Speaking on the eve of a coroner’s inquest that begins Monday, the family of Lisa Dudley, who was shot in a contract killing a decade ago in a dispute over a marijuana grow-op, say they are doubtful the long-awaited probe will hold the RCMP accountable for how its officer responded to a critical 911 call.
Dudley’s stepfather told CTV News that then-RCMP Const. Mike White didn’t take the call seriously, left Dudley clinging for her life and showed a bizarre state of mind.
“Something terribly wrong happened here, something horrible,” Mark Surakka, Dudley’s stepfather, said on Sunday. “My goodness, what happened here?”
In September 2008, Dudley and her boyfriend Gutherie McKay were gunned down in the living room of their Mission, B.C. house, and four people were eventually convicted in the killings. McKay died right away, but Dudley lived for days in the home, paralyzed and tied to a chair.
The RCMP constable was sent to investigate gunshots, and a police recording shows his reaction to the assignment. Two internal Mountie reviews failed to uncover the recording, but the family later obtained it through a freedom of information request.
“(laughing) Yeah, exactly. Don't you love this?” said the constable on the recording.
The officer did not get out of his cruiser, nor did he speak with the person who called 911, found out-of-province civilian investigators. Further GPS data also showed the officer was on the scene for 12 minutes, before being reassigned to another call.
“I can’t judge them, but there are procedures in place that don’t really hold intact what you might call justice,” said Surakka.
Dudley was found five days after the shooting by a neighbour, and died in an ambulance before reaching the hospital. She was able to identify the shooter by blinking to answer police questions, Mounties said.
The family’s grief is only made worse, said Surakka, by the long length of time it took to get this inquest.
“A decade is a long time. This should’ve happened after year one.”
He suggested an inquest was supposed to happen within a couple of years of her death, but was “quashed.” The province said the courts needed to conclude the murder trials first, which wrapped up last year.
Nonetheless, Surakka says the inquest is welcome, and the family will attend every day. They believe it will introduce new “materials” that they hope will better explain what happened in the police’s handling of the tragedy. But he made clear he’s doubtful the process will lead to any punishment for police.
“No. How can it? It’s [just] recommendations.”
The inquest is meant to determine facts surrounding why a death occurred, not to find fault.
The murders of Lisa Dudley and Guthrie McKay marked the end of a tawdry story involving a drug debt, threats and an extramarital affair, according to prosecutors.
Jack Woodruff was paid $25,000 for killing her, the court heard during his murder trial. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, while Dudley’s former romantic partner Tom Holden pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
On Sunday, the Mission RCMP detachment said it would not be commenting on this story on the weekend. But in the past, an RCMP an spokesperson said in 2011 that the force made changes since the grisly case was reviewed.
"From this point on, any shots fired complaints have to be investigated in a much more thorough manner, which includes direct contact between the investigating officer," the RCMP said.
Surakka says Dudley would’ve been 47 today had she lived. “We speak for the dead. That’s what we are doing. I hope that she’s the seventh juror there. I truly do.”
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro