B.C.’s chief coroner has ordered the investigation into a young Indigenous woman’s death be reopened, a day after the family publicly called for an inquest.
Tatyanna Harrison, 20, was found dead on a docked yacht in Richmond in May 2022. Her mother, Natasha Harrison, was told criminality was not suspected in her daughter’s case, and that her cause of death was fentanyl toxicity. The coroner’s report later said her cause of death was sepsis.
On Monday, groups including Justice for Girls and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs announced that an independent forensic pathologist review was disputing the B.C. Coroners Service’s findings in connection with the case, saying her cause of death could not be determined.
Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, British Columbia’s chief coroner, said in a statement, “As a parent, I cannot fathom the trauma and grief that the Harrison family has experienced over the past three years. The pain of losing a child is unimaginable, and the concerns the Harrisons have expressed regarding the circumstances of Tatyanna’s death only add to that pain.”
“Pursuant to Section 18 of the Coroners Act, I am directing a coroner’s inquest to publicly review the circumstances that led to her death.”
Indigenous deaths under investigation
Tatyanna Harrison is one of three high-profile deaths of young Indigenous people that are now under scrutiny. The families of Chelsea Poorman and Noelle O’Soup, who also died in the spring of 2022, are also asking for an inquest into their deaths.
Baidwan wrote, “The investigations into the deaths of Chelsea Poorman and Noelle O’Soup remain open. Determinations about whether to proceed to an inquest with those deaths will be made at a future date, and we will remain in communication with the Poorman and O’Soup families throughout the process.”
The families of Tatyanna Harrison, Poorman and O’Soup have long raised concerns about the investigations into their disappearances and deaths.
A recent CBC News investigation revealed the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner is currently reviewing the police responses to all three cases.
Natasha Harrison said there was a 20-day delay in starting the search for her daughter after she disappeared from downtown Vancouver, because the file was unnecessarily and incorrectly transferred between police jurisdictions in Vancouver and Surrey.
She said despite her daughter being found naked from the waist down, her death was quickly deemed to be non-criminal in nature, and no rape kit exam was performed. She said Monday she is still waiting for the rape kit to be processed.
Sue Brown, a lawyer for Justice for Girls, which helped initiate the request for a coroner’s inquest, said on Tuesday the news of the inquest has been a long time coming for Harrison’s family.
“I know that they’re feeling very relieved at the moment, but given the work that it’s taken to get here, that relief is qualified by the failures that have happened over the past three years and the work that we have ahead of us to learn more about what happened to Tatyanna,” she said.
