A coroner’s inquest into the 2022 death of 20-year-old Indigenous woman Tatyanna Harrison begins Thursday.
Harrison’s remains had been found on a dry-docked yacht in Richmond on May 2, 2022 — a day before being reported missing.
It wasn’t until August 2022 that police were able to identify her remains. Her death was initially reported to be related to drug toxicity, but the BC Coroners’ Service released a report in February 2023 saying she had died from sepsis. Her case is considered to be non-criminal in nature.
Sue Brown, the staff lawyer for advocacy group Justice for Girls, said the demand for an inquest came after an independent review of Harrison’s death by a forensic pathologist.
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Brown says Harrison’s remains sat in a Richmond morgue for months as her mother searched for her daughter.
“Natasha Harrison was left agonizing for months, wondering where her daughter was, searching the streets of the Downtown Eastside and other areas of the city, knowing that something terrible had happened to her daughter, but feeling like she wasn’t getting the response from the police that she needed in order to find her daughter,” she said.
The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner found the Vancouver Police Department committed misconduct in its handling of the case.
A coroner’s inquest is a “non-fault-finding” inquiry that determines the circumstances around deaths that may be considered sudden, unnatural, or unexplained. It may result in recommendations to prevent similar deaths.
The inquest, which begins at 9 a.m., will be livestreamed every hearing day.
— With files from The Canadian Press