B.C. mom laments 'false hope' as major crime unit declines to reinvestigate daughter's death

Tracy Sims, left, says Victoria police Chief Del Manak gave her false hope when he announced his department was referring her daughter's death to the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit for review last week.

A Vancouver Island woman who lost her child in 2021 said she wants an apology from Victoria's police chief, after she was given the impression major crime investigators were actively looking into her daughter's death.

Last Thursday, Victoria Police Department Chief Del Manak told city councillors the case of Samantha Sims-Somerville had been referred to the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU).

A key detail, however, wasn’t shared. Two weeks beforehand, VIIMCU had declined to take on the case.

“The chief was not aware of the VIIMCU decision and the latest development of the file when he spoke to council last week,” said VicPD spokesperson Cheryl Major, in an email.

Samantha died at age 18 from a toxic dose of a date rape drug. The BC Coroners Service initially determined her death was an accidental overdose, but recently reclassified it as a homicide. That prompted questions about whether VicPD would re-open the file, which it closed without charges in 2022.

In an interview after last week’s meeting with councillors, Manak said his department was referring the investigation to VIIMCU out of an abundance of caution. VIIMCU includes police officers from the RCMP, as well as the Central Saanich, Oak Bay, Saanich, and Victoria police departments.

“We feel that if the coroners service has reclassified it to a homicide, that we should — out of an abundance of caution — have somebody else — independently, outside of the Victoria Police Department investigators — have a look at this,” Manak said at the time.

On Monday, Sims received an email from a VIIMCU officer, saying his team conducted an assessment of the known facts of the investigation and met with VicPD senior investigators on Nov. 7. Sims forwarded the email to local reporters.

“At the conclusion of this meeting, we determined that the investigation into your daughter’s death did not meet VIIMCU’s threshold for engagement and this was passed on to the Victoria police investigators,” VIIMCU Staff Sgt. John Ferguson wrote to Sims.

“VIIMCU’s mandate is culpable homicide and missing persons where foul play is suspected. Our mandate no longer includes suspicious sudden deaths.”

The coroners service defines homicide as “death due to injury intentionally inflicted by the action of another person.” The service says homicide is “a neutral term that does not imply fault or blame.”

“We did make a recommendation as to who would be best suited to conduct a comprehensive file review and the Victoria police investigators were receptive to that recommendation,” Ferguson wrote. “The decision to proceed for that review rests with Victoria police.”

VicPD said it’s figuring out its next steps, which will be shared once determined. The department is looking for more information about the evidence that prompted the coroners service to reclassify Samantha’s death, which Manak highlighted last week.

Sims said the chief’s comments gave her false hope.

“They’re still not taking ownership that they messed up and caused a lot of pain,” Sims said in a written statement.

“The system has let my daughter, Samantha, down again. Just when I had hoped I may have some peace after a gruelling, exhausting, three-and-a-half-year fight, again, more frustration and disappointment.”

Sims believes her daughter was drugged and sexually assaulted at a party in April 2021. She’s been compiling evidence to try to prove it ever since VicPD closed Samantha’s file.

“(Police) still have not interviewed me and could not possibly (have) had a thorough look at the evidence or the coroner's investigation in this short amount of time (since the reclassification),” Sims said.

A Police Act complaint against VicPD is pending. The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner is looking into Sims’ allegations that the department’s investigation into her daughter’s death was inadequate.