‘They were fun, they were smart’
Oak Bay community shaken after girls found dead in their father’s apartment on Christmas Day
VICTORIA — Leaders of Christ Church Cathedral School and the church offered grief counselling and support Wednesday following the deaths of Chloe and Aubrey Berry.
Chloe was in Grade 1 at Christ Church Cathedral School in Victoria. Aubrey was at St. Christopher’s Montessori School in Oak Bay, which offers preschool and kindergarten.
Speaking in front of the cathedral on Quadra Street at the corner of Rockland Avenue, Christ Church principal Stuart Hall said counsellors and ministers were inside the church to help members of the school family during a vigil for Chloe and Aubrey. About 100 people attended.
“As days and weeks unfold, we will re-examine what needs to be put in place for our families,” said a visibly shaken Hall. “It’s very, very difficult days.”
Police officers found the bodies of Chloe, 6, and Aubrey, 4, on Christmas Day in the Oak Bay apartment home of their father Andrew Berry. No cause of death for the girls has been released.
Andrew, the 43-year-old father, is in hospital with self-inflicted wounds.
The father and the girls’ mother Sarah Cotton, a Victoria public-relations specialist, have been estranged since 2013.
Sandra Hudson, a close friend of Cotton’s, said Cotton is doing “as well as anyone could be expected” given the tragedy.
Hudson has known Chloe and Aubrey since they were born. “They were fun, they were smart, they were full of life, just like Sarah,” Hudson said.
The children would often visit a beach near their home with their mother and the family loved visiting a nearby Gulf Island,” said Trisha Lees, another family friend.
She said Sarah was devoted to the girls. “Seeing the three of them together was an absolute delight. Sarah was just one of those mothers who was born to be a mother and did an exceptionally great job with them in every possible way.”
Frank Cotton, the girls’ great-uncle, said his daughter had been teaching Chloe to ride horses. “(Chloe) was doing very well. She was catching on to riding properly. And it’s all over,” he said.
Hall said he first heard of the deaths of the two girls on Tuesday afternoon. Afterward, he contacted the school’s crisis team and notified staff and parents via email and steered them to assistance.
Hall said he contacted the Greater Victoria School District to ask for assistance in helping Christ Church Cathedral School deal with the tragedy. “We are very appreciative of the help we have been offered,” said Hall. “We are a small school of limited resources.
“It’s extremely challenging to explain this to anyone. It’s unfathomable. It’s a terrible and deep and jagged tragedy that we are all facing.”
Before attending Christ Church Cathedral School, Chloe attended Selkirk Montessori School for two years.
“She was an absolutely delightful little girl, a beautiful little girl,” said Penny Barner, the school’s administrative head. “I’m remembering her beautiful smile. She was an important and well-loved member of our school community.”
Barner said an email was sent to parents notifying them of the deaths and directing them to resources about how to talk to their children about it.
Selkirk Montessori School has dealt with a similar tragedy in the past. Six-year-old Christian Lee, who was killed by his father in an Oak Bay murder-suicide in September 2007, was a student of the school.
The first responders who found the bodies are also receiving help, Oak Bay police said Wednesday.
“While our focus and that of the community needs to be on the loved ones who are suffering such a devastating loss as well as the greater impact within our community, I can assure you that we have engaged experts in the field of critical incident stress management and we’re following every step of their counsel and our critical incident stress model to ensure our officers are very well cared for,” said Oak Bay Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties.
There will be a candlelight vigil for Chloe and Aubrey at Willows Beach on Saturday at 7 p.m., said Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen. “There are no words to express the sadness we feel for the loss of these two young girls and how to truly comfort the profound grief of their family,” said a statement from the Oak Bay mayor and council.