Court ruling gives man hope police will probe mom’s 2004 death

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/10/2022 (1122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly 20 years after Jessie Garwood suffered a fatal fall in her Windsor Park home, her son hopes a civil judgment against the woman he believes is responsible, will convince police and justice officials to reopen an investigation into her death.

“I’m hoping the Crown will reconsider its decision to forget the case,” Jim Garwood said Tuesday. “There is more than enough evidence in the file to get a conviction, in my view.”

Jessie Garwood, 87, died after tripping and falling down her basement stairs, according to police evidence collected in 2004.

But Jim Garwood alleges his mother was the victim of foul play at the hands of his former step-granddaughter Catherine Johnson, the last person to see Jessie Garwood alive and the person who discovered her body.

Garwood said he was preparing to move ahead with a private prosecution against Johnson in 2018 when a judge advised him to provide his evidence to the Crown’s office for evaluation. He said a prosecutor advised him a few months ago the case “wouldn’t be strong enough to get a conviction.’

In 2019, at the same time the Crown was reviewing the case, Garwood filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Johnson, who has since moved to Arizona. Johnson filed a statement of defence saying she didn’t kill Jessie Garwood, but didn’t offer an alternative explanation.

A trial was set to begin in Court of King’s Bench on Oct. 3, but Johnson didn’t turn up. Justice Theodor Bock moved to order a default judgment against her in the amount of $50,000 plus court costs.

“The defendant’s defence is a bald denial of the claim and nothing further,” Bock said. “Ms. Johnson was not seeking to present some alternative version of events. She was rather seeking to prove she did not do what she is alleged to have done.

“In order to prove her defence, she needed to appear in court to testify,” he said. “Her failure to do so is fatal to her defence. As a result, I accept the truth of the allegations in the statement of claim to be admitted by her.”

Garwood’s statement of claim alleged Johnson had pushed his mother down the stairs or had physically assaulted her.

In the months prior to Jessie Garwood’s death, Johnson forged four cheques in her name totalling $14,000, James Garwood alleged in his statement of claim.

The night Jessie Garwood died, her Victoria Lifeline pendant was activated, says the statement of claim. When an operator called to check on Garwood, Johnson answered the phone and said Garwood had fallen but was uninjured, the statement of claim alleged.

A pathology report says Jessie Garwood had 13 injuries to her head — injuries Garwood claimed were more consistent with an assault as there are only eight steps in her basement.

Thambirajah Balachandra, who was chief medical examiner, wrote a letter to Winnipeg police Chief Keith McCaskill in August 2011, suggesting investigators reopen the case.

“Although our office initially assumed the death was an accident, we later changed the manner of death to undetermined, as the death appears not to be an accident,” Balachandra wrote.

“I think it would be prudent to investigate this case further, as it appears that foul play may have been involved in this case.”

In an affidavit, forensic consultant Joseph Slemko found Garwood had suffered blunt force injuries that could not have been caused by falling alone.

Garwood said he forwarded a message to the Crown prosecutor who had earlier reviewed the case, but has not heard back whether they will revisit it.

A Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by deadline Tuesday.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca