Families call for inquest into deaths of Indigenous women, girl in B.C.

The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner has investigations underway into how Vancouver police handled three missing persons cases that ended in tragedy

The families of two women and a teenage girl who were all found deceased under unusual circumstances in the spring of 2021 are calling on the B.C. government to order a coroner’s inquest into the disappearances and deaths of their loved ones.

“Let me tell you about my baby. I miss my baby girl,” said Natasha Harrison as she choked back tears at a Monday morning news conference.

For three years Harrison has been seeking answers about what happened to her daughter Tatyanna.

In May 2020, police found 20-year-old Tatyanna’s remains, naked from the waist down, aboard a vessel in a Richmond boat yard.

Police say the First Nations woman’s death is not considered suspicious but her mother has many unanswered questions.

“Even on the most basic level. No answers on her cause of death,” Harrison said. “No answers on a sexual assault kit done. No answers on how she came to travel about that marina.”

Chelsea Poorman, 24, was last seen in the Granville Entertainment District in September of 2020.

Her remains would be found 18 months later at an unoccupied Shaughnessy mansion under renovation.

According to Poorman’s family, when her body was found it was missing fingers and a portion of her cranium.

Vancouver police say her death is not considered to be criminal in nature.

“Somebody took her to that mansion. Somebody brought her there,” said her mother Sheila Poorman. “Somebody knew that location. And somebody knows what happened to my daughter.”

Noelle O’Soup was just 13 years old when she ran away from a group home in May of 2021.

Her remains would eventually be found in an SRO on East Hastings Street.

She had already been deceased for months – and during that time, a VPD officer entered the unit to deal with a deceased man, but failed to notice O’Soup’s body was also in the small room.

“I can say without a doubt that she was failed at every level by this country, by this government, by child welfare, by Vancouver police,” said Josie August, O’Soup’s aunt.

All three deceased are Indigenous – and aspects of each case are currently under investigation by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner.

The families say a coroner’s inquest would provide the answers they haven’t been able to get from police or the B.C. Coroners Service.

They made a formal request in a letter to B.C. Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety Garry Begg, who says he is considering it.

“Families expect that everyone involved in investigations like these works hard to get justice for those who died too soon,” Begg wrote in a statement to CTV News.

“It’s crucial that we can trust the integrity and actions of the officers doing these heartbreaking investigations.”

Harrison’s mom hopes the inquest goes ahead and results in recommendations that lead to positive change.

“I can’t bear the thought of another mother having to walk that same path that I did,” she said.