Mountie tells coroner’s inquest human error led to flawed sketch, description of young Indigenous woman

An RCMP officer testifying at the coroner’s inquest into Tatyanna Harrison’s death said there were no signs of foul play.

A B.C. Mountie testifying at the coroner’s inquest into the death of a young Indigenous woman said human error led to a flawed sketch and description sent to the media.

The body of 20-year-old Tatyanna Harrison was found on a boat in a Richmond dry dock on May 2, 2022.

However, for months, she remained unidentified as authorities struggled to determine her identity.

Const. Joshua Wilkinson was one of the officers called to the scene after the body was discovered, and he remained on the case afterward.

Wilkinson recalled walking into the boat and seeing Harrison’s body lying out at the bottom of some stairs, naked from the waist down.

He noted there was drug paraphernalia in the boat and no obvious signs of foul play.

He said he and the other attending officers, as well as the coroner at the scene, had discussions and sought further evidence, including CCTV footage, to determine whether any suspicious activity had occurred.

“We determined that we didn’t see any grounds for criminality or any other offences,” he told the coroner’s inquest.

• Related: ‘I just want to know what happened’: Inquest into Indigenous woman’s death opens with mother’s testimony

Wilkinson said a sexual assault kit was completed several months later, and while it is still in the possession of Richmond RCMP, it has never been sent to the lab for testing. He said that, for that to happen, investigators would need more evidence that a sexual assault had occurred.

An early coroner’s report attributed her death to fentanyl toxicity, but it was later determined to be caused by sepsis.

Not knowing her daughter’s body had been found, Natasha Harrison reported her missing to the Vancouver Police Department the following day, on May 3, as she had been living in the Downtown Eastside.

‘Human error’: RCMP officer explains sketch inaccuracies

That July, Richmond RCMP released a sketch and description of the body found on the boat. However, there were significant inaccuracies.

The description identified the woman as Caucasian, between 30 and 40 years old, five-foot-five and about 90 pounds.

Harrison’s mother said her daughter was five-foot-one, at least 100 pounds and, of course, was 20 years old and Indigenous.

Harrison’s mother also pointed out serious flaws in the sketch during her testimony on Thursday.

Wilkinson said the description was based solely on what he and the other officers remembered from the scene.

“I would attribute that to human error on our part,” Wilkinson said when asked by inquest counsel how they had been so far off.

“She is prone, and were standing above her looking down, so that automatically gives kind of a false height difference,” he said.

Harrison’s identity was confirmed by DNA on Aug. 5 of that year.

Wilkinson’s testimony was unexpectedly cut short on Friday because one of the lawyers involved in the proceedings had to leave due to illness.

He is expected to return on Monday to finish his testimony.

In addition to making recommendations, juries in coroner’s inquests can classify a death as accidental, natural, suicide or homicide, but they cannot assign blame.