WARNING: The details in this story may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
The coroner’s inquest into the death of Florence Girard in 2018 continued on Thursday.
The society behind the home-share arrangement for Girard took the stand and one of the people tasked with monitoring her admitted that mistakes were made.
Girard had lived with her caretaker Astrid Dahl for about eight years as a part of the residential home-sharing agreement, overseen by the non-profit Kinsight Community Society, which is a non-profit contracted by Community Living BC.
Dahl testified on Wednesday that Kinsight offered no guidance or support.
Kinsight workers were at Dahl’s home two months before Girard, who had Down syndrome, starved to death but admitted they never checked on her.
At that time, Dahl was set to care for a new person who was getting welcomed into the home.
Former Kinsight coordinator, Krista Maniezzo, testified on Thursday that Dahl has been harder to reach after her tumultuous divorce, which forced her to move. There was also an allegation of domestic abuse and a gun was found in the house.
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When asked if those factors including the change in communication and the lack of responsiveness should have triggered that something might need investigating, Maniezzo said that it should have and they should have opened Girard’s door to see her.
“At the time, there were no alarm bells ringing,” she said.
Girard dropped from 100 to 50 pounds in the months before she died of starvation in October 2018.
Dahl testified on Wednesday that she fed Girard three to four bottles of meal replacements daily. When Girard died that October, she weighed just 50.6 pounds, dying of malnutrition.
“It’s just unacceptable,” Tamara Taggart with Down syndrome BC said. “I don’t care who it is, it’s just it’s common, common sense, common courtesy, common kindness, to check on somebody else.”
Maniezzo testified that during the quarterly visits, Dahl never reported changing Girard’s medication or her refusal to see a medical doctor.
“I had a lot of trust in Astrid that she was telling me everything that was going on,” she said.
There are some contradictions between Dahl and Kinsight’s coordinator’s testimonies and it will be up to the jury to decide which testimonies they believe.
The inquest is set to continue on Friday.
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