Frank Frechette died as a result of massive blood loss caused by self-inflicted knife wounds to his left chest and abdomen, a coroner’s inquest into the Langley man’s death has ruled.
The jury of three men and two women made the determination at the end of a three-day hearing last week into the Sept, 30, 2008 death of the 49-year-old Frechette, who jumped naked through the second-story living room window of his Langley City home following a botched bank robbery.
He was Tasered by an RCMP officer after he ignored police commands to surrender and tried to re-enter the house.
His girlfriend Trina Toffan said Frechette irrational after he robbed a Brookswood bank only to discover the money had been booby trapped with an exploding dye pack.
She said a distraught Frechette tried to scrub the dye off, then stabbed himself in the chest before leaping through the window.
He kept saying “I won’t go back” over and over, a reference to a previous prison term.
Investigators have concluded that the two stab wounds were self-inflicted with a butcher knife taken from a kitchen drawer.
An autopsy determined the cause of death was the result of severe blood loss from a stab wound that punctured Frechette’s lung.
Pathologist Dr. David Charlesworth said it was impossible to determine from the angle of the stab wounds if the injuries were definitely self-inflicted.
Dr. Charlesworth could not say if the shock from the Taser darts played any part in Frechette’s, death, but thought the fact Frechette was still alive and breathing “post-Tasering” made it unlikely.
