They made silly videos together. And they shared a bond that felt unbreakable. “My mom was incredible. She was amazing, and she was so outgoing and such a brightening soul,” said Jilliann Jarvis. “We were like best friends…we were very tight.” But the eldest daughter of Pamela Jarvis said she was especially worried for her mom in the months before she was killed. “She was really scared,” recalled Jilliann Jarvis,19, in an exclusive interview with CTV News. Pamela Jarvis, 45, was found critically injured in her Merritt home on Dec. 16. Her daughter learned something was wrong through a frantic phone call from one of her brothers. “He’s like, ‘Jillie, it’s mom. You need to get to Merritt.’ That’s when my heart dropped and I kind of felt a sharp pain all over my body,” recalled Jilliann, whose mom later died in hospital. Pamela Jarvis’ husband, Christopher Jarvis, is charged with second degree murder. He has yet to enter a plea, and none of the allegations against him have been proven in court. The couple had six children, and Jilliann Jarvis said her parents had been together for close to 30 years. She said while she’s not directly aware of her father ever physically harming her mom, she recalled conversations with her mother that deeply troubled her. They included a text chat where her mom said she doesn’t feel safe around her husband. Jarvis, who now calls her father by his first name, said he was emotionally abusive to her mom, seemed obsessed with always knowing where she was, and was outraged when he couldn’t find her. She said her mom had talked about leaving her dad, but the situation was complex and she wasn’t sure how to make the change. Jilliann Jarvis also said her mom indicated she’d twice called police on her husband. “He was throwing things, breaking things and swearing not only at her, but the kids as well,” said Jilliann Jarvis, who added that a second call was made to police on another day after her dad ripped down a door at the family home. “(Police) took Chris into custody for 12 hours and then they released him back,” she said. “From my mom’s words, she said that because he didn’t physically do anything to her, the police can’t do anything about it,” recalled the grieving daughter. The Independent Investigations Office, B.C.’s police watchdog, is investigating whether police action or inaction contributed to Pamela Jarvis’ death. The agency issued a news release last month saying it received information from the RCMP indicating an investigation into alleged intimate partner violence “occurred over a period of time prior to the death, and they report that the last contact occurred several days before her murder.” Meanwhile, her daughter believes more could have been done to protect her mom. She said Merritt needs better awareness and additional resources for anyone facing domestic abuse. Jilliann Jarvis said she wishes she could have done more to help her mom. “She was so loveable and she was so resilient and she was just such an incredible woman, but an even better mom,” she said. “Definitely a part of me went with her and I just, I just miss her embrace the most,” an emotional Jilliann Jarvis said.
