Want to know keep up-to-date on what's happening in Victoria? Subscribe to our daily newsletter:
Samatha’s mother, Tracy Sims challenged the competence and professionalism of BCCS investigators and VicPD in her daughter’s case.
Samatha’s mother, Tracy Sims challenged the competence and professionalism of BCCS investigators and VicPD in her daughter’s case.
Get the news and events in Victoria, in your inbox every morning.
Samatha’s mother, Tracy Sims challenged the competence and professionalism of BCCS investigators and VicPD in her daughter’s case.
The 2021 death in Victoria of an 18-year-old has raised questions about an alleged lack of rigour at the BC Coroners Service (BCCS) offices when it comes to determining whether provincial deaths involving drug substances are natural, accidental, or intentional due to external causes.
The work of the BCCS is coming under scrutiny from a former solicitor general and police chief and a former chief coroner and mayor of Vancouver. Some of that scrutiny came to rest on the death, in April 2021Samantha Sims-Somerville. The UVic student died from a fatal overdose of what are commonly known as “date rape drugs”.
Samatha’s mother, Tracy Sims challenged the competence and professionalism of BCCS investigators and VicPD in her daughter’s case.
The cause of death for Sims-Somervilleinitially was labelled an accidental overdose, however, recent reports from the BCCS reveal she and her friend were intentionally given a fatal dose of an unregulated drug called gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB —also known as the date rape drug—by older men they didn’t know and "without their knowledge."
Sims believes her daughter and another young woman were given GHB, often used by perpetrators as a powerful sedative to limit a victim’s capacity to react to a sexual assault. The other victim lived. Although news reports say an autopsy was conducted on the body of Sims-Somerville, police quickly concluded there was insufficient evidence to pursue an investigation into what it initially ruled as “accidental death.”
Extensive reporting in the 2022 BC Coroner Service Death Review Panel: A Review of Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths demonstrates a clear and necessary focus on toxic illicit drug overdoses but says nothing about intentional poisoning by so-called “date rate drugs.”
The chief coroner directed the investigation to be reopened on March 1, after new information, brought to their attention mainly through the efforts of Samantha’s mother via the VicPD was made available. The coroners service’s previous investigation initially had closed on Jan. 6, 2023.
Sims’ mother has also filed a complaint against some of the VicPD officers involved in her daughter's case, which the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner is currently investigating. In a Dec. 3 Facebook post Sims wrote, “I have the public, I have the support, I have the knowledge and understanding to make a difference, but the best part is I have the Truth, Sammy’s Truth, I won. The spotlight is on you! I said to the Detective who told me the case was closed for them.”
After initially ruling the death an accidental overdose, the coroners service changed the verdict to homicide after Sims-Somerville’s mother conducted her own investigation, producing compelling evidence her daughter had been the victim of a deliberate attack and her death was not the result of a self-administered fatal overdose of GHB and Rohypnol.
On April 9, 2021, Sims-Somerville attended a small gathering at a Victoria residence after being brought there by an acquaintance, according to the BCCS’s latest report. At around 3 a.m., other people at the residence called 911 after Sims-Somerville and a friend were found unresponsive. a
Last month at a committee of the whole meeting, Victoria police Chief Del Manak told the city council his department had referred the case to the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU)
In an interview he gave after that meeting he said: “We feel that if the coroner’s service has reclassified it to a homicide, that we should–out of an abundance of caution—have somebody else independently outside of the Victoria Police Department investigators have a look at this.”
However, the left hand and the right hand appeared to have not been communicating. The VIIMCU says the 2021 death of Samantha Sims-Somerville, deemed a homicide by the coroner’s service, didn’t meet its threshold for investigation. The major crime unit, which is made up of officers from the RCMP and municipal forces, manages and investigates culpable homicides and missing-person cases where foul play is suspected, but no longer investigates suspicious sudden deaths.
A VicPD spokesperson told Capital Daily in an email Manak that was unaware when he spoke to the mayor and council, of the major crime unit’s decision and said VicPD is still looking for information from the coroner on the reclassification of Sims-Somerville’s death and that police are determining their next steps.
In June, Sol. Gen. Mike Farnworth ordered a coroner's investigation into the poisoning death of University of Victoria student Sidney McIntyre-Starko.
McIntyre-Starko died at the age of 18 when she suffered cardiac arrest in her dorm due to fentanyl poisoning in January.
All in all, the BC Coroners Service has 27 inquests scheduled, according to its media spokesperson Amber Schinkel. “The number of cases each year, she said, is limited by the service’s own capacity, its budget and the availability of courtrooms.”
Asked whether Samantha Sims-Somerville’s death will also be the subject of an inquest, now that her death has been ruled a homicide. Schinkel would say only: “Dr. Baidwan is confident in the approach laid out in the Coroners Act,” referring to Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, who was appointed BC’s chief coroner in August.
On Dec 1, Tracy Sims wrote on Facebook: “I will now accept that I cannot take this further than I have and that all I have done is more than I ever expected to take on and more than I expected to achieve.”
