Chelsea Poorman’s father said Vancouver police lied and were negligent while investigating the disappearance of his son, whose remains were discovered April 22 in an unoccupied home. He maintains that the police department is not taking the matter seriously, as the girl is indigenous.
I believe 100% that they have a problem with aboriginal womenmourns Mike Kiernan, Chelsea Poorman’s father. I believe that because he was Aboriginal, he did not receive the appropriate service he deserved.
Chelsea Poorman grew up in Regina, her family is from Kawacatoose First Nation, Saskatchewan.
He was last seen on Sept. 6, 2020 when he met his sister for dinner and drinks on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver before being officially reported missing two days later.
The remains of a 24-year-old Cree woman were found in the yard of an unoccupied home in Vancouver’s upscale Shaughnessy neighborhood on April 22nd.
The police investigation determined that Chelsea Poorman likely died at this location on or a few hours after the day of her disappearance, but her body remained unidentified for more than a year because the house had been unoccupied for several years. . Still according to the investigation, it was not a question of suspicious death. A conclusion disputed by the victim’s mother, Sheila Poorman, and Aboriginal organizations.
Father Mike Kiernan now says he entered the house on May 11 and 12, after investigators left, and was shocked to see some of Chelsea’s personal belongings, including part of her cell phone case, socks, bus pass. , hair ties and what he refers to as a number disgusting of gloves used and scattered by the police.
There are only a ton of thingshe said. There is so much identifying information he has in his bag that I think it should at least be collected for investigation. Nothing was collected.
Mike Kiernan said he moved to Vancouver and lived in his van for 17 months to find his daughter. He said that in his absence he avoided publicly criticizing Vancouver police because he did not want to annoying investigators working on the case.
But there are still so many unanswered questions, he pointed out, ranging from how his daughter, who is physically disabled, got from 1278 Granville Street, where he was last seen, to the neighborhood house. of Shaughnessy.
It was 5.8 miles and he would have a hard time doing the .8 miles, especially to get there and get into those big gates. It was almost impossible for him to do soargument by Mike Kiernan.
Lack of diligence on the part of the Vancouver Police Department has resulted in the loss of important information, he said.
He said not only was there a 10-day delay in issuing the missing person notice, but also the police were dishonest in their efforts to collect the tapes from the surveillance video of the shops on rue Granville, who recorded the night of his disappearance. .
I talked to all the business owners […] and they were not approached, they were not askedhe said. [La police] the cameras were not checked. They say they have done extensive research on the video. These are just lies. Nothing but lies and I can check it out.
Mr Kiernan also learned that police had no video from their own surveillance camera from the Granville Community Police Center, pointing to the building where Chelsea was last seen alive.
This is the part that breaks my heart … When I asked them about the camera facing 1278 Granville Street, they told me it didn’t work.he said.
The broken camera was not his only criticism of the Granville Community Police Center.
” My message to the police: do your job “
Mike Kiernan said he was on several occasions when he was disappointed to learn that the poster reporting his son’s disappearance had been removed and replaced with a poster advertising $ 20 Vancouver Police Department sunglasses.
According to Mr. Kierman’s testimony, an employee told him it was done at the behest of senior officer.
Mike Kiernan also lamented the confused communication from investigators following the discovery of Chelsea’s remains.
Police first told him he was discovered in a pile of garbage. He was then found lying on a pillow with a blanket.
He explained that only after talking directly with the contractor who discovered his corpse did he find out it was not true, that it was found lying on the terrace at the back of the house.
In an email, Vancouver police spokesman Sergeant Steve Addison said city police are conducting an investigation. detailed and complex in the disappearance of Chelsea Poorman, which began the day she was reported missing.
His disappearance was investigated by the Vancouver Police Missing Persons Unit and our Major Crimes Section, where he was led by a team of senior homicide investigators.said Sergeant Addison.
The provincial police standards, which govern the Vancouver Police Department, state that with regard to missing persons, Indigenous women and girls are at higher risk of harm and is disproportionately represented among missing and murdered women in Canada.
These guidelines were developed as a result of the Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry, which found explicit omission of the police in the investigation of serial murders of women, many of them aboriginal, conducted by Robert Pickton.
Former police officer Dave Dickson, who was instrumental in linking Robert Pickton to Vancouver’s missing women in the 1990s, believes police have always been biased when it comes to is to investigate missing Aboriginal women.
I’m sorry to say, but after 20 years, nothing has improvedsays Dave Dickson, who now works as a social worker for a New Westminster charity.
With information from Michelle Ghoussoub and Karin Larsen
Source: Radio-Canada
