Authorities are investigating how a woman with dementia froze to death near her Scarborough home early Monday after police say her cries for help were ignored.
The 66-year-old woman had little clothing to protect her on the coldest morning of the year when she wandered away from her home.
A newspaper delivery person found her around 5 a.m. lying face up on the sidewalk outside a house on Kennaley Crescent, at least a block away from where she lived near the intersection of Brimley Rd. and McNicoll Ave. in Scarborough.
She was lying between two cars and a hedge, which may have blocked her from view.
Her coat and glasses were found on the property’s driveway.
She had no vital signs when she was taken to hospital, where she was declared dead.
“I didn’t hear anything,” said Arthur St. Bernard, 61, owner of the home where the woman was found. “My son and daughter woke me up at 5 a.m. and I looked out and saw several police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck.”
He’s lived in the area for 25 years, he said, and can’t understand why people wouldn’t have phoned 911.
“I don’t think it’s a bad area,” St. Bernard said, although several years ago he saw a mugging on the street, and a couple of years ago he saw somebody trying to break into a car at around 3 a.m.
“I called police at that time.”
When asked why people didn’t help he said, “I wouldn’t have let the woman in, and I’m not saying she should have been let in, but people should have at least phoned 911.”
Neighbours “didn’t call police because they said it was a dangerous area and they didn’t want to get involved,” Toronto police Sgt. David Dube told the Star.
“It’s sad because this could have been a totally different outcome,” Dube said. People have an “obligation” to call police when people are in distress, he said.
Police found dirt marks around a car door, leading them to believe the woman tried to get inside the vehicle. There were also indications she tried to open a screen door of a home.
“It’s horrible that nobody would have phoned the police,” said a woman on her way to school. “It’s a real good neighbourhood.”
The woman’s husband first noticed that she was not in bed at 2 a.m.
When she still had not returned to bed at 3 a.m., he began driving around the neighbourhood in search of her. When that failed, he contacted police at 4:44 a.m.
The woman was found after she had been outside for about three hours. Paramedics were unable to perform chest compressions because the body was frozen.
Her death came on Toronto’s coldest day of the year, with the overnight temperature plunging to -28C with the wind chill.
Police said an autopsy will be conducted, but it’s believed the cause of death is hypothermia.
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