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death inquest reveals that deceased woman's roommate thought she was experiencing 'psychosis'
ywca staff and medical personnel were also called as witnesses on the second day of nicole lafontaine's death inquest.
aug 20 2024
4 minute read
a sign outside the regina ywca is shown on jan. 9, 2024.
heywood yu
/
regina leader-post
torie bellegarde says her roommate was speaking to people who weren’t there on the night she died.
she thought nicole lafontaine was experiencing “psychosis” when she crawled out the window of their fifth-floor room at regina’s ywca in july 2023.
“i tried to grab her leg,” bellegarde said early this week during an inquest into lafontaine’s death.
the proceedings began monday at the royal hotel regina and are scheduled to continue for up to five days.
“tell us what you can,” coroner’s counsel robin ritter said to bellegarde.
on the night in question, bellegarde recalled how lafontaine “started to go toward the window” like she was trying to get to someone she saw outside.
it didn’t seem like lafontaine was aware that she was on the fifth floor of a building, she added.
“i ran to the buzzer and the buzzer didn’t work … the intercom in the room didn’t work,” the witness said, recalling her attempts to find help from ywca staff. “so then i ran upstairs and i started freaking out and banging, ringing the doorbell. and the lady came and i said: ‘she jumped. she jumped.’”
a member of the regina police service (rps) forensics unit said monday that he observed a broken window crank in the room, which allowed for the window to be opened wider than normal . he also noted there was no screen on the window.
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when help came, bellegarde recalled that a ywca staff member looked out the window and said “she’s not down there.”
upon hearing this statement on monday, nicole’s mother became noticeably upset and stood up from her seat before walking out of the room. bellegarde continued after a brief adjournment, going on to say that she felt nicole should have been supervised.
“it could have been stopped,” she added.
ritter said one purpose of the inquest is to find ways to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.
“we want things to get better,” he said. “we don’t want any other mother to sit through this. this is a forward-looking process.”
bellegarde suggested that people going through withdrawals or psychosis should be somewhere with more supervision and windows that can’t be opened wide enough to fit through.
pregnant at the time, bellegarde noted that she had the window open a lot that summer because she was quite warm.
ywca counsel dan leblanc asked bellegarde about the state of the window and whether she was happy it could be opened. bellegarde said she was happy for the option in the heat, but added that “i wasn’t happy it was broken.”
leblanc also sought clarity around whether bellegarde had told anyone about the crank.
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“would you agree with me that you did not file a complaint about the window being broken?” he asked.
bellegarde said she certainly mentioned it to staff.
on tuesday morning, the inquest jury heard from serine finlayson, who was working at the ywca on the night that nicole died.
ritter asked what had changed at the ywca since lafontaine’s death. finlayson explained that there is now staff on the fifth and sixth floors, instead of just the sixth. she also said there are fewer beds on the floors, thus improving the ratio of residents to staff.
“has anything been done to make sure that no other person can fall out of a window?” asked ritter.
“windows are supposed to be closed,” but otherwise no, finlayson responded.
as for the night in question, she recalled bellegarde running up to the sixth floor to say nicole was trying to get out the window. finlayson remembered seeing her on the ground and said she called 911 but didn’t go outside until paramedics told her over the phone to tend to the woman.
“i was too scared,” finlayson said when asked why she initially remained inside.
finlayson said having additional staff and more training on how to handle a client experiencing psychosis could help prevent such a tragedy. she also denied that any staff member had said lafontaine was “not down there,” as bellegarde asserted.
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a trauma surgeon at the regina general hospital declared lafontaine dead at 3:40 a.m. on july 22, 2023.
speaking to the inquest jury on tuesday, dr. james holden said lafontaine came in with paramedics around 3 a.m. after attempting life-saving measures, he said “we were unfortunately convinced the patient could not be returned to life.”
holden was also asked about nicole’s past admittances for treatment. in a medical report entered as an exhibit in the inquest, nicole’s mother is quoted as saying in early january 2023 that she “noticed 36 hours of extremely bizarre behaviour” from her daughter, in addition to a tonic-clonic seizure.
valerie lafontaine said her daughter told her she experienced 35 overdoses during her life from various substances.
valerie asked holden whether she could have been saved if people had responded to her daughter sooner.
“unfortunately, i don’t think so,” he said, citing “significant brain injury.”
dr. andreea nistor, a forensic pathologist, also went over the final autopsy report tuesday. she said the report found that lafontaine “died of multiple blunt force injuries” consistent with “a fall from height.”
leblanc was set to question finlayson on tuesday afternoon.
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