After 10 years of waiting, Rosemarie Surakka’s request for a public inquest into the death of her daughter is going forward.
Surakka’s daughter, Lisa Dudley, and her partner, Guthrie McKay, were shot in their Mission home in September 2008.
The BC Coroners Service announced Tuesday it has scheduled a public inquest into Dudley’s death for June 11 in Burnaby.
The inquest was announced initially in 2010. According to a news release, the dates were confirmed only now, so as not to interfere with criminal proceedings, which concluded in 2017.
In 2008, McKay died at the scene, but Dudley, who was 37 at the time, stayed alive for four days before finally being discovered by a neighbour. She was airlifted to hospital, but died later that day.
Last February, a B.C. Supreme Court judge dismissed Surakka’s lawsuit claiming the RCMP failed to properly investigate the death of her daughter.
Four men were eventually convicted: Jack Woodruff, Justin MacKinnon, Bruce Main and Thomas Holden.
During the investigation and four separate trials, court heard that Cpl. Mike White, the RCMP officer responding to a shots-fired call at the couple’s home, left the scene after being there for approximately 10 minutes, without going inside, and did not follow up the next day.
Four years later, White was reprimanded and docked one day’s pay following a review by the adjudication board.
The coroner had also previously announced its intention to hold an inquest into the death of McKay.
While the circumstances of both deaths were explored through criminal proceedings, the release said, Dudley’s death raises issues that are not applicable to McKay’s death, so an inquest will not be held.
