The family of Taryn Hewitt has been grieving privately since the 16-year-old was killed.
But now they are breaking their silence because they are upset about the way the police investigation is unfolding.
“We were all so lost and can’t believe it and still can’t believe it was even her, that it happened to,” said Alia Parker, Hewitt’s stepmother from the home she shares with Hewitt’s father in Aylmer.
WATCH: Two people arrested after police pursuit in Calgary area
“We’re not those parents that are saying that the kids were doing the right thing and it’s all the police’s fault. like we do understand that they were a part of it. We don’t understand how it went from a car theft to two teenagers being dead”.
On Oct. 5, Hewitt, a grade 10 student from London was killed after the stolen car she and her boyfriend were driving in collided head on with a transport truck on Highway 6 near Hamilton.
The crash happened during a police pursuit with Waterloo Regional Police, which began in Cambridge after a concerned citizen called saying someone had been assaulted and possibly abducted.
The driver, Hewitt’s 15-year-old boyfriend Nathan Wehrle, was also killed in the crash.
WATCH: 2 people arrested following southern Alberta police pursuit
“If this began as an abduction, then protocols need to be looked at, the end result is not in favour of the victim that they were trying to save. And at the same time you’re putting countless others at risk,” Parker said.
Parker says Hewitt sent a text message to her mother in London and a friend during the police pursuit explaining why someone might have called police thinking she had been abducted.
“We got in a fight and I jumped through the drivers window and someone called ….”
She also referenced the pursuit saying “the feds are on us. They tried to hit us. were done.”
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Alia Parker says the way the OPP and the SIU have carried out their investigations secretive and inconsistent. She says the family also fears the SIU will find no criminal wrongdoing on the part of the Waterloo Regional Police officers involved.
“We’re finding that there’s so many roadblocks in our experience with this so far we feel like we’re not going to get any answers because they’re more inclined to side with the police”, she explained.
Parker says there have also been many inconsistencies in the OPP and SIU investigations explaining that the OPP have told them that the crash happened after a pursuit on Highway 401. While the SIU says they were never on Highway 401.
SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon sent a statement to Global News today which said, “The Special Investigations Unit has been in regular contact with family members. All communications have been prompt, courteous, professional and as transparent as possible given the limitations during an ongoing SIU investigation.”
The SIU saying they work as expeditiously as possible to complete each investigation and understands how difficult waiting can be for persons involved in our investigations, including the families of those who have been seriously injured or who have died.
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