Another family is adding its voice to the chorus pressuring the B.C. government and relevant police and social service agencies to improve their notification procedures for next of kin when someone dies.
Earlier this week, Global News reported about a woman who died in a downtown Vancouver apartment of an overdose in 2020, but whose children said they were only notified of her passing last week.
The woman, further, had been buried in an unmarked grave in a Surrey cemetery.
Michelle and Glen Grier of Stony Plain, Alta. have experienced similar heartbreak — their son died in Victoria in May last year, but the couple only found out in January through a Google search online.
This week, they joined the family of Lorraine Elaine Campbell in calling for change.
“I think someone dropped the ball. I don’t know where this lack of care came from or is coming from,” Michelle said in an online interview from Alberta, side-by-side with Glen.
“I understand there’s a lot of addicts in the world, I understand there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in Victoria and everything, but where’s the humanity of it?”
It had been several months since the couple had heard from 35-year-old Scott, so in January, Glen said he decided to search for him online to try and find a way to wish him a happy birthday.
“Immediately, what popped up was an obituary for him and below it was the missing person’s (report) we did in September 2020, saying he had been found,” Michelle added.
“That’s how we found out he was deceased.”
It was a shock to the system; Scott’s parents described him as an honest, “hard-working kid” who also played “probably too hard.” He “got on the wrong trail” and wound up homeless in Victoria, Glen said.
“Probably one of the last conversations I had with him was, he was tired of being out in Victoria and wanted to come back.”
He and Michelle offered to support Scott and connect him with services, but didn’t hear back — a silence that “haunts” a bit now, Glenn added.
They claim no effort was made to reach them after Scott’s death, given how easily their names and contact information could be found by police through the missing person report in 2020.
“Just look at this protocol, look at your system and what you have in place,” Michelle urged. “There’s got to be a way to document, put the names of the family in with people. Maybe there’s a database we can reach out.”
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Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister Sheila Malcolmson was not available for an interview for a second day in a row, with staff stating the ministry had nothing to add to the story beyond comments made Tuesday.
When a person with no fixed address dies in B.C., the Public Guardian and Trustee (PGT) is notified.
In January, when the Griers shared their story with Global Edmonton, the PGT explained that if the deceased was under 65 and receiving benefits from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, that ministry handles the person’s funeral arrangements.
For those who weren’t ministry clients, the PGT said it determines if the deceased had enough assets to pay for funeral costs and PGT fees. If the person did not have enough assets, PGT will not search extensively for next of kin.
In January, a spokesperson from the ministry told Global Edmonton that the coroner in Victoria contacted the PGT about Scott’s death. The PGT determined there was no estate to manage, so the ministry paid to have him cremated and buried.
On Tuesday, the ministry said next-of-kin notification is the responsibility of the relevant law enforcement agency, with the ministry receiving the deceased’s file if no such person exists and there is no estate to be managed.
“The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction will pay the necessary funeral costs of any person who dies in BC if the estate of the deceased person has no immediate resources to meet these costs,” it said by email.
“There is no requirement that the deceased person, or the person’s family, must be BC Employment and Assistance recipients to qualify for the supplement.”
The BC Coroners Service, further, said that “it is not always possible to know when a decedent has living relatives if those names are not contained in accessible records.”
Once they learned of Scott’s passing online, Michelle and Glen said they were able to confirm through police, the BC Coroners Service and a funeral home that fingerprints had confirmed Scott’s identity. He was buried in Victoria’s Hatley Memorial Gardens.
The couple now cares for Scott’s young daughter.
Their story resonates with Sheri-Lee Campbell, who spoke with Global News earlier this week about the passing of her mother, 65-year-old Lorraine. She said none of her three daughters had her from her in a while, so they contacted Vancouver police for a compassionate search effort, which is how they learned of her death.
“Really, this should not happen to anybody. This is really horrible,” Campbell said Wednesday.
“She had a very large family, very easy to locate. I really fully believe that there was no effort made.”
Like Scott, Lorraine had an extensive record with government, police and social service agencies.
In a previous statement to Global News, Vancouver police said that when conducting sudden death investigations — like Lorraine’s in 2020 — they always try to identify a single family member who has a relationship with the deceased, and trust that individual with share the news with other relatives and loved ones.
“Shortly after Lorraine Campbell’s death, in July 2020, we identified a man who we believed was Lorraine’s half-brother and with whom we believed Lorraine had a close relationship,” reads the emailed statement.
“We trusted that this person was the most appropriate next of kin and that information about her death would be shared with other family members. We have recently learned that this person misrepresented their relationship with Lorraine.”
Vancouver police confirmed they are reviewing the circumstances surrounding this case.
While Vancouver police said they had nothing to add Wednesday, declining to answer multiple questions from Global News, Campbell said her family has received some good news in the aftermath of media coverage.
On Wednesday morning, she received an apology and condolences from social services, while the Hazelmere Cemetery in Surrey confirmed her mother’s ashes will be returned as quickly as possible, free of charge.
“Rather than make excuses, perhaps, maybe they need to review their policies and procedures and make amendments,” Campbell suggested to the various agencies and departments she believes let her family down in 2020.
Global News is also in touch with a third family who said they too, experienced a similar silence from authorities on Vancouver Island in 2020. That family said they learned of their loved one’s death two months later through a post on Facebook because someone who wasn’t next of kin had claimed to police that he was.
Emily Bootle, a licensed death care consultant, encouraged people who have chosen family to put down their wishes for notification if they die in writing — particularly if there’s a risk of dying outside the medical system.
“The best thing that you can do is think about it ahead of time,” she told Global News.
“Talk to the people that you care about ahead of time and spend, even if it’s just a day or even just a couple of hours, trying to understand what those first two hours look like, the first two days look like, for people after death has happened.”
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