WATCH: As the second week came to an end in the Serena Perry inquest, the family is feeling the emotional pressure. Andrew Cromwell reports.
SAINT JOHN, N.B. – Two nurses who found Serena Perry in the amphitheatre of the Saint John Regional Hospital were recalled to testify Friday at a coroner’s inquest.
They were asked to comment on the housecoat found around Perry’s neck on Feb. 14, 2012.
A picture shown to the coroner’s jury of a re-enactment of the scene in the amphitheatre included a mannequin with a housecoat tied around its neck.
Melissa Schima and Paula Murphy said there was no knot and it was loose around Perry’s neck.
Schima, who performed CPR on Perry, said the housecoat wasn’t tight enough to choke somebody.
Efforts to resuscitate Perry failed.
The 22-year-old woman was a patient in the hospital’s psychiatric ward.
The five-member coroner’s jury will make recommendations to help prevent similar deaths in the future.
Two pathologists identified asphyxia due to strangulation as a probable cause of death for Perry, but they didn’t have enough information to make a conclusive determination about how she died.
Police arrested a suspect a month after Perry’s death but no charges were laid.
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