For the time being, it appears that answers will be hard to come by for those grieving the passing of Chantelle Williams, as a determination of cause of death hinges on a coroner’s investigation with no end date.
The 18-year-old died on Jan.28 after being found unresponsive on a Port Alberni street early in the morning. Two ambulances responded to a report from a passerby that came in at 5:06 a.m., transporting Williams to the West Coast General Hospital in critical condition, states B.C. Ambulance Services.
According to family members, she had been admitted to the hospital the day before for cirrhosis, an alcohol-related liver disease. After being released from the hospital she was taken to her group home, and checked on at 11 p.m., says the family. But a staff member checked again at 1 a.m. when they felt some cold air, only to find the bedroom window open and Williams gone, says her grandfather George Nookemus.
A few hours later the teenager was found unconscious on Ian Avenue, just a few blocks away.
Since her passing George Nookemus has been calling on the spirit of his granddaughter to come visit, but he can’t find her.
When he lost his wife, the same thing happened. Nookemus couldn’t find her for a while, until he went to the site of her car crash.
“They hang around the place where they die and I found her there,” said Nookemus. “When my late wife came to me it felt like someone was pushing my shoulder. She was with my mom and dad and the rest of my family. She was the one talking and the rest were just standing there. It made me feel better and happier.”
He plans to visit the 4900 block of Ian Avenue in Port Alberni, the place where a passerby found Williams’ unresponsive body on Jan. 28.
“I might get contact there. I’m going to ask her to come see me and tell her to tell me who she is with,” said Nookemus, a master carver from Huu-ay-aht First Nations territory. “You really put your heart into it and pray. Call them and pray.”
Williams would have celebrated her 19th birthday on April 14. Her grandfather says she was also an artist who loved to paint.
“She did a native tent, like from Saskatchewan, and the background with mountains. It’s really nice.” said Nookemus over the phone from his home in Anacla. “She got her name signed on it. She used to paint some of the carvings for me when she came down. Like the smaller carvings of hummingbirds and stuff.”
At the time of her death Williams was under the guardianship of Usma Nuu-chah-nulth Child and Family Services, and living in a group home run by the Inside Out Care Corporation.
As B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, Jennifer Charlesworth has a “responsibility to review, and in some cases investigate” the death of a young person in care. But according to provincial legislation, the representative has to wait for one year to allow the B.C. Coroners’ Service, the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) and any other public bodies “to complete their mandated reviews”, said Charlesworth in a statement sent to Ha-Shilth-Sa.
“If the BCCS and public bodies have not completed these reviews within one year of a child’s death, and there are no outstanding criminal investigations or court proceedings, then we may proceed to full investigation,” she said.
In the meantime the representative and her staff plan to visit Port Alberni in late April to meet with service providers.
“We have undertaken an initial review, gathered documentation and spoken with leaders with the agency and the tribal council to both express our condolences for their tragic loss and to learn more about the circumstances surrounding this young person’s life, and death,” continued Charlesworth. “Our aim is to learn more about the challenges facing the community, share patterns that we have discerned within our mandated work and explore ways to better wrap around and support young people who are struggling.”
Usma is a department within the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.
“We feel really bad about this tragedy, it’s awful,” said NTC President Judith Sayers. “It’s just so frustrating that you don’t know.”
Sayers added that the tribal council has been cooperating with the reviews and investigation to find answers into why the 18-year-old died.
“We’re cooperating as much as we can, and everything that we can do we will do,” she said. “We don’t know how long the coroner is going to take, and we’re hoping that MCFD is going to push that to a further conclusion.”
Looking ahead, the Representative for Children and Youth plans to undertake “a comprehensive review of government-funded staffed homes to illuminate where gaps in practice and quality of care exist and how we can ensure young people living in these environments are safe and well-supported,” said Charlesworth.
