Three charges, including criminal negligence causing death, laid in 2018 alleged starvation of Florence Girard
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 02:08:58 +0000
A Port Coquitlam woman and a community services society have been charged in connection with the death of a woman with Down syndrome who was in their care.
On Wednesday, the Coquitlam RCMP announced three charges related to the Oct. 18, 2018, death of 54-year-old Florence Girard — who police claim starved to death while receiving care in a personal home.
“One of the unusual components of this case is you don’t often see a society or a corporation charged,” Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Michael McLaughlin said. “To clarify what (the charges) mean, the necessaries include food, water, appropriate medical care and protection from harm. There’s an expectation from the professional caregiver that minimum standard is met. And there’s an expectation with the society that hires that caregiver on contract to ensure that minimum standard is met.
“If it is not, we come to the point where we are today.”
McLaughlin said police were called to a PoCo home to what appeared at the time to a be a routine sudden-death call. But when investigators arrived, they believed they found evidence of malnourishment and starvation, McLaughlin said.
More than 20 investigators worked the case.
“Among other things, it’s the duty of the police to speak for people who can’t speak for themselves,” McLaughlin said. “We know these charges can’t bring the victim back, but perhaps they give a voice to a vulnerable person who couldn’t speak for herself.”
Girard’s sister, Sharon Bursey, told Postmedia News that Girard weighed 56 pounds when she died.
“My sister’s death had to be painful,” Bursey said. “She was silly, she liked to laugh, she was boy-crazy and she used to swim in the Special Olympics.”
She said Girard had been in care most of her life, the past 10 years in the home of Astrid Charlotte Dahl. Dahl, 51, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and failure to perform a legal duty to provide necessaries.
The Kinsight Community Society of Coquitlam, a non-profit group that oversaw the home-sharing service, is charged with failure to perform a legal duty to provide necessaries.
Dahl said she was shocked to be served the summons, although a lawyer had warned her she might get one.
A single mom of one, Dahl said she did nothing wrong and that Girard died of natural causes.
“I was friends with her for 30 years,” Dahl said. “She lived with me the last 10 years at the request of her family. I’m not that person they’re saying I am. This is unfair.”
Kinsight’s communications director Pam Whitworth declined to comment and handed out a prepared statement written by Tess Huntly, Kinsight’s director of adult services, which said the society was shocked and deeply saddened by Girard’s death.
In a prepared statement, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Shane Simpson said Community Living B.C. has “fully co-operated” with the police investigation.
Dahl and Kinsight are to appear in court March 9.