Inquest Paused after Mother Receives Shocking News About Her Daughter

[Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and information related to missing and deceased Indigenous women and youth. It may be triggering to some readers.]

The mother of a young Indigenous woman found dead on a boat at a Richmond marina four years ago learned her daughter’s body had been buried without her knowledge or consent at an inquest Tuesday.

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Natasha Harrison was in the courtroom in Burnaby as Cynthia Hogan, a coroner with the BC Coroners Service, revealed Tatyanna Harrison’s body had been sent to the Ministry of Social Development to be buried or cremated.

Hogan said she made the decision after repeatedly asking Natasha Harrison to make funeral arrangements.

Tatyanna, 20, went missing from the Downtown Eastside in the spring of 2022 and was found dead on a boat in drydock at a marina in Richmond on May 1, 2022. Despite being found unclothed from the waist down on a boat known to be used for transient drug use and possible sex work, police and coroners who investigated the scene said they did not see any evidence of criminality.

On the first day of the inquest Thursday, Natasha Harrison said she had slowly learned the circumstances of her daughter’s discovery from police and the coroner and had to ask repeated questions to learn that her daughter was found without pants, underwear or shoes.

In a previous interview with The Tyee, Natasha said she refused to release the body of her daughter without a fuller investigation.

In October or November of 2022, a forensic sexual assault exam was performed on the body after Natasha Harrison’s repeated requests. But those results have never been processed by Richmond RCMP. The inquest heard the swabs taken still remain with RCMP, but have never been analyzed because police have no indication a crime took place.

“I’m thinking my daughter was drugged, raped, and I’m worried about hot shots at this point with the way it looks,” she said during her testimony on the first day of the inquest. A hot shot is a deliberate drug overdose administered to another person.

“I need them to tell me that that didn’t happen, so I need you to perform a sexual assault kit and give me the proof my daughter wasn’t assaulted. Give me the proof.

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“That’s what I’m looking for at this point, because now I have my worst fears on the table, and I need you to take those fears off the table.”

The inquest has also heard that an autopsy was performed, but the forensic pathologist found no evidence of sexual assault or other trauma.

However, the inquest has heard about marks found on Tatyanna’s hips and a bruise on the pubic bone, and the jury has questioned whether her nose may have been broken, based on photographs the jury has access to but which have not been released publicly.

Hogan described Tatyanna’s body as “emaciated” at the time of her death. However, she said she believed the death was likely from natural causes in part because feces were found at the scene, on and around the body, and there were no other signs of trauma or disease.

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Hogan initially told Natasha Harrison her daughter had almost definitely died of a fentanyl overdose after preliminary toxicology results showed “therapeutic,” or low, levels of the drug.

However, the cause of death was later changed to sepsis months later, after samples taken at the autopsy were tested.

At hearing from Hogan that her daughter’s remains were no longer with the coroner, Natasha Harrison was overcome with emotion and the inquest was paused.

When the inquest resumed, Natasha Harrison’s lawyer, Sue Brown, asked Hogan to find out where Tatyanna’s remains are now located.

“I do not know where her remains are,” Hogan replied.

But after repeated prompting by Brown, Hogan was able to look up the file and reveal that Tatyanna Harrison had been buried on Aug. 15, 2023, at the Surrey Centre Cemetery.

The inquest continues this week.