Criminal negligence trial expected to hear from pathologist who believes woman died of starvation or malnutrition: Crown

Warning: disturbing content

Legal arguments about the admissibility of medical records took up the third day of trial for a woman charged with criminal negligence and failing to provide the necessaries of life in connection with the death of a woman with Down syndrome who was in her care.

While there was no new witness testimony at Astrid Dahl’s trial on Wednesday, the Crown has said the pathologist who examined Florence Girard’s body is expected to take the stand at a later point in the proceedings.

Fifty-four-year-old Girard was found dead in a Port Coquitlam home on Oct. 13, 2018. In the Crown’s opening statement on Monday, prosecutor Jay Fogel told the court Dahl was a caregiver for Girard for many years: first in a group home setting where Dahl worked, and then in Dahl’s home for about eight years.

“In that period of time, over time, it’s alleged that Ms. Dahl stopped bringing Ms. Girard to her doctor, stopped bringing her to the dentist, stopped getting prescription refills for medications that Ms. Girard had previously had filled,” Fogel said. “The theory of the Crown is that this failure to bring Ms. Girard to her various appointments to properly care for her health led to the decline in Ms. Girard’s state such that she was not eating properly, and then Ms. Dahl failed to ensure she received sufficient nutrition, which caused her death.”

Fogel said the court will hear from a pathologist who believes Girard’s death was caused by starvation or malnutrition.

The defence has not yet presented its case.

Girard’s sister Sharon Bursey was back in the courtroom on Wednesday, and testified on the first day of the trial that she saw her sister as often as she could, and wanted to care for her herself when there were changes at Girard’s group home.

“I always spent a lot of time with her,” Bursey said. “I wanted to take her to live with me, but I couldn’t afford to quit my job and not be subsidized by the government.”

She testified she first met Dahl about 20 years ago at Girard’s group home.

In an audio recording of a statement Dahl made to police the day after Girard’s body was found, Dahl said Girard’s appetite had declined in the weeks leading up to her death. When asked by an RCMP officer why she didn’t take Girard to the doctor, she said she didn’t know and added “I guess I wasn’t panicked.”

In the recorded statement, which was played in court on Tuesday, Dahl said on the day before Girard was found dead she had tried to feed her mashed potatoes but said she “wasn’t responding” to food.

“I pretty much knew that was going to be her last night alive. You could see it in her,” Dahl said. “She was trying to drink, you could see she wanted to, and then you could just see that she just gave up.”

Dahl said she placed Girard in bed and then went to bed herself, after taking some NyQuil to get some sleep following a flu she had come down with in the preceding days.

Dahl told the officer she went into Girard’s room the next morning around 10 a.m., and she was cold to the touch.

“I opened the door, called her name, went over, touched her on the forehead,” Dahl said. “I went back out. I went to my room, and closed the door. I don’t know if I was there for maybe half an hour. I didn’t know what to do … I didn’t know how to react.”

Dahl said she called police around 1 p.m., after getting her phone and researching what to do when someone dies.

Cpl. Shannon Lopetinsky asked Dahl if there was a point in the night when she thought Girard should go to the hospital. She said no.

“I guess in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘She’s going to be OK tomorrow,’” Dahl said. “I don’t know.”

On Thursday, the court is expected to hear testimony from workers at the non-profit that oversaw the home-share.