'Flawed from the very beginning': Retired B.C. coroner blasts handling of 2016 death investigation
A retiree who spent years investigating deaths for the BC Coroner's Service has sent the agency a scathing letter over its handling of the suspicious death of a woman whose body was recovered from Okanagan Lake in 2016.
RCMP recovered Arlene Westervelt's body in June, one day after her husband Bert Westervelt reported that she had drowned after their canoe tipped on a day trip.
Police initially called the death a tragic accident but Arlene's sister Debbie Hennig said she suspected there was more to the story right from the start.
"The very people that I thought were going to help me have failed me," Hennig said in an interview with CTV News.
Within days of the body being discovered, BCCS released it without conducting an autopsy.
"Any kind of water-related drowning fatal should be autopsied. There should be no question," said Maureen Wint, who retired from the BCCS in 2004.
Wednesday, Wint sent her letter to Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe and cc'd Premier David Eby and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth.
"The original investigation by the BCCS was flawed from the very beginning," Wint wrote before calling for an inquest into Arlene's death.
Police did eventually launch a homicide investigation into the death and in April 2019 Bert was charged with second-degree murder.
Just 15 months later, citing new evidence that reduced the likelihood of a conviction, the Crown stayed the charge.
Bert has always maintained his innocence.
BCCS did eventually conduct an autopsy, but not before Arlene Westervelt's body had already been embalmed, possibly compromising some of the evidence.
“The anatomical findings at autopsy could not confirm or rule out death by drowning," the coroner's report concluded.
"I therefor classify the manner of death as undetermined and make no recommendations.”
'NO ACCOUNTABILITY, NO CLOSURE'
Wint believes an inquest is the only way to get all the facts in the case into the public record so Arlene's family can fully understand the circumstances surrounding her death.
"At least in an inquest, people would be in a situation to testify and tell the truth and maybe they could get some really good things out of that," she said.
In April, the BCCS re-opened the investigation into Arlene Westervelt's death, but without a full inquest or a separate investigation by an outside forensic pathologist, Hennig is not confident justice will be done.
"There is no accountability. There's no transparency. There's no answers. There's no closure," she said.
Hennig said the lack of answers about what actually happened to her sister makes the holidays especially hard every year.
"You know this is the seventh Christmas that I've put up my Christmas tree without Arlene," she sobbed.
Citing the ongoing investigation, the BC Coroner's Service declined to comment for this story.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.