'I believe I had checked well enough': Worker at B.C. group home where Cree teen found dead in closet testifies
'I believe I had checked well enough': Worker at B.C. group home where Cree teen found dead in closet testifies
Warning: This story contains details that readers may find disturbing.
A worker at the B.C. group home where Traevon Desjarlais was found dead in his closet days after he went missing told a coroner's inquest he checked the teen's room repeatedly – but there was no sign of him.
Desjarlais, who was 17 when he died in 2020, was Cree and living in an Abbotsford facility operated by the Fraser Valley Aboriginal Children and Family Services Society under contract to the provincial government.
Murray McMaster, who worked at the home at the time, said he reported Deslarlais' disappearance to the Ministry of Children and Family Development on Sept. 14, after finding his room empty.
He testified he repeatedly checked the home and Desjarlais’ bedroom, which had numerous large holes in the walls, in the days that followed.
"I went in. I looked around. I looked under the bed. I looked for any signs he had been back in there and I didn’t see any,” McMaster said, providing his testimony at the inquest by video link Thursday.
When asked if he had checked the closet, McMaster said, “I believe I had checked well enough.”
FOUL SMELL PROMTS FURTHER ACTION
But three days after the teen's disappearance, McMaster told the inquest, he noticed a smell coming from the basement.
"That’s when I started searching other areas of the house, the boiler room, under the stairs,” he testified, appearing by video link.
By Sept. 18, McMaster said it was "starting to enter my mind that he might be down there and I wasn’t finding him…That fear was in the back of my mind, yes.”
But he said he did not convey that fear to Abbotsford Police or tell them about the foul smell until they showed up at the home later that day.
Officers found Desjarlais’ body hanging in his bedroom closet shortly after arriving.
Desjarlais’ mother was at the inquest and wept as the worker testified, leaving the room at one point when she was overcome with emotion.
TEEN'S MENTAL HEALTH WAS DETERIORATING
A transcript of McMaster's Sept. 15 call to police, when he first reported Desjarlais missing to law enforcement, was also read at the inquest Thursday.
It indicated McMaster had not told them the teen was suicidal. However, earlier testimony indicated Desjarlais had made a suicidal comment the month prior.
McMaster said he called Abbotsford Police at that time, but was told they didn’t have cause to apprehend the teen under the Mental Health Act.
After that, McMaster said, Desjarlais' mental health further deteriorated.
“His behavior had become very erratic and I believe it was the reliving of trauma from events outside the home. He was struggling a lot,” McMaster said of the teen’s condition in September of 2020.
He also testified that, “I’m not trained to take somebody through trauma. I reached out for help.”
The worker said he did not believe Desjarlais was taking his medication at the time of his death and that Desjarlais had a history of going missing from the home.
An inquest into the teen's death was not mandatory, however one was ordered by the BC Coroners Service earlier this year because "there is reason to believe that the public has an interest in being informed of the circumstances."
While an inquest cannot make findings of fault, it has three main functions, according to the province: to determine the facts surrounding the death; to make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future; and "to ensure public confidence that the circumstances surrounding the death of an individual will not be overlooked, concealed or ignored."
U.S. President Joe Biden is using his State of the Union address Tuesday night to call on Republicans to work with him to 'finish the job' of rebuilding the economy and uniting the nation as he seeks to overcome pessimism in the country and navigate political divisions in Washington.
After raising interest rates eight consecutive times, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem told an audience in Quebec City on Tuesday that inflation is showing signs of 'turning the corner' and that the coming year 'will be different.'
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
While much of internet is still buzzing about the wonders of ChatGPT, a Toronto-based technology and visual effects company is making its own splash in Hollywood using artificial intelligence.
As negotiations continue between premiers and the federal government, former Quebec premier Jean Charest is criticizing the feds' string-attached approach to health-care funding, stating that Ottawa should not be in the business of operating health-care systems.
We may soon be able to detect humidity levels, respiratory changes or a too-wet diaper, all with a new type of sensor — one created by drawing with a pencil on specially-treated paper.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
A 24-year-old man now linked to an unusual string of crimes that kept the Dallas Zoo on the lookout for missing animals told police that after he swiped two monkeys from their enclosure, he took them onto the city's light rail system to make his getaway, court records show.
Balloons and drones were among 768 reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to Winnipeg-based researcher Chris Rutkowski, who also found that eight per cent of all cases remained unexplained.
A Victoria man says a series of devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria have left him feeling nearly paralyzed, as the death toll from the quakes rises above 6,200 people.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressed her concerns with the federal government's proposed 'just transition' legislation directly to the prime minister on Tuesday, saying she hopes the two can find some common ground.
If Alberta accepts Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal health proposal, it would see, on average, $2.5 billion over the next 10 years, in line with population growth.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressed her concerns with the federal government's proposed 'just transition' legislation directly to the prime minister on Tuesday, saying she hopes the two can find some common ground.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Meaghan Maloney of London, Ont. said she was driving on her way to work, along Highway 401, in her 2023 Nissan Rogue when the sunroof shattered without warning.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Quebec interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay says that in wanting to close Roxham Road to prevent irregular entry of asylum seekers into Quebec, the Parti Québécois and its leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon are behaving like Donald Trump.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Robyn Silvernagle will be making her third appearance at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts next week in Kamloops, BC, just weeks after her team was put together.
Residents at a downtown Saskatoon apartment complex are speaking out about what they say are unreasonable rent increases and a lack of attention to building repairs.
A forensic pathologist offered her expert opinion on how Catlin Goodwill’s three-month-old son died suddenly in October 2017, during testimony on the second day of trial.
A former medical student who claims he fatally shot a fellow student in self-defence during a drug deal in Halifax denied Tuesday he planned to kill the man and steal the marijuana he was carrying.
Retirement is bittersweet for a Nova Scotia doctor who says she feels like she has abandoned the 2,000 patients she has been caring for because she was not able to find a doctor to replace her.
A special weather statement is in effect for most of the southern Ontario. A strong low pressure system will bring rain that is heavy at times to London-Middlesex and surrounding areas beginning early Thursday morning.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
A dog in desperate need of care was found abandoned during frigid temperatures over the weekend and is just one of the many cases of abandoned dogs, according to Animal Control in that area.
Roundabouts are under the microscope in Waterloo region as regional councillors are reviewing the safety of the road design following a pair of serious collisions involving pedestrians.
