Parents want answers in fatal police chase
Five investigations later, the family of Taryn Hewitt, 16, are still seeking answers
CAMBRIDGE — Taryn Hewitt, 16, died after a police chase last year.
Waterloo Regional Police officers were trying to rescue her from a fleeing car, fearing she was in danger.
Five investigations have followed. Most agencies are still keeping their conclusions from public view.
“I’m frustrated,” said Steve Hewitt, Taryn’s father. “Nobody’s forthcoming. We’re left in the dark.
“I want everything public,” he said.
“Mistakes were made and things were done. You take one thing out of the equation and my daughter would be standing here beside me right now. There was a comedy of errors.”
“We are left with many questions,” said Kate Hewitt, Taryn’s mother.
She said she has not been contacted by the Ontario Provincial Police or the Waterloo Regional Police about their investigations “which I find upsetting to say the least . ...
“How do we find out any more information?”
Taryn was a passenger in a stolen car driven by Nathan Wehrle, 15. He was Taryn’s new boyfriend, a teen in government care who fled police in Cambridge before crashing head-on into a truck hauling grain on Highway 6.
Both teens died, but the truck driver survived.
Two officers who chased them have been cleared of wrongdoing by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), an arm’s-length agency that probes police conduct.
At least four other investigations are ongoing, probing the chase and also Nathan’s government care.
• Ontario’s chief coroner is examining the deaths. “Our investigations into the deaths are ongoing and no decision has been made with respect to an inquest,” spokesperson Cheryl Mahyr said.
• The OPP concluded an investigation into the chase, but will not release findings pending a decision on an inquest. Waterloo Regional Police asked the OPP to investigate.
• Waterloo Regional Police conducted an internal review into the chase. It may be made public by December, Insp. Mark Crowell said.
• A provincial child welfare committee reviewed Nathan’s death. Ontario’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services will not reveal what was found or recommended, saying Nathan’s privacy outlives him.
The SIU finding dissatisfies Taryn’s parents, who live apart in the London, Ont., area.
They’re pressing for a coroner’s inquest to compel testimony from the chasing officers, who exercised their legal right not to be interviewed by the SIU or provide their notes.
Steve Hewitt believes police would have backed off the chase had they known they were chasing teens.
He asks: how did Waterloo Regional Police not figure this out?
“Do you find it odd that police did not know they were 15 and 16?” he said.
“They should have known who they were chasing.”
Nathan’s name was available. Three days earlier, Strathroy police issued a crime alert naming him as a suspect in the auto theft, asking other police to be on the lookout for him.
The SIU found this noteworthy, in revealing that Waterloo Regional Police never searched a criminal database during the chase to access Nathan’s name.
Crowell did not respond directly, when asked if police should have dug deeper during the chase to identify who they were chasing.
In a written statement, he cited the SIU finding that police got wrong information from a witness, and that officers never received an identity.
Police chased the stolen car at high speed out of Cambridge, after a bystander claimed to see a woman forced into a car by a man who beat her.
“For the safety of the possible victim in the passenger seat being held against her will, we are in pursuit,” an officer said by radio.
Taryn texted her mother minutes before the crash: “I’m so sorry for everything, we stole a car and we’re in a high-speed chase.”
The witness provided police with the wrong ages, wrong description of the car, and wrong licence plate. His abduction claim was not substantiated by a different witness or by video of the altercation viewed by the SIU.
Families of both victims have also raised concerns that Nathan, who made poor choices, was poorly supervised by children’s aid and moved around too often by his minders.
This mirrors concerns raised by an expert coroner’s panel that examined the deaths of a dozen other children in government care. The panel recently issued a scathing report calling for an overhaul of Ontario’s child protection system. Minister Lisa MacLeod has pledged changes.