Husband says stress of foster mother trial took its toll

SASKATOON – A foster mother who was acquitted almost a year ago in the death of a 22-month-old boy has died and her husband says he thinks the stress of the trial is partly to blame.

Eunice Wudrich, 49, was found unresponsive in her vehicle last month after veering off the road on her way home to her farm just outside Saskatoon and died Jan. 2.

Her husband, Dennis Wudrich, says being charged with criminal negligence causing the death of little Evander Lee Daniels took a huge toll on his wife’s health.

The toddler drowned in a bathtub but the judge ruled the death was tragic but not criminal.

Even though the coroner has yet to confirm the cause of Eunice’s death, Wudrich believes she likely suffered a heart attack.

“In my eyes, she probably aged, like physically, 20 years or so. Mentally, she was always worried,” he says.

During the trial, it was revealed the foster home was only approved for three children, but Social Services placed five children in the Wudrichs’ care. Even though Eunice qualified for an in-home support worker, the trial heard that one was never found.

Justice Neil Gabrielson ruled the Crown did not prove she knew there was a risk of bodily harm when she left Evander in two inches of lukewarm bathwater.

His decision was partially based on the fact that she had turned off the taps before leaving the bathroom to show her husband a bruise on another foster child’s leg, which he ruled was a valid reason to leave.

Eunice became a foster mother because she wasn’t able to have her own children, Wudrich says.

The foster children were removed from the home shortly after Evander’s death.

“Kids were her life, and to have that taken away from her, that was another thing that bothered her,” Wudrich says.

He says another stress was that the Crown launched an appeal shortly after the acquittal.

It was dropped in November, but Wudrich says he and his wife learned about it through the media because they were never contacted by the Crown.

“It took probably three weeks for it to sink in to Eunice. Just about every day she would ask me ‘is it really over?’ and I would say ‘yes, I think it is,”‘ Wudrich says.

He says his family was finally ready to move on with their life and had been preparing to take their adopted daughter to Disneyland right before Eunice died.

He hopes people will remember her as a kind, caring woman who genuinely loved children despite the tragedy of Evander’s death.

“After we couldn’t foster, just so that she could feel like she could help people, she started doing cleaning for older people that couldn’t do their house cleaning themselves,” Wudrich says.

“I told her `the amount you’re charging, you’re basically not even paying for the gas to go in,’ but she said, ‘I want to do it.’ That’s the way she was, she just liked trying to help people.”