Inquest to examine facts surrounding death of Indigenous woman
The B.C. Coroners Service will hold an inquest into the death of Deanna Desjarlais, whose body was found in Surrey two years ago.
The 27-year-old Saskatoon woman was missing for five months before her body was identified as one found months earlier in a wooded area of Hawthorne Park.
The inquest will begin on May 7 at the Burnaby coroners’ court in Metrotown.
The coroner says Desjarlais was a member of the Kawacatoose First Nation, who came to B.C. in 2015. She was last heard from in April 2016, and was reported missing by her family in early May of that year. Her body was found in Hawthorne Park in May 2016, but was not identified until the following September.
Presiding coroner Brynne Redford and a jury will hear evidence from witnesses to determine facts in the case. The jury will then make recommendations aimed at preventing deaths under similar circumstances.
Family friend Dana Morenstein told Postmedia she believes someone killed Desjarlais, who wasn’t familiar with the Surrey area, didn’t drive a car and was afraid of the dark.
She said there’s no way her friend would have stumbled into the wooded area alone.
She said even with a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women underway, more pressure needs to be put on police to take cases like this more seriously.
The independent inquest into her death will be held on May 7 at the coroners’ court in Burnaby. It will look into the circumstances surrounding her death and come up with recommendations that could prevent similar deaths.
It cannot assign blame or legal responsibility.
After Desjarlais’ body was found, a family friend questioned what police did before her remains were identified and why they never publicly released a missing person bulletin accompanied by her photo.
Vancouver police said at the time that they seriously investigated Desjarlais as a missing person, even though they didn’t issue a media release.
Police say they get about 5,000 missing person reports every year.