They lived in a car for 89 days. Now daughter of elderly BC woman convicted in her death

CONTENT ADVISORY

When paramedics arrived at the campsite where 75-year-old BC resident Marilyn Robinson was living they found her covered in feces and urine, and wearing two layers of diapers.

She had dementia and was sitting in the back seat of a dirty car, unresponsive. 

Paramedics thought she’d probably been sick for four or five days and she appeared emaciated. They saw dead tissue on the back of her leg.

Marilyn’s daughter, Elizabeth Mary Joy Robinson, told them her mother had not been out of the car for four days.

When Marilyn arrived at Chilliwack General Hospital, a doctor noted that she was cold and that her fingers were purple. She had low blood pressure, open wounds and rotting flesh on her tailbone that appeared to have been there a while. The feces had been there so long it had become stuck to her skin.

On June 23, 2019, shortly after arriving at the hospital, Marilyn died.

Earlier this month, Marilyn’s daughter Elizabeth was convicted of failing to perform the legal duty to provide the necessaries of life.

According to a July 3 BC Supreme Court decision, Marilyn had been living in the car with Elizabeth, Callum Smith, who was Elizabeth’s partner, and two cats for 89 days.

The decision said in the years before Marilyn ended up living in a car, she was renting a basement suite below an old friend, Meena Kumar.

Kumar testified that she saw Marilyn’s cognitive decline in the years before she left the suite. 

“Her usual standards of personal hygiene and tidiness began to deteriorate. She stopped eating regularly, causing her to lose weight,” Justice Warren Milman said in the decision.

Kumar encouraged Marilyn to bathe and began bringing her food and staying with her while she ate to make sure she finished her meal.

“She stopped letting Marilyn walk the dog after an incident when Marilyn had wandered outside in the cold without adequate winter clothing,” the decision said.

As the situation worsened, Kumar became concerned about Marilyn’s inability to look after herself and contacted Marilyn’s son, Donovin Thompson, who agreed to move in to take care of her. It was the summer of 2017.

“He kept the suite tidy, did her laundry, prepared meals for her and took her to medical and other appointments,” the Justice said.

In the fall of 2018, Thompson was injured and away for five days recovering. He testified that when he returned, Marilyn was gone, and her bank account had been emptied. 

Elizabeth testified she had driven back from Ontario where she was living, after hearing Thompson wasn’t doing a good job looking after her. She heard her mother wasn’t getting enough to eat and was being denied access to her money and cigarettes.

She took her mother to live with her in an apartment in Mission.

“(That) was the last stable accommodation that Elizabeth and Marilyn had before Marilyn’s death,” Justice Milman said.

They had to move out when the person’s who apartment it was committed suicide.

“From then on, they resided in various places, with no fixed address,” the Justice said. 

Sometimes they stayed with Marilyn’s ex-husband, sometimes with Elizabeth’s sons.

“When they had nowhere else to go, they slept in tents in public campgrounds… during this period, they showered when and where they could. Sometimes they went to community centres,” the Justice said.

Elizabeth testified she would try to help her mother shower, but Marilyn would refuse to be helped. She said Marilyn had been having trouble controlling her bladder and began wearing diapers. 

During this time, they went to refill a prescription at Langley Memorial Hospital, and Marilyn was put on an IV. A doctor prescribed 22 medications.

“Elizabeth did not believe that any of these medications were necessary,” the Justice said. “They decided to leave and did so, despite the hospital staff’s protestations.”

They struggled to find a campground and ended up at the Vedder campground in Chilliwack. 

Elizabeth testified that the night before her mother died they had agreed to leave the next day. 

However, the next morning, she noticed her mother was unresponsive, and an ambulance was called.

It was more than two years after Marilyn’s death before Elizabeth was charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to supply the necessities of life.

Elizabeth, who is in her mid-50s, pleaded not guilty, but her first trial in front of a judge and jury ended in a mistrial. 

A second trial in front of a judge alone was conducted over two and a half weeks earlier this year.

Numerous witnesses were called, from health-care staff who had treated Marilyn in the years before her death to family members.

Elizabeth argued that her mother was never under her charge, and Marilyn was stubborn and insisted on making decisions for herself. 

She said they were more like “best friends” than mother and daughter, and her mother remained capable of looking after herself even if she required some help.

Justice Milman didn’t buy it.

“Almost every witness who interacted in a meaningful way with Marilyn during the relevant period… spoke of her diminished capacity. The medical professionals who treated her concluded from her presentation that she was incapable of caring for herself and needed support,” the Justice said.

The justice said that even on her own admission, Elizabeth said Marilyn was unable to feed or wash herself.

The Justice said Marilyn had no way of withdrawing from Elizabeth’s care and had become increasingly dependent on her daughter to provide her with the necessities of life as her dementia worsened.

“In order to conclude that Marilyn was capable of looking after herself during the relevant period, one would have to accept that she must have decided for herself to let her rash and pressure sores fester to the point that she had necrotic flesh, or that she chose not to change her own diapers for several days, even when her feces had dried out and become stuck to her skin, the Justice said.

“This is an untenable proposition.”

The Justice said the 75-year-old’s urgent need for medical attention was “obvious” and would have been “unmistakable” in the days before her death.

Elizabeth will be sentenced at a later date.

NOTE TO READERS: If you are an older adult who has been abused or mistreated call the BC Seniors Abuse and Information Line (SAIL) at 604-437-1940 or toll free at 1-866-437-1940, 7 days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., to get a referral to their legal advocate and other programs.

You can report suspected abuse, neglect or self-neglect to the Interior Health Authority Adult Abuse Reporting Line at 1-844-870-4754. You can also use the Interior Health Adult Abuse Webform to report your concerns.