Girl dead before 911 call: Paramedic
Seven-year-old’s blood found in every room of tiny apartment
Katelynn Sampson had likely been dead for quite some time when one of her killers placed a tearful 911 call in the early hours of Aug. 3, 2008, a coroner’s inquest into the 7-year-old girl’s death heard on its opening day Monday.
“My daughter choked and I think she died,” a sobbing Donna Irving can be heard telling an ambulance operator over the phone.
Irving was not Katelynn’s biological mother, but one of her legal guardians, along with partner Warren Johnson. Although she can be heard saying Katelynn was eating bread when she choked, an autopsy would conclude she died of septic shock — about 70 wounds were found across her body.
Johnson and Irving pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2012 and were sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 15 years.
The long-awaited inquest is expected to last four weeks and hear from about 30 witnesses. A major task for the five-member jury will be to deliver recommendations to prevent deaths in similar circumstances.
A lingering question for Katelynn’s mother Bernice is how so many institutions — schools, children’s aid societies, the courts — were unable to protect her daughter from being neglected and beaten. Katelynn’s blood was found in every room of Johnson and Irving’s tiny Parkdale apartment — even the closets — as well as a piece of paper on which Katelynn had scrawled 62 times: “I am A awful girl that’s why no one wants me.”
“It’s very tough,” Bernice Sampson told reporters after hearing the 911 call played in court. “At least when this is all done, Katelynn will rest. She’ll be at peace, and then hopefully I will get some peace.”
Sampson, addicted to crack cocaine, temporarily placed her daughter in the care of her best friend, Irving, in 2007, believing she would be in good hands. Ontario Court Justice Debra Paulseth signed off on a permanent-custody agreement in June 2008, with Bernice’s approval. But what the court did not hear then was that Irving had prior convictions for prostitution and violence.
The inquest is expected to hear from two agencies with which Katelynn was involved, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and Native Child and Family Services.
It will also hear from teachers and the principal at the Parkdale school she attended, where she would sometimes be seen with bruises, for which Irving always had an excuse.
The inquest heard Monday that Katelynn missed dozens of school days during the 2007-2008 academic year, and was finally pulled out by Irving on May1, the reason being that Irving’s aunt had recently died. (A lie, as indicated in an agreed statement of fact filed in court in 2012.) School staff never saw her again. And by the summer, neither did her mother, with Irving coming up with a litany of excuses.
In the Aug. 3 911 call, Irving can be heard saying that Katelynn is not waking up and isn’t breathing, and at one point says: “I didn’t mean to.”
Sampson’s lawyer, Suzan Fraser, told reporters they are doubtful as to whether Irving’s emotional reaction on the phone — sobbing and at times wailing — is genuine.
“We question whether the tears were real and right now we consider it more of a performance,” she said.
The first witness on Monday was paramedic Wendy Walker. When her partner looked at Katelynn’s body and shook his head — indicating no need to attempt resuscitation — that indicated to Walker that the little girl had been dead for quite some time, she testified. She noted trauma in several areas of Katelynn’s body, including cuts, bruises and an eye that had been swollen shut.
It was also difficult at first to ascertain whether the child was male or female, Walker said.
Katelynn’s hair had been shorn “rather roughly” and she was wearing a shirt with flowers, but what looked to be boy’s jogging shorts.
Irwin Elman, the provincial advocate for children and youth who had long called for an inquest into Katelynn’s death, said in a statement that he was shocked at how many “points of protection” had failed her. “Children like Katelynn — who through no fault of their own find themselves as victims of abuse or neglect — deserve our protection,” he said.
The provincial government proposed a number of reforms following Katelynn’s death, including police checks on nonparents seeking custody and a requirement that nonparents provide information about the existence of any CAS record.