No fatality inquiry into daughter’s death
Judge says actions of mentally ill mother have already been subject of examination
EDMONTON There will be no fatality inquiry into the killing of an Edmonton nursing student who died at the hands of her mentally ill mother, a judge has ruled.
Rachael Longridge, 21, died on Dec. 23, 2016, after her mother repeatedly stabbed her in the neck during a psychotic episode.
Christine Longridge was charged with murder but was ultimately found not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Wayne Renke made the ruling after hearing Longridge — who has been diagnosed with both bipolar and schizoaffective disorders — killed Rachael while in a delusional state weeks after she was certified at a local hospital.
The case was seen by some as an indictment of Alberta’s mental health-care system. Following the February 2018 ruling, an unidentified member of the public contacted Alberta’s minister of justice suggesting a public inquiry be held into Rachael’s death.
Alberta’s Fatality Review Board eventually recommended a fatality inquiry to “restore public confidence, prevent similar deaths (and) clarify circumstances around mental health and community support.”
Last month, provincial court Judge Larry Anderson, who was charged with running the inquiry, opted to stay the proceedings, saying an inquiry was not the right place to address the questions left unanswered by Christine Longridge’s trial.
“I find it a stretch to conclude that the circumstances of Christine’s treatment in hospital in early November can be said to form part of the circumstances of Rachael’s death six weeks later,” Anderson wrote in his Jan. 22 decision.
Anderson concluded that while some of the questions surrounding Rachael Longridge’s death might still be answered, “all of these lines of inquiry lead directly into areas where the court cannot go, and the frustration of starting down these roads only to be turned back serves no one.”
Christine Longridge was diagnosed with a mental illness in the late 1990s. According to Anderson’s decision, she managed well with medications and psychiatrist care until the death of her husband in late 2015.
Longridge’s mental health deteriorated over the following year.
On Nov. 7, 2016, she was hospitalized and certified under the Mental Health Act. She was released nine days later and was doing well during a visit to her psychiatrist later that month.
Longridge was supposed to visit the psychiatrist again on Dec. 21 — two days before Rachael Longridge’s death — but never went.
She was delusional, expressing concerns about her children being tortured. She believed her son was the “Messiah,” Anderson says in his decision, and thought the only way he could be saved was for herself and her daughter to die.
Rachael Longridge drove her mom to hospital on Dec. 23, 2016, but returned home after her mother had settled down. Hours later, Rachael was dead.
Christine Longridge’s lawyer, Jacqueline Petrie, argued at a preliminary proceeding last year that the inquiry could answer questions left unanswered at trial, including why Christine Longridge, after her early November hospital stay, was discharged with a prescription for lithium that was about half of what she normally took.
The inquiry could also have examined whether Longridge should have been released from hospital at all, Petrie argued.
Petrie said her client is still living at Alberta Hospital, saying she has improved drastically after a year of treatment.
“In many respects, she’s still inconsolable,” Petrie said. “She will never get over this. But mentally, now, she’s doing very well, pretty much no signs of mental illness,” she added.
Longridge’s biggest priority remains re-establishing a relationship with her son Michael, who was 18 at the time of his sister’s killing.
In his decision, Anderson said a fatality inquiry can only address facts about Rachael Longridge’s death that have not already been examined in another process, and that “do not extend into a realm that is either too remote, involves legal determinations or delves into issues of fault or blame.”
He concluded the issues had been “extensively examined” at trial and that the inquiry should be stayed.
Petrie said they are still mulling whether to pursue a judicial review of Anderson’s decision or civil action against the doctors involved.
She said both options are long shots and that Christine Longridge is only interested in getting answers about her treatment.
“It would be very helpful to her ongoing recovery ... to have some answers to those questions,” Petrie said.