A police oversight body says two Vancouver Police Department (VPD) officers neglected their duties while handling the case of missing 20-year-old Indigenous woman Tatyanna Harrison, whose remains were discovered in Richmond four years ago.
On Monday, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner for British Columbia (OPCC) released an October 2025 disciplinary decision for two sergeants with redacted names.
Retired Judge Brian M. Neal decided the officers had “committed disciplinary breaches of public trust by way of neglect,” when one failed to complete a comprehensive risk assessment and the other, a supervisor, failed to review that work.
Harrison was reported missing by her mother on May 3, 2022. Police had found her remains in Richmond a day before, but it wasn’t until August 2022 that police were able to identify her.
Sue Brown, staff lawyer for the advocacy group Justice for Girls, says Harrison’s mother had several concerns about the quality of the investigation to find her daughter.
“She felt she was left on her own to try to find her daughter, searching the Downtown Eastside — searching other areas of the Lower Mainland, while her daughter’s file was moved between Surrey and the Vancouver Police Department. And it didn’t seem like they were making any traction or getting adequate investigative resources into her case,” Brown told 1130 NewsRadio.
She says the OPCC began the investigation into potential misconduct of its own accord, but says Harrison’s mother supported it.
Brown explains that if the officers had assessed Harrison’s risk level, as required by the province, she could have been identified earlier.
“They didn’t properly consider the factors in Tatyanna’s case: the fact that she was Indigenous, the fact that she lived in poverty, the fact that she hadn’t been in contact with her mother for such a period of time, the fact that she was in the Downtown Eastside,” Brown said.
“They didn’t take those into consideration, and in doing so failed to properly investigate her case.”
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Brown says risk assessments are essential to protecting a disproportionately vulnerable demographic, and the policy was created in response to recommendations from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, dating back to 2012.
“[It’s] the failure to take the basic steps — in assigning the appropriate risk category in Tatyanna’s case — that, to me, really speaks to the ongoing systemic failures and ongoing systemic discrimination against Indigenous women and girls, that lead to failures in their investigations into their deaths and disappearances.”
Harrison’s mother, Brown says, suffered in agony for months, searching for her daughter, while her body lay in a Richmond morgue.
“Every moment spent in delayed response is evidence lost in a proper investigation. Human life should always be your top priority. Not only did I lose my daughter, but I lost myself, having to simultaneously grieve and fight a system for basic Justice for Tatyanna. She deserved so much more, and she didn’t even get the bare minimum,” said Natasha Harrison.
In a document dated Nov. 20, 2025, Judge Neal stated he has “no doubt” that the officers approached their duties in good faith, but proposed that both required additional training or advice as to future conduct.
“I have every confidence that with the proposed corrective outcomes, the Members will each continue their careers as positive and constructive officers of the law in a diverse community,” said Neal.
He also recommended that VPD and provincial standards regarding missing persons be revised, and specific, ongoing training be required.
In May last year, the B.C. government announced an inquest into Harrison’s death, following an independent Forensic Pathologist’s review that disputed the cause of death presented by the BC Coroners Office.
Calls for inquests have also been formally submitted into the deaths of 24-year-old Chelsea Poorman and 13-year-old Noelle O’Soup, who were both Indigenous. Justice for Girls says the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner is investigating police-officer conduct on both files.
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the VPD and the BC Coroners Office for comment.
—With files from David Nadalini