For Fans of Cold Cases and True Crime, Could the Great White North’s Most Famous Uninvestigated Death Finally Be Laid to Rest? Tom Thomson was Canada's Vincent van Gogh. He painted for a period of five years before meeting his untimely death in a remote wilderness lake in July 1917. He was buried in an unofficial grave close to the lake where his body was found. About eight hours after he was buried, the coroner arrived but never examined the body and ruled his death accident