Crew member recalls seeing missing ferry passenger on ship, but not on land

VANCOUVER – A crew member aboard the Queen of the North passenger ferry recalls seeing one of two missing passengers on the ship, but not when she was counting survivors later on land.

Among the many facts the Crown needs to prove at the criminal negligence trial for Karl Lilgert is that Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette died when the ship sank on March 22, 2006.

Joanne Pierce, who was on the ship as second steward the night of the sinking, says when she later saw a photo of the couple, she recognized Foisy from the start of the voyage when passengers were checking into their cabins.

After the evacuation and sinking, Pierce played a major role in counting passengers on land as the crew confirmed there were, in fact, two people missing.

Pierce says she never saw either Foisy or Rosette in the small First Nations community of Hartley Bay, where many survivors were taken after the sinking, nor did their names appear on a sign-in sheet that all passengers and crew were asked to fill out.

The defence has been attempting to foster doubt about exactly what happened to the couple, pointing to accounts from some passengers who said they may have seen them on land and testimony from crew members who said they were confident they had searched the ship for anyone still on board before it sank.