‘She was the epitome of a perfect child’: Family of teen who died on school trip to Hornby Island left looking for answers

The family of 15-year-old Sara Manitoski is looking for answers after a Comox Valley student mysteriously died on a school trip to Hornby Island.

Manitoski died in her sleep while on a trip with Georges P. Vanier Secondary School. Other students found her unresponsive on the morning of March 15.

The group was on the first day of a two-day outdoor education trip, Comox Valley School District Director of Instruction Paul Berry said.

Berry said Manitoski had “a full, active and fabulous day,” and went to bed with “no apparent concerns.”

Sara’s older sister, Chelsey Loranger, told Global News she went surfing with her kid sister in Tofino just two weeks ago, and she was her normal, healthy self — making it harder for the family to come to terms with her death.

“She was alive, free-spirited and always optimistic about everything,” Loranger said. “She was a very loved, happy girl.”

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Loranger says Sara’s school told them that everything was fine before the teen went to sleep. One of the girls staying in her cabin heard her moaning during the night, but did not make anything of it. In the morning, Sara was gone.

Her family says it’s been a week since she passed, but they still have no answers about what happened.

Loranger says her sister was a healthy child, who barely ever got a cold, and an active athlete. She says Sara was also a straight-A student with no interest in drugs.

They say the BC Coroners Office called them on Monday, but had no major updates, other than to say that it could take up to four months to find out what caused Sara’s death.

“The most frustrating thing is that she has never been the kind of kid to do drugs or even drink or get into trouble, so we just don’t understand,” Loranger said. “She was completely healthy, so it just does not make sense to us how she can be perfectly healthy and then just die… She was the epitome of a perfect child.”

Alana McMahan with the BC Coroners Office told Global News the death is under investigation, and all available information has been shared with the teen’s family.

“Findings are considered preliminary until all information has been gathered, all test results have been received, and a final determination is made with respect to cause and manner of death,” said McMahan.

The office says determining the cause of any sudden, unexpected death can take weeks or months, depending on the circumstances of death.

Autopsy findings, which include the results of microscopic examination of tissue samples, can take several months to be determined. Standard toxicology testing can also take days, weeks or months, depending on the tests undertaken and the results of those tests.

“With regard to autopsy timelines, there are occasions when this process can happen within 24 hours of our involvement and other times where it might take five to seven days,” said McMahan.

But it is little consolation to the teen’s family, who just wants to get some closure and begin the healing process.

“For my mom, it’s really hard. She just wants to know what happened,” Loranger said.

She says they want to know what Sara was doing the night before she died, and what the type of supervision there was.

“It’s been really hard to lose somebody so young, who was so full of life. It’s just tragic.”

Loranger says they have been told by the police that no criminal investigation has been launched into Sara’s death so far.

“So I guess now we just have to sit and wait and wonder what happened,” she said.

— With files from Paula Baker and Tanya Beja