Foster teen deliberately jumped from Abbotsford hotel window: coroner
VANCOUVER — A coroner’s report has found that a teenager whose death prompted scrutiny of the B.C. government’s practice of placing at-risk foster children in hotels jumped from a fourth-floor motel window.
The BC Coroners Service has released its report on the death of Alex Gervais, an 18-year-old who was placed by the Ministry of Children and Family Development in an Abbotsford Super 8 motel after his group home closed.
The report by coroner Adele Lambert says Gervais had non-lethal concentrations of cocaine and other drugs in his system before he died after deliberately jumping through the motel window in September 2015.
Lambert describes the teenager as “very sensitive and fearful of rejection.” The report says he came permanently into ministry care at an early age and experienced considerable challenges in his life related to behaviour, mental health, substance use and unstable living environment.