SPS.

Looking back, Peters said she shouldn’t have assumed someone would come to help immediately.

“I feel terrible for assuming that,” she said.

“He just walked a few doors down and passed away there.”

Peters’ advice for anyone coming across someone in the cold who may need help is to keep calling.

“Be relentless. Advocate for that person. You don’t know if help is actually coming. Follow up. Call again,” she pleaded.

Police haven’t released the man’s name, but say he was 49-years-old.

Townhouse complex where a 49-year-old man was found dead near a driveway on New Year’s Day (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)