Police said 54-year-old Florence Marie Girard, who had Down syndrome, died in October 2018 while receiving care in a Port Coquitlam home.
The B.C. Coroners Service will hold a public inquest into the starvation death of 54-year-old Florence Marie Girard seven years ago in a Port Coquitlam home.
Girard, who had Down syndrome, died in October 2018 from severe malnutrition while receiving care in a personal home.
The inquest will be held in Burnaby, beginning Jan. 13.
Donita Kuzma, presiding coroner, and a jury will hear evidence from witnesses under oath to determine the facts surrounding this death. The jury will have the opportunity to make recommendations aimed at preventing deaths under similar circumstances.
A jury may not make any finding of legal responsibility or express any conclusion of law.
The death of Girard, 54, was reported to the B.C. Coroners Service on Oct. 13, 2018. Police said they were called about what first appeared to be a routine sudden-death call. But investigators found evidence of malnourishment and starvation.
In 2020, a Coquitlam woman and a community services society were charged in connection with Girard’s death.
Astrid Charlotte Dahl, 51, was charged with criminal negligence causing death, and failing to perform a legal duty to provide necessities. The Kinsight Community Society of Coquitlam, a non-profit group that oversaw the home-sharing service, was charged with failure to perform a legal duty to provide necessaries of life.
Dahl apologized for any action she took, saying she believed Dahl died of natural causes. In the last few months of her life, Girard lost a shocking amount of weight, but the reasons for that weight loss were never addressed because she didn’t get to see a doctor.
More than 20 investigators worked the case.
A pathologist later concluded that the cause of death was severe malnutrition resulting in starvation and death.
With files from Postmedia