Second patient escapes from grounds of mental health hospital
Jason Murray bolted over a fence while being supervised by two staff at West 5th campus
A second patient potentially posing a threat to the public has escaped from Hamilton’s mental health hospital only nine days after a violent offender went missing.
Jason Murray was being supervised by two staff members when he bolted over a fence and ran into the woods at the edge of the escarpment Wednesday on the grounds of the West 5th campus of St. Joseph’s Healthcare around 2:30 p.m.
The 38-year-old North Bay man was being treated in the forensic unit after being found not criminally responsible in 2016 in a case involving a concealed weapon, harassment and threats, said Dr. Joe Ferencz associate head of service of the forensic program at St. Joseph’s.
“It’s a very unusual coincidence that these two things happened so close together,” he said. “We’re extraordinarily careful. We have a lot of processes in place to reduce the likelihood of these kind of events happening.”
As of Wednesday evening, Murray had not yet been apprehended.
Syna Lorn was on an unsupervised grounds pass when he walked away from the hospital’s forensic unit June 4 and was missing for more than 24 hours until he called staff to come back June 5. Lorn, who has schizophrenia and polysubstance use disorder, randomly attacked a cab driver with a machete in 2006 and slashed his roommate’s head with a samurai sword in 2017.
In both cases, Ferencz doesn’t know why the men suddenly ran away after being on the grounds many times before without incident.
“I think it would be prudent for us to review both of these incidents,” he said. “We absolutely are reviewing our procedures to make sure everything we needed to do was what was done.”
Coun. Terry Whitehead was already asking St. Joseph’s to release an internal review into Lorn’s escape before Murray also bolted.
“He threw down the coffee (he was drinking) and ran,” described Ferencz. “The staff were unable to keep up to him ... These are trained individuals. They are constantly looking to make sure there’s nothing about that patient that indicates they might act in a dangerous fashion to the public or to themselves. Risk management is what we do.”
He says assessments are done every time a patient is about to leave the forensic unit to make sure there are no signs of anything being amiss that day.
“Any pass or privilege that is given to a person is done so very cautiously and based on very slow and gradual steps forward,” he said. “But at the same time it’s very hard to predict when an individual who has done fine for weeks or months suddenly decides to impulsively leave.”
Murray is described as white with a slim build, five-foot-seven with brown, shaggy hair. He was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, a blue shirt and brown pants. Police say not to approach him, but to call 911 immediately.