Third day of Haven Dubois death inquest ends with jury deliberations

The third day of the inquest into the death of Haven Dubois ended with the jury in deliberations.

14-year-old Dubois was found unresponsive in the Pilot Butte Creek in east Regina on May 20, 2015. Haven’s mother, Richelle, found her son partially submerged in the creek and was helped by a bystander to try and resuscitate him.

Haven was declared dead at the Regina General Hospital after paramedics took over.

The coroner found his death to be caused by accidental drowning, but Richelle has always believed foul play was a factor in his death.

An inquest is not a trial and isn’t meant to assign guilt. Brent Gough, the presiding coroner over the inquest, assigned the jury to determine the cause, time, date, and means of Haven’s death. He instructed the jury that it could also make recommendations as to how similar deaths could be prevented in the future.

The inquest began on Monday, at the Royal Hotel on Albert Street in Regina.

On Monday, Richelle told the jury about how she screamed for help as she dragged Haven from the creek. She said she never felt her son’s death investigation was taken seriously.

On Tuesday, the jury heard from a pathologist and a toxicologist who prepared Haven’s autopsy report. In the afternoon, the jury heard from friends of Haven, and a school resource officer who saw Haven the day he died.

The jury went into deliberations around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

No foul play suggested during the investigation

Sergeant Maria Rupcich works with Regina Police Service in the Major Crimes Unit. Lawyer Mark Ebert, representing the Dubois family, questioned her about the investigation.

Rupcich confirmed to the jury that the investigation did not suggest foul play was a factor in Dubois’ death.

“There’s no other evidence that someone forced him to get into the creek,” she said.

However, Rupcich agreed statements from the Dubois family were not taken within a reasonable time frame.

Haven died May 20, 2015, but statements from Richelle and family member Amanda Snell were not taken by Regina police until January of 2016.

She acknowledged this gap could have led to missing evidence for the case.

On the walking path near where Haven was found, the message ‘I killed Haven’ was written in chalk. Rupcich said the message was taken into evidence but “nothing became of it.”

During Richelle’s testimony on Monday, she questioned whether Regina police were looking in the correct spot during the investigation.

While Richelle pulled Haven from the creek, she testified she lost one shoe. The shoe was not found by police during there investigation, Rupcich said.

“If we got it wrong, I guess that would not be a great thing,” Rupcich said.

Police did return to other areas for the investigation but Richelle’s shoe was never recovered.

Ebert questioned how the Major Crimes Unit was first introduced to Dubois case.

“I’m sure it had something to do with the Dubois family camping outside the police station,” she said.

Missing witnesses

Originally, 13 witnesses were set to testify at the inquest but only nine testified by the time the jury went into deliberations.

Gabriel Thompson and Benjamin Murkin were two friends of Haven who saw him the day he died. Both were civilly summoned to be a witness at the inquest according to Ebert, but were not located.

Robin Ritter, with the coroner’s counsel, declined to speak to media on what attempts were made to contact missing witnesses.

Statements from Thompson and Murkin were both submitted into evidence for the jury. Coroner Gough said he would consider releasing the statements to the media.

Thompson and Murkin were skipping class and smoking marijuana in Murkin’s car the day Haven died.

Sgt. Rupcich said Thompson had conflicting testimonies. She was told he withheld information because he was scared.

The inquest heard Haven had allegedly had panic attack-like symptoms after he smoked marijuana.

In footage from a February 2016 interview with police, Thompson told an investigator that Haven was “tripping out” after smoking marijuana, spinning and rolling on the grass.

He walked with Haven to a bench near Haven’s house by the creek. Haven wanted to smoke more, according to Thompson.

Thompson then went from the bench all the way back to the school. When he returned he found Dubois’ clothes sitting on the bench with Haven missing.

“’I hope he didn’t do anything stupid,’ is what I thought,” he said to the investigator.

Dubois said he took the clothes to Haven’s house where Amanda Snell, Haven’s aunt, called the school to report Haven as missing.

Rupcich believes it was reasonable to assume that Thompson had Haven’s phone by 10:30 a.m. on May 20, 2015, rather than a day later he had originally reported.

The video concluded with the investigator asking Thompson what he was leaving out, that he was originally scared to say.

“Gabe Thompson was never really a suspect, or got to the suspect category in this,” Rupcich said.