IIO probes role of police in death of B.C. mother allegedly killed by her husband

B.C.’s police watchdog has launched an investigation into how the RCMP responded to reports of domestic violence before Pamela Jarvis’ killing.

The death of 45-year-old Pamela Jarvis, who was killed in Merritt on Dec. 16, allegedly by her husband, has left B.C.’s Battered Women’s Support Services exasperated that the system continues to let women down.

“Just horrified for her, for her children and more broadly for the community of Merritt,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, the director of BWSS “I mean what are we trying to do here; what are we doing here?”

Jarvis was a mother of six children. She reportedly called Merritt RCMP six days before her death, concerned for her life.

Her friend, Dana Egan, says Jarvis told her she was planning on separating, and that her husband ripped the doors off the family homes’ hinges, and police arrested him, but five hours later he returned to the home.

“The community is overwhelmed by what’s happened here,” said Egan.

The Independent Investigations Office, B.C.’s police watchdog, is now investigating whether police action or omissions contributed to Jarvis’ death—a review triggered by the BWSS raising questions whether police’s decisions made things worse.

“We’ve been asking women since at least 1992 that they should call the police,” noted MacDougall on Monday.

Jarvis’ husband, Christopher Jarvis, faces a charge of second-degree murder.

The case follows calls for changes to the law after Kelowna mother Bailey McCourt was killed this summer, allegedly by her estranged spouse — a tragedy that prompted federal legislation to tighten bail reform and impose first-degree murder charges in the context of intimate partner violence.

“Here we go again, this is not okay. More should have been done; more could have been done,” said MacDougall. “Where did this system fail this mum and her children?”

B.C.’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger, issued a statement to CTV News, expressing her “deepest sympathies” for the “tragic situation,” adding she was unable to provide further comment because the matter remains an open investigation.

Merritt RCMP did not respond to a request for comment.

MacDougall wants to see better risk assessment practices by police, and for the province and municipalities to provide more public awareness about safe places for women fleeing violence, including such a facility near Merritt.

“Something like that is just not happening, and why not?” questioned MacDougall.