Coroner’s inquest into 2024 overdose death of UVic student underway

It was an emotional day at a coroner’s inquest into the drug overdose death of a University of Victoria student last year.

A coroner’s inquest into the 2024 overdose death of an 18-year-old University of Victoria student is now underway.

Sidney McIntyre-Starko was one of three students who took fentanyl laced cocaine inside a dorm room on the evening of Jan. 23, 2024.

The other two can only be identified as ‘student two’ and ‘student three’ due to a publication ban.

Student three also overdosed but was revived at the scene with naloxone.

McIntyre-Starko’s parents have been highly critical of the school following her death, saying security guards waited too long to administer naloxone.

On Tuesday, another student, Amirah Ali, testified that she was down the hallway from the dorm room McIntyre-Starko and the other two students were in when she heard a loud “thud.”

Ali said she walked over and encountered student two dragging student three towards the doorway and recalled looking inside and seeing McIntyre-Starko on the floor.

“She was laying on her side and her arm was twitching,” she said.

“She was a little discoloured and as time went on you could tell she was turning a little blue,” she continued.

Ali said she called campus security and student two called 911, but did not inform the operator about any drug use. When security arrived, student two initially denied any drug use, according to Ali.

An independent report by former Abbotsford Police Department Chief Bob Rich determined that there was a 15-minute gap from when McIntyre-Starko collapsed and began having a seizure, to when security administered naloxone.

• Read more: UVic’s overdose policies didn’t ‘meet the moment’ before student’s death: report

The report said that while student two’s initial denials of drug use played a role in the delay, the security guards should have been able to detect signs of an overdose sooner.

The job of the jury of the coroner’s inquest is not to find fault, but to make recommendations to help try and prevent similar deaths in the future.

The inquest is scheduled to last around three weeks, with more than 30 witnesses expected to testify.