Second patient walks from psychiatric hospital

Gregory Owen Schleen and David Fomradas failed to return to forensic facility this week

Police issued a Canada- wide arrest warrant for the second man to walk away this week from the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Port Coquitlam.

Coquitlam RCMP made a public appeal Thursday to help locate Gregory Owen Schleen, 49, who was last seen Wednesday at the hospital.

He was released on a day pass and failed to return to his cottage at Colony Farm, a park- like setting.

“Schleen is suffering from mental disorder and should not be approached,” warned Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung. “Please contact your local police if you see him.”

Dr. Marcel Hediger, a psychiatrist at the hospital, said patients go missing from the facility fairly infrequently — 99.7 per cent of patients on a pass return to the hospital. He said the hospital will perform an internal review of both incidents.

Schleen was last seen wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts.

He has blond hair, brown eyes, is six foot four inches ( 193 cm) tall and weighs 150 pounds ( 63 kg).

Schleen was charged in 2006 with an aggravated assault that took place on Quadra Island.

In 2007, he was found not criminally responsible of the offence because of a mental disorder. He was sent to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

The B. C. Review Board, which decides when such patients no longer pose a risk to society and should be released, decided last Sept. 20 the accused should remain detained at the hospital but “may have unescorted or unsupervised access to the community, depending on his mental condition, having regard to the risk the accused then poses to himself and others.” Hediger said a treatment team makes recommendations about when an accused can have access to the community and not pose a danger.

A committee then determines access to the community.

Schleen was released on a day pass on conditions, including abstaining from alcohol and illegal drugs, not possessing any firearms or weapons, staying away from Quadra Island and having no contact with the victim of the assault.

Police say he has friends and family on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.

Earlier this week, police announced 34- year- old David Fomradas had failed to return to the hospital after being released on a day pass. He is still at large. Police have also issued a Canadawide warrant for his arrest.

In 2009, Fomradas was arrested after he carjacked a BMW occupied by Vancouver actress Carly Pope and her brother Kris.

Fomradas crashed the vehicle into the CBC building at Georgia and Hamilton. Pope suffered broken ribs and other injuries when she was thrown from the vehicle.

Fomradas was charged with car theft and assault with a weapon but was found not criminally responsible because he was suffering from a mental illness at the time.

Those found not criminally responsible because of mental disorders are held at the secure 190- bed forensic hospital for an indeterminate period — until the B. C. Review Board decides the patient no longer poses a risk.

The hospital also houses psychiatric patients deemed at risk of harming themselves or others.